Best Birthday Gifts for Four Year Olds
If you’re looking for the best birthday gifts for four year olds, I have you covered! You can also check out our guide for best birthday gifts for a 3 year old girl for more ideas that’ll work too. This post contains affiliate links and gifted product.
We are here with the best birthday gifts for four year olds – a magical age that is full of charm. It’s an age where kids have already started to value what their birthday means to them. Four year olds can be strong-minded and know what they like, but that just makes it an even more exciting age to purchase for. Their faces light up when they see their favorite character, something cozy, or that toy they had their eyes on…
I have shared in the past specifically gifts for four year old boys, and you can find loads of more ideas for girls and boys there. This post is focused on A, my princess-in-training, who is a total diva, and likes sparkles and unicorns. Lots of these gifts are universal, unisex gifts, (as are the ones in the “boy” guide, so definitely look through both to find something cool!) In fact, you might want to check out all of my gift guides – they are full of unique but practical ideas for gifting!
Tips for Finding the Best Birthday Gifts for Four Year Olds
In addition to actual ideas, I always like to share my tips for finding fabulous gifts on your own – whether it’s figuring out which items form the list are best for your loved one, or choosing from scratch.
Today, I’m sharing ideas for how to find the best birthday gifts for four year olds:
- What are their favorite shows and movie characters? One of A’s favorite fourth birthday gifts was a t-shirt with Daniel Tiger on it. They don’t need much if it features their favorite show!
- Themes can hold the same weight! Whether they’re obsessed with monster trucks or unicorns, zoom in on that to find your gifts.
- At four, kids can already develop hobbies. A can sit at the table for hours and craft. She is also a sensory seeker. Is the kid a reader? A builder? A climber?
16+ of the Best Birthday Gifts for Four Year Olds
Non-Toy Gifts
At four, kids can still love non-toy gifts, but you’ll want to have a “hook”. That is, you’ll want some point of appeal to make it giftable – does it have a favorite character? Is it super cozy? Does it have lights and music?
Bellabu Bear Bamboo Pajamas
If you haven’t yet hopped onto the bamboo pajamas wagon, you need to. I have never seen A as excited to get into pajamas as she was when she first tried Bellabu Bear’s bamboo PJ’s!
This one has two points of appeal for our four year old princess: it’s incredibly cozy. And it has on it Unicorn!
Bellabu Bear has loads more designs, so you’ll probably find something that your little one will love. And it’s cozy but cool and breathable, perfect for all-season wear. It has loads of stretch and I find that these soft, bamboo pajamas last for much more growth-mileage because of that.
Jack N’ Jill Kids Buzzy Brush Electric Musical Toothbrush
A is just transitioning to brushing her own teeth, and Jack N’ Jill makes the perfect brush for that! The Buzzy Brush not only has lights and sounds to make brushing super fun, but it also talks out instructions and times your kid’s brushing! It’s super soft, and cleans the teeth well thanks to a soft spinning head.
It tells your child when to move to the correct “zone”. With a bit of parental supervision, we’re finding that this is a super cool way to train her. And the inclusion of stickers that she got to stick on herself just makes it that much more giftable.
OOLY Cat Parade Watercolor Gel Crayons
No, I do NOT consider art supplies to be toys – they are too important! These Cat Parade gel crayons from OOLY are perfect for four year olds for a few reasons: They are super smooth and blendable. They blend even more if you add some water, working as a neater watercolor (and A is obsessed with watercolors!)
And our favorite part is the little cat cover!
These are really easy for preschoolers to use and have all that preschool appeal. They are the perfect stage for the four year old who is ready to take their art to the next level.
Untamed Post – Curated Crates
Untamed Post is a gift basket (or crate) curation small business that does an absolutely incredible job customizing boxes for your kids’ style! While you can build your own crate too, a must for those who are choosier, the curated crates are spot on.
Let’s take a look at what A received. My request was “a 4 year old girl, favorite colors: dark purple and bright pink, special interests: arts & crafts, jewelry and bling, dress-up. Inside: a pink sparkly headband, furry fidget friends with dark purple, magnetic stick figure fidget (with pink), nail polish with stickers (including bright pink), a bracelet-making kit (with pink and purple), Highlights My First Hidden Pictures (with dark purple), and socks with bight pink and dark purple. It is 100% spot-on in capturing her personality and interests.
Each box covers a few categories, most of them non-toy, with a few toy categories thrown in. It’s creative, cool, and feels totally custom. The assembly of the crate itself is professional and came out of the shipping box fully intact and ready to gift.
