Waldorf Gift Ideas by Age: From Baby to About 12

Good Waldorf gifts are simple things a child can do a lot with. For a baby that might be a wooden rattle or a soft cloth doll. For a toddler, a small broom and a few big blocks. From 3 to 6, play cloths, a plain doll and some wooden animals. Once school starts, gifts shift toward making things: wool and knitting needles, a craft kit, good crayons or paints, and later real tools. And at every age, one thoughtful present usually gets more play than a pile of them.

Below is what tends to suit each age, why, and some ideas for the grandparents.

What makes a gift feel "Waldorf"

Walk into a Waldorf kindergarten and you'll see wooden blocks, cloths, dolls, baskets of shells and pinecones. There's little that talks, flashes or needs batteries. The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) encourages parents to offer play things that aren't too "finished", so a child's own imagination does the rest.

Rudolf Steiner, who founded Waldorf education, gave a picture of this. He wrote about a doll folded from an old napkin, with a knot for a head and ink dots for eyes. The child, he suggested, has to imagine the rest, and that imagining is good work. A doll that's already finished in every detail leaves the child nothing to do.

So when you're choosing a gift, three questions help:

1. Can it be many things? A cloth can be a cape, a river or a roof. A button that plays one song can only play that song.
2. Is it nice to hold? Wood, wool, silk and cotton are warm and varied to touch, and they last. Bella Luna Toys, a Waldorf toy shop, describes natural materials as a calm, rich thing for a young child's senses.
3. Will it still be played with next year? Many of the best Waldorf gifts carry through years, like a set of blocks or a doll.

Lynne Czysz, an early childhood teacher at the Waldorf School of Lexington, adds another way to look at it. Many of her gift ideas are about the senses and the body. A lambskin or a play silk is for touch. A rocking horse or balance beam is for balance, and a push broom or wheelbarrow is for movement.

For how to set up a play space around these things, see Waldorf toys and play at home.

Gifts for babies (0 to 12 months)

A baby's play is touching, mouthing, dropping and watching. Good first gifts:

• A wooden rattle or grasping ring
• A soft cloth doll or a knotted doll with a plain face
• A felt or wool ball to crawl after
• A lambskin to lie on
• A small basket with a wooden spoon, a wooden bowl and a clean cloth in it

Keep every piece too big to fit in a toilet paper roll. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission bans toys for children under 3 if a part fits fully inside its small parts test cylinder. It notes that a toilet paper roll is a rough stand-in, though a little bigger than the official tester. The American Academy of Pediatrics also advises avoiding toys with button batteries or strong magnets.

Gifts for toddlers (1 to 3)

Toddlers copy what the grown-ups around them do. Steiner put imitation and example at the heart of the first seven years. That's why child-sized tools often end up as the favorite gift in the house:

• A small broom and dustpan
• An apron and a cloth for wiping the table
• A little watering can
• A wooden cart or wheelbarrow to push

Alongside those: big wooden blocks for stacking and knocking down, a wooden animal or two, a simple doll with a blanket, and a couple of play cloths to hide under.

Toddlers don't need much. In one small study, 36 toddlers aged 18 to 30 months played in a room with either 4 toys or 16. With 4, they played longer with each toy and in more varied ways. For a birthday, one or two things is plenty.

Gifts for children aged 3 to 6

This is the age of long pretend games. A bakery becomes a ship becomes a hospital before lunch. The best gifts give a child the pieces and let them make the story.

• Play cloths in a few colors, big enough to drape over a chair. Our article on play silks and play stands goes into these.
• A simple doll with clothes that come off and a basket bed. See Waldorf dolls for the different kinds.
• Wooden animals and people. Ostheimer and Grimm's are well-known makers, and many small workshops make lovely ones too.
• A set of plain wooden blocks, with a few tree slices and odd shapes.
• Dress-up things: a crown, a cape, a shawl, an apron.
• Crafts: beeswax crayons, modeling beeswax, a wooden knitting fork or a ball of chunky wool for finger knitting.

If you want one bigger gift for the year, a play stand, a toy kitchen or a doll's cradle can see years of use and get passed down.

Gifts for children aged 6 to 9

Around the start of grade 1, many Waldorf children learn to knit. The Waldorf handwork curriculum puts knitting and crochet at the center of the first three classes. So a gift that helps a child make something fits this age well:

• Good wool in a few colors and a pair of wooden knitting needles
• A crochet hook, around the age crochet usually starts
• A candle-making kit with beeswax sheets
• A simple sewing kit with felt, a blunt needle and thread
• Beeswax block and stick crayons, or a small watercolor set

Many children this age still play long pretend games too, so the blocks and cloths from earlier years often stay in use. A child who is ready for more detail in play may love a small wooden farm, a castle, or a marble run to build.

If you're starting knitting, how to teach a child to knit walks you through the first rows.

Gifts for children aged 9 to 12

Older children often want real work: real tools, real materials, and things that take a few weeks to finish. In the Waldorf handwork curriculum, sewing and embroidery come forward around class 4. Socks and mittens on five needles follow around class 5, when simple green-wood carving often begins too. See Waldorf handwork by grade for the whole sequence.

Ideas for this age, drawn from Waldorf teachers and homeschool writers:

• A cross-stitch or embroidery kit
• A small loom, or a needle-felting set
• A soapstone carving kit
• Real hand tools, around 8 to 10 in Jean Miller's suggestion at Art of Homeschooling, and a pocket knife nearer to 12 for a careful child
• Good colored pencils (Lyra and Stockmar are well-known Waldorf choices) and a sketchbook
• A rock tumbler, a telescope or a magnifier for looking closely at nature
• A family board game you'll all play together

Whittling needs a grown-up close by at first. Our woodworking with children article has the safety steps.

Gifts that aren't things

Some Waldorf homeschool writers say their family's favorite gifts aren't objects at all. A membership to a zoo, a natural history museum or a botanic garden gets used all year. So does a regular outing with one parent: breakfast out, a trip to a farm, an afternoon at the pond with a net.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says much the same about younger children: the time a parent spends playing and talking with a child matters more than the toy. A new book read together at bedtime can be the whole gift.

Seasonal gifts can be small too. A beeswax candle for Advent, a new cloth for the nature table in spring, or a lantern for the lantern walk. Our festival calendar shows what's coming up in the year.

What Waldorf families tend to leave out

Most Waldorf homes gently skip toys that flash, talk or do one thing when a button is pressed, and keep screens away from young children. WECAN writes that screen time takes time away from movement and gives children ready-made pictures. You don't have to be strict about it. A plain plastic bucket for the sandpit, a bike or a family card game fits in fine. For more on screens, see Waldorf and screen time.

Helping grandparents choose

Grandparents often want to give something and aren't sure what. A short list helps everyone.

1. Pick one or two things per child from the lists above.
2. Say why you love each one, in a line: "She plays with cloths every day, and one more in blue would be lovely."
3. Offer an experience as another option: a day out together, a class, a membership.
4. Suggest a shared project, like a grandparent teaching a child to knit or whittle over the year.

If your child is heading toward grade 1, Starpath has Waldorf-inspired lessons for grades 1 to 3, with grade 4 being added. Sophie, a Waldorf class teacher with over ten years in the classroom, writes them.

Related reading

• Waldorf toys and play at home
• Waldorf handwork by grade
• Waldorf kindergarten at home
• How to teach a child to knit
• Waldorf and screen time