The Yuletide arrives extra early this season, with zero chance of snow: Melissa & Doug celebrates Christmas in July with special promotions to help parents and caregivers get their holiday shopping done ahead of schedule!
This year especially, we know parents 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 curate a list of our favorite toys for babies and 1-year-old as a dedicated source for your Christmas in July shopping. You’ll discover a variety of quality, long-lasting infant toys that are sure to bring the fun, while also building those essential early developmental skills.
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 babies and 1-year-olds!
Our Top Toys & Gifts for Babies and 1-Year-Olds
Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: The Melissa & Doug Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym with Quick-Close™ storage is thoughtfully designed to encourage babies to play and learn through multiple stages and ages! The included Play Guide illustrates the many ways the play gym supports the powerful role play has in brain development, physical well-being, and creating connections.
Fun feature: One side of the mat features high-contrast black-and-white graphics for early visual stimulation, and the other includes a full-color ocean scene to keep older babies engaged as vision develops. Attach the included soft, skill-supporting toys to the gym or play with them independently!
Skills: Encourages sensory stimulation, hand-eye coordination, gross and fine motor skills, and cognitive development.
Ocean Tummy Time Triangle
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Make baby’s tummy time extra special with this engaging, double-sided folding cloth triangle toy! The Tummy Time Triangle helps babies stay engaged and strengthen muscles during tummy play.
Fun feature: Three fold-out panels with adorable ocean-themed graphics and friendly characters lie flat or fold and connect into an upright pyramid. One side features high-contrast black and white graphics, great for important visual stimulation during baby’s first months. The other side includes colorful sea creatures with developmentally appropriate features.
Skills: Encourages gross motor development, visual and tactile stimulation, and interaction with caregivers.
Wooden Work & Play Desktop Activity Board
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Infants and toddlers will love playing with this wooden version of a laptop and desk just like grown-ups do!
Fun feature: Open the screen to reveal a peekaboo mirror to tap into babies’ fascination with faces.
Skills: Sensory, fine motor skills.
GO Tots Roll & Ride Bus
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Roll, stack, and grasp 3 double-sided wooden GO Tots friends and make them spin and bounce in the colorful wooden bus; press the release button and GO Tots roll out the back.
Fun feature: Push the bus on a flat surface to make GO Tots spin and bounce in their seats!
Skills: Helps build fine and gross motor skills, teaches cause-and-effect.
K's Kids Pull-Back Vehicles Toy
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Wheel them back to get new skills speeding ahead! The "rev up" mechanism inside each of these four cars and trucks makes it easy for babies and toddlers to get big acceleration with just a little input: Pull back one of the soft vehicles--then release to see it zoom off across the floor!
Fun feature: Get more "miles per gallon" with a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, illustrated characters, and everyday themes to inspire conversations, cognitive connections, and imaginative play!
Skills: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination; benefits large muscle groups and coordination, too.
Match & Build Soft Blocks
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Build them up and knock them down--14 soft blocks combine in endless creative combinations…and topple with a gentle bounce that makes them safest for little ones.
Fun feature: Kid-friendly artwork on the coordinating cubes encourages matching activities (numerals with quantities, animal heads and tails, and everyday shapes), puzzling (complete the picture of a Ferris wheel!), and even sequential thinking and storytelling with before-and-after flaps on three of the blocks.
Skills: Develops sensory, fine motor, and communication skills.
K's Kids Musical Farmyard Cube Baby Toy
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Melissa & Doug baby toys nurture early childhood development in three key skill areas: physical, cognitive, and social. With interactive designs and multisensory features, our baby toys promote constructive play and engaging learning, keeping interest high and new skills flourishing.
Fun feature: Four animals sound off with their animal songs and play a lively melody when their noses are pressed.
Skills: Sensory, fine motor, gross motor, logical, creative, linguistic, emotional, communication, self-esteem.
Take-Along Shape Sorter
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: More than a shape sorter--this is an on-the-go activity center! Using nine plastic shapes and the padded carrying case, children can lift crinkly flaps, identify the pictures, match the shapes, and drop the textured blocks through the sorter…then pull the plush dog around the edge to unzip the case and start it all again!
Fun feature: The easy-to-grasp padded handle makes it easy to carry the whole set from place to place--even for crawlers, scooters, and emerging walkers.
Skills: Encourages sensory play, fine motor skills, shape and color recognition.
Flip Fish Baby Toy
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: With bright colors, bold facial features, and washable fabrics that include a variety of patterns and hidden pictures, this crinkling, squeaking, multi-textured soft toy is perfect for encouraging tummy time and fueling storytelling.
Fun feature: Features shatterproof mirror to engage baby's interest in faces and light.
Skills: Sensory, fine motor skills.
Soft Activity Book - Itsy Bitsy Spider
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Kids will delight in turning the soft, textured pages of this cloth activity book to follow an adorable little spider on its adventures up and down the water spout!