And yes, they curate the absolute cutest stockings too!
The Kids’ Book of Craft Love
The Kids Book of Craft Love is not really a book. It’s an all-in-one paper craft kit, that includes both instructions and LOADS of crafts (in fact, the book advertises 75+ projects in total).
These are paper crafts that use minimal other materials, and include pull-out pages to craft them. For example, the Kaleidoscope craft has reflective pages and colorful pages, as well as color-in mandalas. There are puppets, calendars, mini zines, origami and more.
This book is graded slightly over age four, so it’s better as a holiday gift for an older four, or a birthday gift if you’d like it to grow with the recipient. I’m a big fan of gifts kids can grow into, which is why I love this so much as a gift for four year olds.
Tinted Lip Balms
A loves watching me put on makeup – and if your four year old is the same, why not give her her own? A loves this tinted Hello Kitty lip balm that she is convinced is real makeup. Bonus: it helps keep her lips hydrated.
Pop it rainbow handbag
A received this handbag as a birthday gift from her aunt and she is obsessed. Not only is it a pop-it, but it’s also a handbag (and the rainbow design slays.)
She feels just like mom with a handbag, and the fidget angle makes it playable too (but still not a toy – wink wink).
Amazon Fire 7 Kids Tablet
At four, A was ready to stop borrowing her big siblings’ devices and have her own for her screen time allowances. We like the Fire Kids tablets because they are affordable and come with protective cases, protective features, and there are loads of free and educational apps to start.
Hers has a soft foam case and built-in stand. We loaded it with educational games before giving it to her, and of course, she just watches Daniel Tiger every time she’s on it. The same episode. Again and again.
Win!
Fun Toys for Learning Through Play
Every time I share non-toy gifts, I feel like I risk making it sound like toy is a bad thing. In fact, the opposite is true. Toys are an incredible tool, especially at the preschool stage, for learning and development. Kids learn best through play, and these toys are a win for that!
But it’s not just about knowledge. At this age, they are very much developing prewriting skills, gross motor skills, coordination, and more. It might not be “yay, first step” type of milestones, but it’s still important.
Blueberry & Third The Rainbow Activity Board
Blueberry & Third’s The Rainbow Activity board is a table-top toy and activity that teaches kids so much! If you’re a Montessori-minded family, this is for you. The wholesome nature of wood toys, combined with the tactile and sensory element make this a win.
Kids learn color recognition by placing colored wooden balls onto the rainbow. They can use the included tweezers or their fingers – each one has its benefits. They can place the colors “correctly” or get creative with it.
This is the type of toy that can be passed down as a timeless keepsake-quality toy. It always surprises me how long A can sit at the table and do activities like this, and this one was no exception. She was totally immersed. And she doesn’t tire of it either.
What’s Next? Special Needs Set
If you can handle a little silly (okay, rude silly) What’s Next? is the perfect game for preschoolers! It’s a life sized board-style game that’s made of connected tiles. A has big brothers and they had fun playing this game with her. Game play teaches preschoolers cooperation and how to follow instructions, as well as building social skills.
What’s Next? Special Needs edition is not just for kids with special needs. It has tiles that can be exchanged in case you need to based on your kids needs – but anyone can play. The jumbo die gets tossed and kids learn what they need to do next based on which tile they progress to. The Social Skills expansion pack that was added to the Special Needs set have prompts specific to gross motor, speech, and social skills-building needs.
This does have “fart” humor – so you need to be okay with that for it to make sense for your family.
Connetix Creative Roads
Where are my magnetic tile fans at? Connetix’s new Creative Roads set is a win that has revitalized the magnet tile play in our house!
First of all, if you don’t already own a set of Connetix, you totally need to. It’s one of those rare toys that anyone will play with at any time. I pull it out any time we have guests of different age groups because I know it’ll be a win for everyone. My own kids spend hours with it!
Connetix’s tiles specifically have a unique beveled face that not only makes for gorgeous sun-catching creations, but they are also much more fun to use due to the unique texture. They are a durable, safe, long-lasting option.
The Creative Roads set can be used on its own or with other tiles. It includes soft black tiles that feature ramps, turns, intersections, and more unique pieces for making roads. But because, unlike other “road” tiles, there are no road markings, you can also simply use them as regular tiles too. My kids have used them to make ramps in their castle creations.
If you already have a large collection of Connetix, you can simply add the road-only pieces, but I do recommend the super cool Connetix Roads Creative Pack for a more cohesive (read: gorgeous) road.
