- Author: Adrienne So
A Box of Fun: Our 6 Favorite Gift Subscriptions for Kids
Buying holiday gifts for kids can be stressful. A disappointed look is so much more piercing from a six-year-old than from your sister-in-law. That's why gift subscriptions are genius. For an affordable sum, you can continue to surprise and delight the child of your choice for months to come. I tested gift subscription boxes on some of the most willing guinea pigs around—my kids and their friends—and these became our favorites. Hopefully, your children will enjoy these as much as ours did.
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KiwiCoKiwi Crate
Price$20
Kiwi Crate offers a bewildering array of gift boxes for all ages and interests, from toddlers under two to teenagers. You can also choose boxes aimed at specific interests, such as music or mazes, holiday crafts, or robots. My almost-four-year-old enjoyed a sample crate on rainbows, which contained fun, age-appropriate activities like making small stained glass windows. It also sparked a lot of questions as to whether black or white was "all the colors" or "none of the colors," and a lot of Googling from one particular mom.
KiwiCo
AmazonPrime Book Box For Kids
Price$20
Amazon's Prime Book Box for kids takes advantage of Amazon's access to thousands of wonderful titles. Every month, they send you two books that are up to 40 percent of the list price. It's a lot harder to find age-appropriate, enjoyable books than it is to find toys, and both of Amazon's selections in the sample box were spot-on.
Amazon
BitsboxBitsbox
Price$17
Coding is a language just like any other. The sooner your kids become acquainted with it, the easier it will be for them to gain fluency later on. The Bitsbox is aimed at children who can already read and write. Following the instructions in the booklet, your child can create a simple app to use on any computer, tablet, or smartphone with a web browser (although younger children will probably require a lot of adult participation). Most importantly, the apps are aimed to appeal to both boys and girls.
Bitsbox
Big Little OnesGirls Can! Crate
Price$30
It's especially important for young girls to have role models in a variety of fields. While the Girls Can! crate does provide simple, fun, STEM activities for your five- to ten-year-old, the boxes also highlight the inspiring, accomplished women who have worked in those fields. To be honest, the inspiring women hardly registered to my almost four-year-old, who tore open the box to start immediately drawing with the markers within. But later on, when she thinks of someone whose job is to look at the stars, she might think of a woman looking at a telescope as well as a man.
Girls Can! Crate
FoodstirsThe Bakers Club
Price$25
You may need a biochemist's patience and manual dexterity—and a magnifying glass—to assemble some of the intricate baking projects in the Foodstirs Baker's Club. Baking requires patience, precise measurements, and a basic understanding of chemical reactions, and these kits are no exception. Even the simple snowman cookies that my daughter and I baked called for nearly invisible orange sprinkles to serve as the nose. But the results are both delectable and adorable.
Foodstirs
Little PassportsScience Expeditions
Price$19
Little Passports also caters to a variety of ages and interests, with an Early Explorers box aimed at children as young as three. While the activities for younger children are adorable and engaging (unfortunately, my toddlers are still fighting over who gets to carry around the orange suitcase), the science boxes for older children are creative introductions to widely varied subjects. I tested the introductory kit, which was on forensic science. I don't remember learning anything about forensic science, even in high school, and had never extracted the DNA from a squashed strawberry. It was fascinating.
Little Passports