2025 Top Pretend Play Toys and Gifts
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Kids who regularly use their imaginations to pretend play develop better social skills and vocabulary than kids who do not. Discover the best toys to encourage imaginative role-play, toys that are open-ended and battery-free.
Do you give your children pretend play toys and gifts?
Here are some top ideas to give you some ideas from new for 2025 to classics…
Happy toy and gift shopping!
2025 Top Pretend Play Toys & Gifts
Little People Forest Friends
ages 2+
How cute is this? With 8 forest animal figures and a tree-shaped carrying case, kids will have lots of imaginative play opportunities.
Play-Doh Pizza Delivery Scooter Playset
ages 3+
Ride on the scooter with storage and pretend play kitchen and pizza delivery person! Use the included Play-Doh cans to make your pizzas. Comes with 16 tools and 10 colors of Play-Doh.
Tonka Dump Truck and Tonka Excavator
ages 3+
Tonka Dump Truck and Tonka Excavator perfect for the sand box!
Kinetic Sand Scents
Ages 3+
Create ice cream treats with 1lb scented play sand. This fun Kinetic Sand kit includes delightfully-scented Strawberry (pink), Chocolate (brown) & Vanilla (white) colored sand
Playmobil Dinos Reserach Camp
ages 4+
This is a 93-piece set that comes with 2 figures, 4 animals, and accessories for your dinosaur camp, including a microscope, laptop, and more.
Littlest Pet Shop Playset
ages 4+
This adorable house comes with a Hamster and Capybaara and 20 accessories!
Fisher-Price Learning Garage Playset
ages 1+
Kids will love this interactive garage with lights and music with a working elevator, 2 characters, a car, a ramp, and more!
Hape Cityscape Transport
ages 3+
Create your own city with an 80-piece set of tracks, roads, shops, and a battery-powered locomotive engine.
Mega Pokemon Building Set
ages 6+
Build a battle play system and use the launchers to battle your five characters (Pikachu, Machop, Eevee, Fuecoco, and Hawlucha).
Melissa & Doug Ice Creamery
ages 3+
Order, create, and serve frozen treats with scoops, cones, cones, cups, and much more for hours of play!!
Barbie Dream Besties Doll Teresa
ages 3+
Teresa is a posable doll who wants to start a video game company, so she comes with a game-and-controller backpack, headphones, keyboard, and teddy bear.
Barbie Dreamhouse
ages 3+
This house has a 3-story pool slide, pet elevator, puppy play areas, 75 storytelling pieces, a pool, kitchen, living room, and much more. My kids played with their DreamHouse for YEARS!!
Squishmallows Bingo HugMees
How cute is this 10″ huggable plush?
LEGO 3:1 Telephone
ages 7+
Make three things: a 1960s rotary phone, a 1980s wireless phone on its charging base, or two flip phones from the 2000s!
Abby & Emma Dress Up Dolls
ages 3+
For years of fun, this dress up set comes with 2 dolls, 2 stands and 56 magnetic clothes and accessories!
LEGO Elphaba & Glinda Wicked Playset
ages 10+
Build the two figures into Elphaba and Glinda dolls and bring home the magic of the Wicked movie!
Farmer Barbie
ages 7+
This Barbie comes with three chickens and a hen house!
Bluey and Bingo Mini Plush Bundle
Gabby’s Dollhouse Friend Ship
ages 3+
With 18 pieces, this fun ship includes a swimming pool, disco ball, dance floor, dining room, smoothie bar, and photo booth. Perfect for lots of imaginative play!
Playfoam Sand Sensory Set
ages 3+
This fun tactile sand set develops fine motor tools for stamping, digging, squeezing, molding, sifting, sorting, scooping, and molding.
Polly Pocket Pineapple Purse Playset
ages 4+
How darling is this purse that opens up to become a treehouse set with a hammock and zipline? Comes with Polly and Lila dolls and accessories.
Bluey Playhouse
ages 3+
Bluey fans will love this playhouse with lights and sounds that includes Bingo and Bluey and much more, including a moving dancefloor.
Imaginext Pirate Ship
ages 3+
Pretend play pirates with swords who capture prisoners in the ship’s hull. Or, launch cannons and make someone walk the plank.
Dinosaur World Road Race
ages 3+
Create a dinosaur track for your two dinosaur racecars.
American Girl Summer of 2025
ages 6+
The 2025 18″ doll has light blue eyes that open and close, and strawberry-blonde hair with light pink ends.
Jurrasic World Raptor
ages 3+
This extra-large raptor is 9.1 inches tall. Its legs and arms move, too!
Paw Patrol City Cruiser Toy Car with Motorcycle
ages 3+
Do your kids love Paw Patrol? Then they’ll love Chase’s cruiser, which also launches a motorcycle and features lights and sound effects.
