The Ultimate Gift Guide for Creative Kids

Guess what - It's holiday season! I am so excited to give you the ultimate holiday gift guide for the creative or imaginative child in your life. It could be someone who is neurodivergent and could get bored with something simple and predictable. Everything I'm giving you is kid-tested - that means that at my summer writing camps, my one on one classes, and my small group classes, I'm noticing the things that my students are drawn to the most, and I'm ignoring everything I've tried that didn't work, was too messy, or was too expensive. I'm going to start with some arts and craft ideas, and then end with some book suggestions. I hope that this will give you the most amazing collection of gifts that you can give the children in your life!

Anything that I share with you in this article, I'm going to include my Amazon affiliate links. I do appreciate the support, and any money earned on the links will go to resources for kids!

Gift Idea 𖥻1

The first one is really simple, but really hilarious and unexpected - and it's perfect for creative kids - googly eyes! You can get teeny tiny ones, medium sized, and even really big ones! I think this is such a great gift because every creative child that comes to me for writing is obsessed with my googly eyes. They notice that I have googly eyes on my staple monster (who only eats books). They made me put googly eyes on a tape dispenser to turn it into a tape whale that shoots out tape. They just love turning in animate objects into characters. So imagine your child on Christmas morning, running around the house with their googly eyes, turning appliances, furniture, and anything else you can imagine, into characters. » Buy them here

Gift Idea 𖥻2

The next gift idea I want to share with you is clay. A lot of creative kids love hands on activities. The texture of clay in their hands can be very soothing. Maybe they're neurodivergent and sensory is important for them.

My first clay suggestion is Crayola Air Dry Clay. It is super easy to use and you can create so many different projects with it. It comes in an airtight container, so it will always stay moist and fresh. A lot of the kids I work with use this clay to create characters that they then write about in their books. This is great for kids in fourth grade and up. » Buy it here

If your child is younger or you just want to have less mess, then you can get Magic Clay. This is air dry clay that comes in different colors and each color is in its own little baggie.

Make sure that you just squeeze it a little bit before using, because it will come out somewhat moist. Then, it will be the perfect texture to mold into little tiny characters. » Buy it here

Also, make sure you look for a kit that provides little accessories for clay projects, like hats, legs, and eyes. They make it really fun and help spark ideas for new projects. Another plus is when the kits include clay tools that help to shape and cut the clay.

Gift Idea 𖥻3

Another great gift for a creative kid is a pack of canvases. Sometimes canvases can be pretty expensive, but on Amazon you can get a bulk pack of 15 or 20 for a great price. And with that many canvases, there is no pressure on the child to make the perfect artwork. If they mess up, you can just hand them another canvas! You can even have friends over and do a canvas birthday party. » Buy it here

Gift Idea 𖥻4

If you have a creative kid, you probably have random artwork around the house - posted on the fridge, taped up on the wall... Well, I have the perfect way that you can celebrate that artwork. Mixtiles make it super easy to get your child's artwork enlarged, matted, and framed. You just go on their website and you upload your child's artwork, and then you'll choose your print size and frame style.

They are super easy to hang too - on the back of the frame, you'll find a magnet or a sticky strip, so you don't have to mess around with putting nails in the walls. And you can change them up and move them around whenever you want!

So just imagine if you hand your child a gift on Christmas morning, and they unwrap it and find a big frame with their own artwork! It could be a start of their own art gallery right at home. » Buy them here

Gift Idea 𖥻5

So many creative kids LOVE to tell stories. One of the best ways to help your child start creating stories is with story toys. Story toys are what I call small little figurines that can be used to spark a child's imagination when storytelling. My students love to take these little figures and build a whole village with characters and a backstory.

To find story toys, just go on Amazon and search for [miniature toys] or [miniature woodland figures] (or whatever theme you want to go with).

This really promotes imagination, communication, storytelling, and language development, but it's also play for them. So over time you can collect more and more of these story toys, but you can start during the holidays by gifting them a few special pieces. » Buy them here

Gift Idea 𖥻6

We're going to now move on to books and writing. Sometimes school can make writing seem boring but we want kids to really love it. So for your creative and imaginative child, they're going to actually love making books and making stories.

The most affordable, and most powerful way to do this is to provide blank books. Grab some blank paper, fold it in half, and staple the pages together, and then give your child fresh new markers and crayons so they can make their own books!

