Your preschooler may be thinking about summer vacation, dips in the pool, and family cookouts, but Melissa & Doug will be hosting Christmas in July all month long to help save you money!
This year especially, we know parents and caregivers will be more thoughtful and discerning with their holiday gift budget, which means shopping for toys that are high-quality, well-made, and will last for generations of play—that’s where Melissa & Doug come in. In this blog post, we curated a list of our favorite toys for kids age 4+ as a dedicated source for your Christmas in July shopping, with deals on toys all month long. For 4-year-olds, it’s prime time for pretend play and hands-on fun! If you're searching to find the perfect Christmas in July present for the 4-year-old child in your life, we’ve got you covered.
If you'd like additional help finding the right toy for your child, visit the Melissa & Doug Gift Guide. Read on for a look at the best Christmas in July toys for 4-year-olds!
Our Top Toys & Gifts for 4-Year-Olds for the Holidays
Jet Pilot Interactive Dashboard
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: Ready to let imaginations take flight? Roger that! The Jet Pilot Interactive Dashboard features lights, buttons, switches, and sounds to keep kids engaged and immersed in exciting pretend-play adventures.
Fun feature: Turn the destination dial to hear “hello” in six different languages (English, Mandarin, French, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic) and press the radio button for music from each destination (U.S., China, France, India, South America, and Africa).
Skills: Fine motor skills, cause-and-effect, language development, imagination, storytelling ability
Also available: Look the part of a pretend pilot with our Pilot Role Play Costume Set!
Giraffe Lifelike Plush Stuffed Animal
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: You don't have to be a kid to love Melissa & Doug's iconic giraffe plush toy. Over four feet tall, this gentle giant brings a touch of the exotic into any environment.
Fun feature: Super cuddly plush giraffe has been crafted with attention to realistic details, and features excellent quality construction.
Skills: Empathy, social-emotional, imaginative play, storytelling ability
Also available: Check out our entire selection of plush stuffed animals for kids!
Vroom & Zoom Interactive Dashboard
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: Rev up playtime and take imaginations for a spin with this realistic play steering wheel mounted on a sturdy wooden dashboard with lights, sound effects, and moving parts, including a scrolling GPS!
Fun feature: The interactive dashboard includes “hands-free” buttons on the steering wheel for a phone and the radio, which plays clips of music for each of four stations.
Skills: A terrific toy for hand-eye coordination, imaginative play, storytelling ability, and to help teach cause and effect.
Also available: Melissa & Doug also offers a full selection of vehicle themed toys!
Wooden Pizza Food Truck Activity Center
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Get playtime cooking and take imaginations for a spin with all the essentials for a pretend play pizza food truck experience! The multi-sided, easy-to-assembly wooden structure, with a built-in pretend pizza oven and dozens of wooden and felt play food accessories, lets kids be the helpful food truck vendor or the hungry customer.
Fun feature: Display choices on a magnetic menu board, add logs, and turn the dial to “fire up” the pizza oven, sort and store pizza toppings in the prep tray, slide pizza into the oven with the wooden pizza paddle, then serve in the cardboard delivery box!
Skills: Helps kids develop sorting, matching, counting, and color recognition skills and encourages narrative, cooperative, and imaginative play.
Also available: If your child enjoys total immersion into their cooking role, we suggest helping them look the part as well with our Chef Costume Role Play Set.
Wooden Beauty Salon Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Add glamour and style to playtime with these wooden beauty essentials for make-believe makeovers! The 18-piece set includes a sturdy white and pink vanity with mirror and storage drawer. The wooden pieces include a hair dryer, hair spray, hair straightener, flip-top lotion bottle, lipstick, two nail polish bottles, blush, makeup brush, eye shadow and applicator, comb, and brush.
Fun feature: A reusable spa services card lets kids get the full salon experience by customizing makeovers for themselves, friends, stuffed animals, and dolls!
Skills: Encourages fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, imaginative play, creative express, and self-esteem.
Also available: Kids can add to the role play fun with our Hair Stylist Role Play Costume Set when they want to give friends, family, or plushies a glow-up!
