Fun—and vision-friendly—holiday gift guides for kids

Children who spend less time on digital devices and more time playing with toys and games that aid in vision development could have a better chance of seeing Mommy kissing Santa Claus. 

For several years, Kellye Knueppel, O.D., who practices in Wisconsin, and Mary Gregory, O.D., in Minnesota, have separately published lists of vision-friendly gift ideas for the holidays. Their annual lists are decked with children’s toys and games that focus on fun and are good for the eyes and vision development. Among them are gift ideas generally played outdoors rather than spending too much time indoors on digital devices. Studies have linked spending time outdoors with the onset of myopia. 

Outdoor activities on Dr. Gregory’s list include bicycles, lawn games and sports balls. What went into her recommendations for vision-friendly toys and games? 

“I look for interactive toys that ideally require multiple sensory processing,” Dr. Gregory says. “In a perfect scenario, these toys or games would involve visually analyzing and processing, then adding in one or more of the following: auditory, body movement and hands-on manipulation tasks.  

“Of course, we can’t forget that it also needs to be fun.” 

Their lists contain many toys, but you don’t find those highly sought-after digital devices. 

She adds: “There are digital games that incorporate visual analyzing and processing, but my goal is to get ideas to parents and grandparents on real-life toys and games that can supplement the digital toys already on the children’s wish list.” 

⏩Read about the AOA’s national push to put a focus on myopia and children’s vision. 

2024 Omni Vision & Learning Center Holiday Gift Guide by Dr. Gregory

New on Dr. Gregory’s 2024 list is a section for parents with babies and young children, where she highly recommends a book, Active Baby, Healthy Brain: 135 Fun Exercises and Activities to Maximize Your Child’s Brain Development by Margaret Sasso. She also adds another category called Imagination: “any pretend play toys like dolls, kitchen sets, building sets, dress-up costumes (firefighters and police officers), secret decoder set, magic set, Crayola Color Chemistry Lab set.” 

Other categories and gifts on her list: 

Books and magazines

“One of the most important gifts you can give your child is reading to them every day,” Dr. Gregory says. “…This is the best gift to prepare children for language and reading before they start school.” 

Gift ideas: books, homemade coupons for trips to the library, mail and subscriptions to age-appropriate publications such as National Geographic Kids, Nat Geo Little Kids, Ranger Rick and Highlights. 

Outdoor time 

Gift ideas: snowman-building kits, snow fort kits, hula-hoops, skateboards, pogo sticks, mini-trampolines, sports balls, pitchback, bicycles, swim toys, swings, play golf, children’s croquet, explorer kit and ring toss. 

Eye-hand coordination and fine motor control 

Building sets such as Legos, magnets, Jenga, Magformers, K’NEX, Fishin’ Around, Operation, KerPlunk, Simon (electronic memory game), model sets, spirograph, 3-D puzzles, Magna-tiles, Hyper Toss, Bounce Off, play cubes for toddlers, play dough, lacing cards, Perler beads, coloring books, Etch A Sketch, Lite-Brite, sand art, stained glass made easy, loom, farm cube puzzle, origami crafts, beading, noodling noodles and paper airplane design books. 

Visual perceptual games and imagination activities 

Gift ideas: Parquetry blocks, puzzles, Legos, Where’s Waldo, Find N Seek books, Perplexus, Spot It, Acuity, Battleship, Labyrinth, Set, Simon, Rush Hour, checkers, Perfection, Memory, Rubik’s Cube, Q-bitz, Blink, Suspend, Gears Gears Gears, Swish, Gravity maze, Maze-O, and Itrax Critical Thinking Game, Tanagrams, GeoSmart Flip Bot, Chocolate Fix, Pictureka, Make N Break, Quick Cups, Blokus, and Create a Story Cards. Any imaginative play toys: dolls, kitchen sets, building sets, dress-up costumes, secret decoder set, magic set, Crayola Chemistry set, baking set. 

Dr. Knueppel's The Vision Therapy Center Vision-Friendly Gift List: 130 Optometrist-Approved Children’s Toys

Building toys 

(Develops eye-hand coordination and visualization/imagination): Melissa & Doug building blocks game (ages 2-5), Tetra Tower Balance Stacking Blocks Game (3+), Magna-Tiles (3+), Lincoln Logs (3+), TinkerToys (3+), K'Nex (3+), Legos Duplo (4+), ThinkFun Roller Coaster Challenge (8+), Erector Set (8+), ThinkFun Gravity Maze (8+) and VEX Robotics (pre-kindergarten-12+). 