Fun feature: Interactive details on each page let kids of all ages grasp, crinkle, stretch, and play peek-a-boo as the classic tale unfolds.
Skills: Helps promote sensory development, fine motor skills, early reading and letter recognition.
GO Tots Barnyard Tumble
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: With Melissa & Doug GO Tots, toddlers 12 months and older will discover a new kind of kinetic play that offers opportunities to explore cause-and-effect through delightful motion-driven moments.
Fun feature: Four double-sided chunky wooden GO Tots disks (8 collectible characters—six animals and two farmers) tumble and twirl down the silo, out the barn door, over the haystack, and into the trough.
Skills: Cause & effect, fine and gross motor skills.
Also available: Since our GO Tots toys are all compatible, pair the Barynard with our GO Tots Schoolyard Tumble to keep the kinetic learning fun rolling!
Ice Cream Take-Along Toy
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: This super-sweet clip-on vibrating pull-toy is a delicious way to entertain babies while stimulating their senses—without the sugar rush!
Fun feature: It looks like a soft, smiling ice cream cone, but pull it down and it expands to four stacked scoops in different patterns, colors, and textures (cotton, corduroy, and quilted materials). When baby lets go, the cone vibrates and plays chiming sounds as it jiggles its way back to a single cone!
Skills: Grasping, grabbing, reaching, pulling, fine motor, sensory skills.
Also available: Strawberry Take-Along Toy; PB&J Take-Along Toy; Bubble Tea Take-Along Toy
Take-Along Farm Play Mat
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Take the fun along with you with this versatile, colorful play mat and farm friends set! The mat, with a non-skid backing, features an illustrated farm scene in bright, eye-catching colors.
Fun feature: The nine soft fabric animals and farmer figures crinkle, rattle or squeak. All fabrics are easy to clean. The play mat folds up to become a convenient storage.
Skills: Nurtures early vision, focus, and color awareness; promotes fine motor skills and animal recognition.
Soft Taco Fill & Spill
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Spice up playtime with touchable, tactile taco play food pieces!
Fun feature: Fill a happy-faced, fabric-covered soft taco shell with crinkling, squishy, multi-textured pieces to delight the senses. Pull out the pieces and refill the taco again and again!
Skills: Sensory, fine motor, and color recognition skills.
Also available: Market Basket Fill & Spill
Wooden Surprise Box
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Box up and unbox fun multi-textured gifts that delight the senses again and again!
Fun feature: Includes wooden box, plush toy bear, squeezable fuzzy ball with chime, multi-textured crinkle cloth, and a happy-bear cloth book.
Skills: Encourages face-relevant stimuli, sensory, and fine motor skills.
Wooden Shape Sorting Grocery Cart
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: This rolling cart is filled with exciting skill-building activities. With puzzle pieces to sort, a roller drum to spin, and plenty of fun accessories, kids can engage in imaginative play while practicing important skills.
Fun feature: Realistic coffee cup with removable lid
Skills: Fine and gross motor, problem-solving, sorting and sequencing, shape and color recognition.
Burrow Bunny Stuffed Animal
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Pretty Bramble Bunny looks poised to hop right into your heart!
Fun feature: Super-cuddly fabric is made for cuddling, and easy to clean thanks to a washable surface.
Skills: Empathy, social-emotional, storytelling, imagination, motor skills.
Also available: Melissa & Doug offers an awesome selection of plush toys!
Pineapple Soft Stacker
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: Kids can sort, squeeze, shake, and stack this happy little pineapple. It features soft, fabric-covered rings, a durable plastic texture ring, and a soft textured topper with crinkle leaves and silky smooth ribbons. It’s a sweet way for little ones to discover textures and sounds while practicing important skills.
Fun feature: Rattling, rocking base and post
Skills: Sensory development, problem-solving.
Rollables Wooden Ocean Slide
Why it’s a great gift for babies and 1-year-olds: This sturdy, ocean-themed wooden slide includes 3 squeezable Rollables with chimes, a built-in bead maze, sea star and whale flipper to press, and a removable funnel. So many features to keep babies’ attention and inspire joyful discovery!
Fun feature: Adorable, diverse characters and variety of shapes and textures
Skills: Cause-and-effect, sensory and fine-motor, problem-solving.
Also available: Add other animal Rollables such as Safari Friends or Farm Friends.
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We hope all these gift ideas make your holidays even happier! If you're looking for more help in finding the right gift for your little one, visit the Melissa & Doug Gift Finder.
For more great toy content from Melissa & Doug, follow the links below:
Shop Melissa & Doug Toys by Age
Shop Melissa & Doug Blockables Wooden Construction Toy Collection
Shop Melissa & Doug Pretend Play Toys
Shop Melissa & Doug Learning Toys
Shop Melissa & Doug Ms. Rachel Toy Collection
Shop Melissa & Doug Arts & Crafts Toys
Explore Melissa & Doug Living Playfully Blog