Wooden Car Ramp
We love “cause and effect” toys for four year olds, and this flippy car ramp is so cool for that! Place the car at the top of the ramp, and watch it slide to the next tier.
Keva Structures Planks
Don’t you just love it when going super simple works out so wonderfully?
Keva blocks are wooden planks that are proportional and make for the most beautiful creative builds. At four, kids are perfectly slated for this kind of open-ended play, but my big boys love playing with it too.
The pine planks are precision cut and the sides are proportional (meaning, three of one side will exactly equal the other, five width-wise will exactly make up the length) so that you can really engineer builds in a way that make sense.
The instructions start with basic skills from building with Keva planks, and from there, 200 pieces allow you to go wild! For four year olds, the goal is to building an understanding of balance and proportion, as well as fine motor skills and working carefully.
The Keva Structures package focuses on just that, and while we’re still beginners at Keva building, we look forward to building those skills.
Favorite Characters & Themes
As I mentioned, with preschoolers, all you need is a familiar or favorite character and they’re in love with whatever you buy them!
Here are some favorite gifts that build on themes and faces that kids already love – but make good gifts in their own right too!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Bin
I’m not sure who’s a bigger fan of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but this sensory bin is a very big win. FYI I’m very picky with sensory bins – I test rigorously to make sure that the sands don’t stain or mold, and this one made the cut.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar sensory bin gives kids the familiarity of the favorite character with all the benefits of sensory bin. It comes with a container for storage and play, as well as repositionable stickers to decorate it with.
Inside, you have a caterpillar stamper and toy, a scooper, and foam cutouts printed with your favorite The Very Hungry Caterpillar graphics. It’s fun and highly engaging, better known as “babysitter in a box.”
Paw Patrol™ My First Instant Camera
Canal Toys wins with this instant print camera. A has been begging me for a camera for ages (her older brothers have their own…) Did you know that it costs pennies to print on thermal paper?
This Paw Patrol instant print camera is perfect for your little fan. It has two cameras – a front and rare facing one – and takes video too. And no, there are no games, and trust me when I say that is a good thing.
Kids can add Paw Patrol filters to their photos and have fun printing them. It includes markers for coloring the photos or making scrapbook pages with them.
Gabby’s Dollhouse ™ Dough House
If Gabby’s Dollhouse is your little one’s dream, how about Gabby’s Dough House? Here’s the cool thing about this one: it really encourages creativity because it’s full of Easter eggs – figuratively, not literally. There are little molds that allow you to make different shapes from the three colors of included dough throughout the dollhouse.
Use the sticks to make heart balloons, frost a cupcake, or craft alls orts of different shapes using the included tools. It even has an extruder built into the side! This is another one that featured hours of creative table play for A. And of course, she loves a good sensory activity.
And here’s another compound that I’m picky with: play dough, because again it needs to have a decent texture to make the cut. This one features one that is comparable to the major brands, so we’re all in.
L.U.V. Premium Fashion Dolls
L.U.V. are bringing the fashion back to fashion dolls – and I’m not gonna lie, I’m a bit jealous of Harper and Brooke’s outfits! A had fun unboxing these, and right away chose Harper.
Here’s the thing: kids love dolls that resemble them. They see themselves in their play. And L.U.V.’s dolls feature multiple skin tones and hair textures, and for A, having a doll that looked more like her was a win.
I was floored by the details. These are the dolls of all my childhood dreams. From the jewelry to the accessories, to the zipper on Rocker Chic Brooke’s blazer (I seriously want one just like that) – and even the manicures they all sport – the details are epic. They are fully articulated at the joints, and we had lots of fun dressing them and posing them. Each one has an additional outfit specific to that character that you can purchase (and of course, you can mix and match.
Move2Play Kidz Bop Karaoke Microphone
Kids love playing the superstar and if you have one that loves Kidz Bop music (or any music, really) this karaoke microphone is next level cool!
You can connect via Bluetooth to send music to the mic, or insert a micro SD card with pre-loaded songs. Future superstars can then sing along. The sound is fabulous – not quite like a kids’ toy, and there are all sorts of fun sound effects.
It essentially works like a Bluetooth speaker and music player, with the added microphone feature. It’s a solid device, and has some weight. It’s the type of toy that can grow with kids past the preschool stage.
And it doesn’t need batteries! It’s rechargeable, making it a win for those of us who are tired of running through those AA and AAAs like water.
What are your picks for best birthday gifts for four year olds? Comment below!