Balance and coordination toys and games 

(Develops gross motor skills, laterality and bilateral coordination): Sit and Spin (1 1/2+), Hoppity Hop (3+), Pogo Ball for Kids (4+), Hula Hoop (4+), jump rope (5+), Razor Gogo Pogo Stick (5+), Twister (6+), Balance Stepping Stones for Kids (2+), Balance Board, bicycles. 

Memory games 

(Develops visualization and visual memory): Ravensburger Junior Memory (3+), The Learning Journey: Match It! (3+), Matching Game-Memory Games (3+), Ladybug Memory Game (3-5), Briarpatch I Spy Memory Game (4+), Wooden Memory Chess Matching Game (3+), Memory Game (5+), Melissa & Doug Flip to Win (5-8), Loopz (7+), Simon Classic Game (8+), Chicken Cha Cha Cha (12+), Match Madness (7+). 

Space perception toys 

(Develops depth perception and eye-hand coordination): 

Within arm’s length: Pindaloo (9+), Don’t Break the Ice (3+), Egg and Spoon Race (4+), Let’s Go Fishing (4+), Jumpin’ Monkeys (5+), marbles (5+), Hasbro KerPlunk (5+), Operation (6+), Door Pong (7+), Jenga (8+). 

Beyond arm’s length: Ball (any kind and all ages), Playskool Elefun (3+), Frisbee Rings (3+), dart games (Velcro) (3+), Nerf Basketball (4+), Fat Brain Toys Box & Balls (5+), Frisbee (5+), Ring Toss (5+), Toss Across (tic-tac-toe) (5+), Cornhole Bean Bags (5+), Oball (good for kids who have difficulty catching balls) (6+) Bowling Zombies Toys (8+), Pitchback and Cuponk (9+). 

Visual thinking toys and games

(Develops visual perceptual skills such as visual memory, visual discrimination, pattern recognition and sequencing. These skills are important for academics including mathematics, reading and spelling.): STEM Explorers Brainometry (5+), wooden form board puzzles (2+), jigsaw puzzles (3+), Gears!Gears!Gears! (3), Old Maid card game (3+) Go Fish card game (4+), Parquetry Blocks (4+), Tumble Trax (5+), Smart Games Color Code (5+), Attribute Blocks (5+), Make ‘N’ Break Jr. (5+), Checkers (5+), Blokus (5+), Rush Hour Jr. (5+), Perfection game (5+), Mathlink Cubes (5+), Smart Games IQ Puzzler Pro (6+), Guess Who (6+), Mancala (6+), Chinese Checkers (6+), Set card game (6+), Math Dice, Math Dice Jr. (6+), Qwirkle (6+), Connect Four game (6+), UNO (7+), Spot It! (7+), Battleship game (7+), ThinkFun Laser Chess (8+), ThinkFun Shadows in the Forest (8+), ThinkFun Cat Crimes (8+), Bop It (8+), Blink card game (8+), Racko (8+), Q-bitz Pattern Matching (8+), Rubik’s Cube (8+), Color Cube Sudoku (8+), Kanoodle (8+), Rory’s Story Cubes (8+), Amaze (8+), Bejeweled board game (8+), Tetris Bop It (8+), Labyrinth game (8+), Connect 4 Shots (8+), Perplexus (8+) and Sort it Out (12+). 

Fine motor skill toys

(Develops visual-motor integration and fine motor skills): Esjay Toddler Busy Board Montessori Toys (3+), finger paints (1+), Kinetic Sand (1+), pegboard and pegs (3+), Coogam Wooden Geoboard (1+ with an adult), Counting Dinosaur Sorting (3+), Noodle Knockout! (4+), coloring books and crayons (3+), Dot-to-Dot activity books (3+), Play-Doh/modeling clay (3+), chalkboard easel (3+), large bead stringing (3+), lacing cards (3+), Lite-Brite (4+), Silly Putty (4+), Rainbow Loom (5+), Jacks (5+), Stencils Spirograph, origami sets (8+), and paint or color by numbers. 

Making merry memories 

Fun and vision development aren’t the only gifts mined from these toys and games. 

“I will often ask parents and grandparents to think about the games they played as children,” Dr. Gregory says. “Remembering activities, such as outdoor games and building forts, or card games on family nights. Sharing these memories with grandchildren can be really fun and not likely digital. Some of my favorite memories involve trying to beat my siblings at Operation, Sorry and Perfection.” 

Helpful resources 

View the AOA myopia management clinical report. 

Educate the public on children’s vision. 

Read Ferris State University Michigan College of Optometry’s recommendations for safe toys and gifts for the holidays.