Ready for some super cool birthday gifts for 5-year-olds? After all, turning 5 is a pretty big deal. You’re now one whole hand! Help your favorite kindergartener or preschooler celebrate this milestone with a cool gift for a 5-year-old that will keep them learning, exploring, playing, imagining, and just having fun. Because having fun is something 5-year-olds are really really good at doing.
Also, check out our list of cool gifts for 6-year-olds, and cool gifts for 4-year-olds — you may find the best gift for a 5-year-old in those guides too.
Above: Kids Giant Doodle Roll from Kenzie Collection
Be sure to see our full list of the coolest birthday gifts for kids by age
The best gifts for 5-year-olds
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All picks have been independently selected by our editorial team
Five is a Vibe t-shirt
($10.99 and up at Double Joy Designs on Etsy)
Looking for a groovy gift for a 5-year-old that they don’t already own? We dig this cool tee that sums up how we feel about this new age.
Personalized Name Crayons
($19.95/4 letters and up, Art2TheExtreme)
Will we ever stop recommending these as one of the absolute best birthday gifts for kids of any age? Never. Love this mom-run small business that’s grown to be super popular for good reason.
Crayola Kids Customizable Kick Scooter
($49, Kohl’s)
The sticker pack makes it even more fun than a scooter already is. Kind of cool to find a ride-on themed around color and crafts instead of superheroes and princesses. (Not that there’s anything wrong with superheroes and princesses!)
TonieBox Starter Set + New Audioplay Character
($99 + $19.99, Amazon)
We’ve long loved TonieBox‘s screen-free entertainment center for music and story time, for kids 3-8. A new one is an amazing gift, or freshen an existing TonieBox with new content Tonies characters like the Minion in the collage above, or Mirabel from Encanto.
($127 at Pottery Barn Kids; individual titles available at Amazon or your favorite local bookstore)
Compiled with input from The Conscious Kid organization, these seven titles help teach equity and empathy to young readers in a beautiful and compelling way. If you want an individual book, find plenty of age-appropriate picture books for 5-year-olds in our book review archives.
A super cool jump rope
($16, Amazon)
A classic toy made a lot more adorable, these durable jump ropes from UK’s Floss and Rock are a terrific price and come in themes like rockets, unicorns, and sharks. Grab a few for all those kindergarten classroom birthday parties.
A real pair of protective sunglasses in kid sizes
($17 and up, Babiators)
Eye protection isn’t something that should wait. We love Babiators because they’re cool enough for kids to want to wear, and durable enough that they won’t break on day one. (Important!) Hey — they’re good enough for those Kardashian kids evidently. Lots of styles including the Polarized Daisy glasses here, which are $22.99 on sale.
Custom Chucks for Kids
(Prices vary at Converse)
One-of-a-kind “big kid” shoes you can design in any of their favorite colors (or all the colors, as seen above). Every single thing is customizable, from the canvas to the eyelets to the stitching to the soles, and you can even add their embroidered name for extra personalization.
Non-toxic kids’ nail polish kit
($35 at Super Smalls)
Hey, maybe they’ll do your nails too! It’s okay: The peel-off polishes are safe for kids (and adults) and dry quickly with the battery-operated nail dryer.
Franklin Sports Tee Ball Glove and Foam Ball
($12.99, Target)
So they can practice their throwing and catching, without worrying about breaking any windows.
Personalized Baking Set
($24 on sale for utensils only; more for full set, A Few Spare Moments on Etsy)
Your little star baker will adore their own kid-sized baking tools in a personalized holder from this star Etsy shop in Montana that we’ve been sharing for years. It’s never too early to teach a kid how to bake us delicious treats, right?
Extremely Personalized Book for Kids
($35, Wonderbly)
One of our readers’ most shopped gifts for kids about 4 to 9 these personalized books that put kids in the story. This one happens to be Where’s Waldo style — which means kids get to look for themselves!
See more of our favorite personalized gifts for kids of all ages
Bluey Keepy Uppy Game
($18.99 at Target)
Our kids’ favorite export from Down Under brings kids so much fun in this action-packed game as they work to keep the motorized balloon in the air with the character paddles. You might want to pair it with the cool Bluey PJ sets we shared in our favorite gifts for 4-year-olds!
Official NASA Astronaut Costume
($19.55, Modern Nursery)
Sometimes our heroes are real.
Botley 2.0 coding robot
($64 on sale, Amazon)
Screen-free coding for kids as young as 5, Botley makes it easy for them to learn the basics using a cute little robot pal they program to do what they want.
Giant kraft paper coloring roll
($22, Kenzie Collection on Etsy)
Not only do kids of all ages love these giant coloring rolls, but it’s a great way for adults to get into the action as well. Choose a seasonal theme or even a birthday theme for the perfect birthday gift for a 5-year-old. And all their friends.
Kid-sized biker jacket
($34.99 at H&M, or find a similar one for $22.50 at Target)
Looking this cool doesn’t need to be expensive.
Yvolutioin Swing Scooter for Kids
($99 and up, Amazon)
A new set of wheels is always a cool gift for a 5-year-old! They’ll use up some of their boundless energy to swing this scooter forward. Also we love that this folds flat for easier storage
Photo: You! The Experience @ The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
Science museum membership
Channel their endless curiosity with an annual membership to your closest science museum where they can learn all about the universe, their bodies, and all the creatures around them. Memberships usually come with perks, like special hours or event access, and also reduce the pressure to try to see everything all in one visit. This is also a great gift from grandparents who would like to spend some special time with their grandchildren throughout the year!
Freestyle Spooner Board
($44.95 at Amazon)
Any five-year-old can will their yayas out as they spin, twist, slide and wobble — safely,
Natural Aromatherapy Dough
($15, Uncommon Goods
Now that they’re old enough not to eat the play dough, they’ll love getting the wiggles out with this deliciously scented all-natural dough. Great gift for wiggly five-year-olds — and their adults too!
Personalized swan purse
($10 and up at AhaAhaMoments)
It’s always surprising how many things a 5-year-old will want to carry around, and this sweet swan purse is just the right size for toting a few trinkets. Available in many other styles at this Etsy shop which we featured in 20 unique personalized gifts for kids in 2023
Washi tape roads
($14 for four rolls at SOhandmade on Etsy)
Great to take on vacation or on family visits over the holidays, these roads are easy to lay down and easy to pull up when playtime is done. Add in some of the cool cars from Candylab wooden cars for the most stylish streets anywhere — and a very affordable and cool gift for a five-year-old.
Kalamata’s Kitchen Flavors in Harmony book bundle
($50 at Kalamata’s Kitchen; or Kalamata’s Kitchen book $12 at Amazon )
Have a future chef on your hands? A kid who won’t eat anything if it’s not on white bread with the crusts cut off? The author-signed book, the second in the Kalamata’s kitchen series, comes with a trio of delicious Spicewalla spices and other goodies, to inspire kids to see food as an adventure — and hopefully recreate some of the recipes in the kitchen themselves.
The best gifts for kids by age
The coolest first birthday gifts
The coolest birthday gifts for 2-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for 3-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for 4-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for 5-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for 6-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for 7-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for 8-year-olds
The coolest birthday gifts for tweens and big kids 9-12
The coolest birthday gifts for teens
