KiwiCo Holiday Gift Guide: Hands-On Gifts Kids Build Themselves

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Shopping for kids gets harder every year. My daughter’s attention is evenly split between squishies, which she has too many of, and her iPad. I’d welcome a gift that’s more intellectually stimulating and holds her attention longer than five minutes. KiwiCo’s approach is different. Its gifts are projects kids build themselves, then keep playing with long after the box is open. Whether you’re shopping for a preschooler, a tween or a teen who’s tough to buy for, here are KiwiCo’s top picks for the holidays.

What Is KiwiCo?

KiwiCo makes hands-on project kits, which it calls “crates,” built around science, engineering, art and design. You can buy them one at a time from the KiwiCo Store or get them as a monthly subscription. The idea is simple: each crate comes with everything kids need to build a project on their own, and once it’s done, kids have something they made themselves to play with or put to use.

What makes KiwiCo different from a typical toy company is how the products get made. According to the company, its team includes “educators, makers, engineers, and rocket scientists (yes, for real),” and every project goes through rounds of testing with real kids. The company says it has designed more than 2,000 projects and shipped over 60 million crates. Its lines cover every age, from Panda Crate for babies up to Maker and Eureka crates for ages 12 to 100. So even adults can get in on the fun.

Alicia Hutchinson, a homeschooling mom who writes the blog Learning Well, is one parent who’s sold on it. She has bought KiwiCo crates for several of her kids over the years and says Tinker Crate has been “our longtime family favorite.” In her review, she says her daughter usually completes the projects the day they arrive, and calls the directions “so clear and perfect for kids who might not be the most thorough of instruction-readers.”

Best KiwiCo Holiday Gifts

If you’re thinking about adding a KiwiCo project to your holiday gift haul, here are some of the top picks this season, along with the recommended age for each. Starting Nov. 2 and running through Nov. 9, KiwiCo is also giving shoppers 15% off orders of $75 or more.

Fun Dough Pasta Maker: $49.95 | Ages 3+

Credit: KiwiCo

Little chefs crank a wooden pasta machine to roll out sheets of dough, then stamp them into shapes, practicing a bit of early math as they go. It’s sturdy enough to survive a preschooler’s enthusiasm and could easily earn a permanent spot in the play kitchen.

Spinning Sand Garden: $29.95 | Ages 7+

Part science project, part desk decor. Kids wire up the garden so it spins on its own, then layer in different colors of sand to see what new shades they can create. Building it teaches them how a simple motorized build works, and the finished garden is oddly relaxing to watch. It’s a good pick for kids who like art and science equally.

Hand-Cranked Flashlight: $34.95 | Ages 12+

Most teens probably wouldn’t call a flashlight exciting until they’ve built one that runs on nothing but elbow grease. Turning the crank powers the light, and putting it together is a crash course in how electricity works. Once it’s done, you can keep it in the car or an emergency kit.

Build & Play Chess Set: $59.95 | Ages 9+

Instead of unboxing a finished board, kids put the chess set together themselves, so the first game feels like a payoff. It’s a great gift for anyone 9 and up, kids or grown-ups, who loves chess and building things.

Play Fort Set: $179.95 | Ages 3+

Forget the couch-cushion fort. This set uses extremely durable panels that connect into whatever layout kids dream up, and they can rebuild it into something new or add on to it over time. At this price it’s a splurge, but one that should get plenty of use.

Kinetic Light-Up Speaker: $49.95 | Ages 12+

Credit: KiwiCo

Teens assemble the base and build the speaker’s circuit from scratch. The finished Bluetooth speaker has foam beads that bounce to the beat of whatever music is playing. It’s eye-catching and something they’ll actually use. My daughter would definitely love something like this.

Dinosaur Dig: $24 | Ages 3-6

Preschoolers get to be paleontologists, digging bones out of kinetic sand before suiting up as a dinosaur themselves. This crate kicks off a Koala Crate subscription at a discount, so new projects keep arriving long after the holidays.

Stunt Cars: $24 | Ages 6-9

The newest Kiwi Crate lets kids engineer their own stunt cars, swapping parts until they find a combo that spins out or sails through a hoop. Trial and error is the whole point. It’s also the first crate in a Kiwi Crate subscription.

Flipbook Animation: $24 | Ages 9-12

Kids build a machine that flips through drawn frames fast enough to turn them into a moving picture, which is basically how animation works. Watching it come to life for the first time is a real “how did that work?” moment. It might not be as engaging long-term as some of the other projects, but it’s the first crate in a Tinker Crate subscription, so you get something new a month later.

Science of Cooking: Ice Cream: $39.95

This is one of KiwiCo’s best sellers, and it’s the kind of kit kids will want to break out again and again. The kit supplies the tools, you supply a few ingredients from home, and kids learn the science behind turning them into ice cream and sorbet.

Surprise Prize Vending Machine: $29.95 | Ages 5+

With this crate, kids build a vending machine that actually works. They load it with the included mini erasers, insert the card to “pay” and turn the handle to claim their prize. It’s a fun first taste of engineering for kids who love to tinker and experiment.

KiwiCo Advent Calendars

Credit: KiwiCo

Advent calendars are a fun way to count down to Christmas, and KiwiCo’s versions give kids a small build to complete each day. It’s healthier than a chocolate one and should last longer, too.

Snowy Sports Ornaments Advent Calendar: $49.95 | Ages 5+

Each day of this 12-day countdown brings a different winter sport to build as an ornament, so by the end kids have a full set ready for the tree. Because they made every ornament themselves, the set is worth bringing out again next year. It’s an easy pick for families who decorate together or have a young sports fan.

Motorized Christmas Train Advent Calendar: $74.95 | Ages 7+

This countdown ends with a train that really moves. Over 12 days, kids build the locomotive, two passenger cars and two cargo cars, then hook up the electric motor and watch it roll. Building it one piece at a time gives kids something to look forward to each day, and the finished train works as a holiday decoration they made themselves.

Mechanical Ornaments Advent Calendar: $49.95 | Ages 5+

Gears and simple machines make these ornaments move, which turns 12 days of crafting into a sneaky intro to engineering. Each build shows kids how one moving part drives another. When the countdown is over, they get to hang the results on the tree.

Christmas Village Advent Calendar: $49.95 | Ages 5+

This is the longest countdown of the bunch. Kids spend 24 days building a mini Christmas village, complete with a cozy house, a reindeer and an evergreen tree, and it’s a set you can pull out and display every year.