Wooden Cafe Barista Coffee Shop
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Perk up playtime with this full-service wooden coffee shop that lets kids be the barista or the customer! This 35-piece play food set offers kids countless opportunities to develop early learning skills and to create, imagine, and role play.
Fun feature: Use the coffee maker with a flip filter and “steamer” and the drink dispenser with frother to prepare pretend espressos, whipped cream-topped lattes, tea, and cold drinks. Customers may choose from items listed on the magnetic menu board, including wooden double-sided cake pops, cookies, and granola bars. Then, slide the credit card in the card reader, and sign the magnetic pad to pay for purchases!
Skills: Encourages fine motor development, counting and sorting skills, color recognition, and storytelling.
Also available: If your kiddo stans beverage culture role play, supplement their pretend caffeine intake with imaginary healthful drinks & smoothies via our Smoothie Maker Blender Set.
Simmer & Stir Stovetop Play Set with Water WOW! Color Reveal
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Satisfy hungry imaginations with Melissa & Doug Water WOW! color-changing play food stir fry!
Fun feature: Drop play food into the pot or onto the stovetop griddle, squeeze water from the spoon or drip from the olive oil bottle, and watch colors change as food magically “cooks”! Little chefs can pretend to simmer mushrooms, carrots, and broccoli, sauté chicken, shrimp, and beans, and steam double-sided disks of rice, soup, spaghetti, and mac and cheese. Let the pieces dry and cook with water again and again!
Skills: A fun, engaging way for kids to practice important developmental skills, such as fine motor skills, sorting, counting, and imaginative play, and to demonstrate cause-and-effect.
Also available: For kids who enjoy colorfully creative arts & crafts fun, we also offer a full selection of Water WOW! toys and activity sets.
Round the Shore Tracks Floor Puzzle – 48 Pieces
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: Piece together playtime with this circular puzzle with built-in tracks for wind-up vehicles (no batteries required)! The 48-piece oceanside-themed cardboard jigsaw floor puzzle can be put together as three separate rings or as one complete circle.
Fun feature: The outer ring has a track for the wind-up school bus to drive by the letters of the alphabet and pictures that start with each letter (in English). Sing along as the bus goes round and round!.
Skills: When kids work on floor puzzles, they are fine-tuning their gross motor skills, improving their hand-eye coordination, and strengthening their problem-solving skills.
Also available: Find the right fit for your little puzzler with our complete selection of puzzles for kids!
Sort, Stock, Select Wooden Vending Machine Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Satisfy hungry imaginations with the push of a button! Open up the back of the unique wooden vending machine and stock it with nine double-sided play food packages, including snack bars, drinks, and pouches. On the front, select an item, insert a color-matching play coin or bank card, press the corresponding letter and number button, and the snack drops into the collection drawer!
Fun feature: No batteries required!
Skills: Engaging, hands-on way to help teach kids about cause-and-effect, and to encourage letter, number, and color recognition, sorting, matching, counting, and fine motor skills.
Also available: Melissa & Doug offers a full selection of pretend play toys for kids of all ages, stages, and abilities!
Wooden Chocolate Factory Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Sweeten up playtime by ordering, assembling, displaying, and gifting deliciously fun pretend play candy treats. The Melissa & Doug Wooden Chocolate Factory Play Set lets kids create imaginative filled play chocolate candies with durable plastic tops and bottoms and colorful wooden fillings that can be decorated with stickers.
Fun feature: Completed play candies slide down a chute, where kids can pretend to decorate with a pretend icing squeeze tube, then display in a fancy gift box!
Skills: Great for color matching, counting, and developing language skills through cooperative play.
Also available: Melissa & Doug offers a full selection of pretend play toys for kids of all ages, stages, and abilities!
Deluxe Grill & Pizza Oven Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: Fire up pretend play with this perfectly kid-sized wooden barbecue grill, smoker, and pizza oven play set! Budding young chefs 3+ will love creating make-believe barbecue favorites -- and even play pizza! After mealtime, the more than 60 accessories and play food pieces all store neatly on the grill and storage shelf for easy clean-up.