Squishmallows 8-Inch Red Panda
all ages
Meet Cici, an adorable red panda! We love and recommend ALL Squishmallows because they are SO SOFT!
Design & Drill Bolt Buddies Police Motorcycle
ages 3+
Use a real drill to build a police motorcycle and sidecar. Then, play with your police dog and police person. Great for fine motor skills and imaginative play.
Melissa & Doug Blue’s Clues Wooden Mailbox Play Set
ages 4+
Send and receive mail with the wooden postcard and stamps, envelope, and invitations to mail plus a double-sided puzzle and 10-piece wooden memory game.
Breyer Horses Unicorn Magic Stable
ages 4+
Carry around your six beautiful unicorns in their own stable! Then, let them graze and frolic and play!
Barbie with Wheelchair & Ramp
This Barbie comes with a wheelchair that can brake and roll, plus a ramp. What a cool, inclusive doll!
Hot Wheels City
ages 5+
Store your cars in the parking garage and then speed down the side-by-side racetrack but watch out for the Robo T-Rex!
Bakugan GeoForge Dragonoid 7 in 1
ages 6+
Battle Geogan Bakugan and use the 8 cards to power it up.
Wooden Stable Box and 8 Horses
ages 3+
From Melissa and Doug, this playset includes 8 horses, a stable, and a breed guide.
LEGO Friends Forest Camper Van and Sailboat
ages 7+
Get your LEGO Friends mini-dolls outside in nature with 3 dolls, a raccoon toy, a detailed camper van, a sailboat, and more!
Pretend Play Props for World Travelers
ages 3+
Use the 40 tickets, passports + stickers, 10 postcards + postage, bank card, ID card, luggage tags and map to play world traveler.
Eternia He-Man
ages 6+
30 points of articulation, this collectible Masterverse figure comes with a sword.
Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set
ages 3+
Pretend to bake and serve your own cookies with this Melissa & Doug slice and bake wooden cookie set. It includes 12 sliceable cookies, 12 toppings, knife, spatula, cookie sheet, and kitchen mitt; cookies store in a durable dough tube.
Classic Pretend Play Toys *That Always Make Great Gifts*
Brio Railroad Starter Kit
ages 1+
We highly recommend the Brio wooden train sets — and this is a great way to get started with this kind of pretend play! My kids would put these together, take them apart, and play for hours with their Brio trains. I love that they’re making sets like this for the youngest children now, too.
Green Toys Dump Truck
ages 2+
I gave this as a gift to my chiropractor’s son and he’s played with it every day for months and months. Fill up the back, dump it out, repeat! Drive around on it! (He even sits on it.) This is an excellent, eco-friendly toy.
Squishmallows
Trust me when I say Squishmallows are THE SOFTEST, CUDDLIEST plush toys we’ve ever owned. And we own like a million. My kids LOVE these and want all of them. 🙂 I’m highly, highly, highly recommending these amazing toys. There are different animals, too — a llama, a frog, a unicorn, a cow, … Which to choose?
Learning Resources New Sprouts Camp Out!
ages 2+
Pretend to camp anytime you want with this fun set that includes 2 logs with flame, a glow-in-the-dark lantern, fork, hot dog, marshmallow, chocolate bar, 2 graham crackers, and duffle bag.
Green Toys Cargo Plane
ages 2+
Made in the USA from recycled plastic, this is a popular, high-quality toy that stands the test of time– and that kids love!
Learning Resources Pretend & Play Calculator Cash Register
ages 6+
Older children need to practice learning about money including bills and coins, adding and subtracting! Great for math skills.
Fresh Mart Grocery Store
ages 3+
Imagine the years of pretend play with this sturdy wooden grocery store that includes a hand-cranked conveyor belt, a bagging area, card swipe machine, a realistic beeping scanner, and cash drawer.
Barbie Dream House
ages 6+
My kids played and played with their Barbie Dream Houses — so I feel nostalgic in recommending this new model. It has a a slide into a pool, a working elevator, lights, and sounds — plus more!
Barbie Extra Fancy
ages 3+
Glam gown and fancy accessories plus a cute teddy bear.
NERF Fortnite Dart Blaster
ages 8+
This Nerf MicroShots Fortnite RL blaster is inspired by the rocket launcher used in the popular Fortnite video game. It includes 2 Official Nerf Elite darts and fires 1 dart at a time with hand-powered action (no batteries required).
Barbie Dreamplane
ages 3+
The pink plane seats a pilot and 2 passengers with lots of fun details like TV screens on the seat backs (and working overhead compartments), a snack cart, 2 trays, a puppy and more!
Wellie Wishers Kendall Doll
These are darling dolls that match the books from the American Girl company, all about a group of friends.
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HI we would love to send you one of our new childrens products to review. Is this a possibility? thanks, Hilary
Sure– send me an email! melissa@imaginationsoup.net