One of the tools that I've found kids really tend to gravitate towards are colored brush pens. I have so many different writing and drawing utensils for kids to choose from, and they always choose the brush pens. They are pens with ink, but instead of a regular pen tip, the tip is actual brush bristles. So when you use them, it's like a mix between drawing and painting. » Buy them here

Another tool that I've found that kids love is Micron Pens. These are bold, black pens with thin tips that are perfect for clean black outlines and comic drawings. » Buy them here

You can also just get a brand new set of markers or colored pencils. A brand new set of 36 colored pencils is a wonderful gift for a creative child.

Another great option is to look for markers or crayons that are skin colored. That way, when they draw characters, they're not all just peach color. They can be all different skin tones representing different nationalities. » Buy them here

Gift Idea 𖥻7

Picture books are such a fun gift for a creative kid. I really like the ones that tell a story, rather than just sharing sentiments. Stories are so important because a lot of creative kids attach a message with a storyline and a character. So it's best to get something that's narrative. Books that have a social emotional development piece to them are great too.

So if the book teaches kids about self love, emotional regulation, or friendship, that can be a great gift for a child.

I recommend the author/illustrator Tom Percival - he creates a really great series of books. My favorite is called Ruby Finds a Worry. The main character Ruby is worried all the time, and the worry is represented by a big yellow character. The worry gets bigger and bigger until she finally realizes that talking about her worry makes it shrink.

It is such a great visual representation of a feeling of worrying. I really love books like this, because kids really enjoy the story, and meanwhile parents can teach their children about emotions. » Buy it here

Speaking of emotions, another one I love is Patrick and the Not So Perfect Party. This one's related to perfectionism and wanting everything to go perfectly. I think it's a really light-hearted story to teach. It shows that if things don't go your way, you can just let it go and accept it and still have a great time. I also love that this story includes diverse characters, so a lot of kids can feel seen looking at characters that look similar to them. » Buy it here

Another book that I think is very underrated is Rita and Ralph's Rotten Day. This book is about a boy and a girl who are best friends. They get really upset with each other and the story shows how they overcome their conflict.

This one's so fun because it has this repeated pattern in the story and artwork, where they go up and down the hill. It's very interactive and the kids love to read it over and over again. It also teaches them how to overcome conflicts with their friends, which I haven't found in a lot of children's books. » Buy it here

Gift Idea 𖥻8

If your child is ready to read some chapter books, I have some great suggestions for you. A lot of creative kids are obsessed with graphic novels. I know some people think that graphic novels are not real reading, but just hear me out. For a lot of creative kids, their brain is works really fast, always thinking ahead to the next thing. So they need a book that can be fast-paced to keep their attention. I've found that graphic novels do that for them. They are able to read and look at the pictures and be involved in a story at a fast pace, and this causes them to read book after book after book! So they end up reading more books because the graphic novels go so fast.

My first recommendation for graphic novels is Dogman. Dogman books are very popular, and I think they're a lot more appropriate and kind than the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. » Buy it here

Another option is Mr. Wolf's Class. The illustrations in this book are really cute and the stories are fun to read as well. » Buy it here

Gift Idea 𖥻9

There are also graphic novels that a bit more complex and more difficult. These graphic novels look really thick so the kids feel like they're reading big chapter books, but inside of these books you'll find amazing pictures and a complex storyline that talks about friendships, conflicts, or overcoming the main character's own personal emotions and challenges.

Three that I recommend are Ghosts, Stargazing, and Allergic. All of these authors have multiple books that you can purchase, so if your child gets hooked with one then you're able to purchase all the other books in the series. » Buy Ghosts / » Buy Stargazing / » Buy Allergic

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My next gift idea is also a shameless plug. My own students come here because they're so creative and they love making books, and I have helped them to publish their very own book! So what if you gifted your child a book this year that is actually written by another child their age? Then they can read it, enjoy it, and maybe it'll inspire them to become an author one day too!

One of the kids that I work with told me that kids love reading books by other kids because they understand each other's humor and storylines, so it's more interesting to read than books written by adults. Also, the profits from these books go straight to the students! » Buy them here

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Lastly, I have some great gifts available on my website! I have a lot of gifts and resources related to self love and confidence building. One of my most popular products is my coloring t-shirt. These shirts say "We are all the write colors" - this celebrates that who they are as a creative child is perfect. They can even use fabric markers to color it in, creating their very own unique design. You can wash the shirts over and over and they will keep the color. » Buy it here

Hope you liked this guide!

That's the ultimate gift guide! I hope you found some great gift ideas for the creative child in your life - it was so much fun sharing them with you. Have a wonderful and happy holiday season!