Fun feature: Grill includes built-in timer, dials to raise and lower “flames,” a smoker box with chimney for play wood chips, movable utensil rack, side burner, storage shelf, lid with safety-close hinge; removable thermometer can press into holes in wooden play food to test if they are “done.”
Skills: Promotes hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, sorting and counting skills, storytelling ability, and imaginative play.
Also available: Help your kid chef get into the role play by dressing the part too, with our Chef Costume Role Play Set.
Barber Shop Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: Cut, trim, shave, and style with pretend play shaving essentials for a trip to the barber! Kids can check their look in the hand mirror that flips to stand as they finish with textured pomade in a tub, comb, and brush. Includes a reusable double-sided activity card. Everything stores in a sturdy zippered shaving kit for easy cleanup.
Fun feature: The included trimmers vibrate when the tab is pulled—no batteries required!
Skills: Encourages creative play, promotes fine motor development and language skills.
Also available: Look the part of a barber or stylist with the Melissa & Doug Hair Stylist Role Play Costume.
Outer Space Glow-in-the-Dark Puzzle - 48 Pieces
Why it’s a great gift for a 4-year-old: Piece together 48 sturdy jumbo cardboard jigsaw pieces for an experience that’s out of this world! Assemble the detailed and colorful space scene in a brightly lit room.
Fun feature: When the 3-foot by 2-foot puzzle is complete, turn out the lights and watch as hidden pictures and details appear in glow-in-the-dark ink! (NOTE: The puzzle must first be exposed to bright light to activate the glow-in-the-dark feature.)
Skills: Great for storytelling and sparking imaginative play, motor skill development, and encourages problem-solving and critical thinking.
Also available: If outer space doesn't get your 4-year-old excited, check out Melissa & Doug's assortment of puzzles perfect for that age.
Spanish See & Spell Learning Toy
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Complete a puzzle to spell a word in Spanish! This wonderfully illustrated wooden puzzle set is great for native Spanish-speakers and for kids learning another language. Place the wooden lowercase letters into the double-sided puzzle boards to spell words in Spanish that match the illustrations.
Fun feature: The letters are also great for stenciling and lots of learning games, as well as for color recognition and sorting and sequencing activities.
Skills: Helps kids develop sight-reading vocabulary, letter recognition, spelling, color recognition, and fine motor skills.
Also available: Also available in an English version!
Wooden Stamp Set - Dinosaurs
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Imagine a landscape full of dinosaurs! Children love using the eight detailed dino stamps and a two-color inkpad, and it's fun creating countless scenes, and coloring in the pictures with the five colored pencils!
Fun feature: Washable, non-toxic kid-friendly ink.
Skills: Promotes creativity, fine motor skills.
Also available: Melissa & Doug offers a host of other themed wooden stamp sets, including Friendship, ABCs/123s, and many more.
Scissor Skills Activity Pad
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Kids love to cut with scissors--as you can see by the trail of scraps often left in their wake! This creative and practical activity pad gives an engaging, creative direction to scissor work, meaning more concentration and less mess.
Fun feature: Organized from simple to more complex, 20 different paper cutting projects (with complete supplies included right in the pages of the book) practice slightly different skills and techniques, and produce 20 unique crafts, games, and activities to offer kids a creative focus and a sense of accomplishment. Plastic safety scissors included.
Skills: Encourages fine motor and cognitive skills.
Also available: Once your little one has those scissor skills mastered, take their pretend cutting careers to the next level with our Barber Shop Play Set or Beauty Salon Play Set.
Scratch Art Rainbow Mini Notes
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Creative kids can jot notes, etch doodles, and make their own exciting masterpieces with Mini Scratch Art Notes!
Fun feature: Includes 125 Rainbow Mini Notes, a wooden stylus, and a handy "desktop dispenser" box to keep it all organized.
Skills: Promotes fine motor, creativity, C-grip, hand-eye coordination.
Also available: If creative play is what engages your little creator the most, then shop our completed selection of arts & crafts toys for kids.
Self-Correcting Letter Puzzles
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Kids can match these wooden puzzle pairs to make mastering letters as easy as A-B-C! A different object illustrates each letter of the alphabet shown in both upper and lower case, and the puzzles are self-correcting because each puzzle piece has only one match that fits. It's a great way for children to play independently and learn at the same time.
Fun feature: The puzzle includes 52 high-quality wooden pieces, and comes in a sturdy wooden box with a slide-in lid for easy storage and accessibility. The colorful puzzle pieces feature a familiar item to represent each letter ranging from an apple to a zebra.
Skills: Letter recognition, matching and memory skills, eye-hand coordination, and fine motor skills.
Also available: Want to help your little learner master their numbers as well? We’ve got a toy for that—The Self-Correcting Number Puzzles!
Design-Your-Own Bracelets
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: This exciting fashion activity set and bracelet craft kit lets kids make their own accessories to wear and share! The set includes four two-sided kids' bracelets, with a different shimmering color on each side.
Fun feature: Just add the included sparkle-gem and glitter stickers to fill each one with flowers, hearts, butterflies, stars, loops, and swirls. Make your own bracelets, then close the reusable tab closure to wear your favorite--or layer a bunch for a sparkling fashion statement!
Skills: Fine motor, creativity.
Also available: If fashion fun gives your child a creative boost, introduce them to the glorious world of puffy reusable stickers with our Puffy Stickers Play Set: Princess edition.
Building Site Floor Puzzle - 48 Pieces
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Constructive playtime awaits with this exciting cardboard floor puzzle featuring vehicles hard at work on a building site!
Fun feature: The puzzle is an impressive 2 feet x 3 feet when assembled, and the 48 extra-thick pieces are durable and easy to clean, so they'll stay looking like new, use after use.
Skills: Fine motor, problem-solving skills.
Also available: Perhaps your child doesn’t dig construction themes; not a problem, as Melissa & Doug offers a host of puzzle theme options—check out our complete selection of puzzles!
Created by Me! Jewelry Box Wooden Craft Kit
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: This Melissa & Doug wooden jewelry box is a craft kit and keepsake all in one! Kids can add their own creative touches and personalize this Created by Me jewelry box and use it to store their jewelry and special little items.
Fun feature: The sturdy wooden box is constructed of high-quality, durable wood, and features a mirror inside the lid as well as a velvet ring holder. The all-inclusive craft kit features everything kids need to decorate the pretty pink box. It includes 26 sparkling gem stickers, 38 shimmering foil stickers, three glitter glue sticks and a white glue stick.
Skills: Promotes fine motor, hand-eye coordination, and creative expression.
Also available: Keep your child’s creativity going with more arts & crafts fun, such as our Created by Me Flower Magnets Wooden Craft Kit.
National Parks Reusable Stickers – Park Animals
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Take a creative storytelling journey through five national parks (Denali, Everglades, Biscayne, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon) and learn the names of the animals and plants there! Tell imaginative stories by matching 20 Denali-themed puffy stickers and 101 cling-style stickers to illustrated glossy park scenes, then peel the stickers off to rearrange again and again!
Fun feature: Large, top spiral-bound pad lets scenes lay flat, and makes the set great for travel. Stickers store on color-coded tabbed pages inside for mess-free play!
Skills: Plants and animals identified in English and Spanish; great educational travel toy for development of fine motor and storytelling skills.
Also available: If your child loves nature and the great outdoors, introduce them to the Melissa & Doug National Park Foundation collection of toys, designed to inspire a lifelong relationship with the natural world.
School Time Classroom Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: With a drop-down teacher desk on one side and a student desk on the other, this innovative set allows kids to realistically play both roles!
Fun feature: The exciting array of supplies — including 2 double-sided write-on, wipe-off boards, 2 dry-erase markers, 9 reusable activity cards, 12 pattern blocks, 150 reusable stickers, a bell, timer, pointer, and lots more — enables kids to explore a favorite activity and continue learning even out of the classroom!
Skills: Vocabulary, social-emotional development.
Also available: If your child loves scheduling and organization, introduce them to the perfect holiday countdown vehicle: our Countdown to Christmas Advent Calendar!
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Looking for more of the best Christmas and holiday gift and toy ideas for kids of all ages? Check out these links:
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