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Holiday shopping for children is more difficult than it might seem. Sure, they’ll happily give you their lists, but upon review, everything requires batteries, results in more screen time, or will cost you more Benjamins than routinely hang out in your wallet.
Fear not: We’ve rounded up great gift ideas that are perfect for Colorado kids, because these products were dreamed up by companies with home bases in the Centennial State. Best of all, many of our picks promote family bonding time, which we know is the best present of all this holiday season.
Modular Robotics Cubelets
Toys that teach are a win-win for kids and parents. Enter Cubelets, the interlocking, modular blocks that children ages four and up can use to build into their own robots. Youngsters will love snapping the pieces into place; preteens will get a kick out of constructing their own moving, blinking, and/or drivable creations; and parents will appreciate the computational thinking skills their progeny will pick up along the way. We recommend starting with the basic Discovery Set ($225) from Boulder-based maker Modular Robotics. Available online
Sweet Logic Mug Cake Mixes
From candy canes to jelly-filled sufganiyot to frosted cookies, children get plenty of sugar around the holidays. That’s why we stuff their stockings with Denver-based Sweet Logic’s low-carb, low-sugar cake mixes (from $15 for four single-serving packs). Created by Alli and Matt Owen as a decadent yet health-conscious treat, the gluten-free, dry-ingredient blends come in a variety of fun flavors, such as blueberry, confetti, pumpkin spice, orange almond, and red velvet. Plus, they’re so easy to make—pour the mixture into a coffee mug; add water, butter or oil, and/or an egg; and microwave. Big kids can even whip them up themselves. Available online
Tiny Tents Basecamp Dome Tent
Babies, puppies, mini donuts: Shrink something to a fraction of its actual size and our brains are hardwired to find it cute. Turns out, this phenomenon applies to camping equipment as well. Measuring just 15 inches tall, the four-season Basecamp Dome Tent ($40) from the Front Range’s own Tiny Tents uses the same technical features you’d find in a quality human habitat—ultralight poles, ventilating mesh windows, durable tarpaulin floor—but is far more awww-inducing. Wrap this little number up for your favorite kiddo, and their dolls and figurines can save the tea parties and world-saving for another day. Elsa, Anna, and Spiderman are going camping. Available online
Little Kitchen Academy Cooking Classes
Know a budding Top Chef? Since Little Kitchen Academy Denver 9+CO opened in Denver’s Hale neighborhood in June 2024, kids from three to 18 have been honing their chopping, seasoning, and baking skills in the Montessori-inspired concept’s three-hour classes. (Toddler’s First Taste courses, for caregiver-accompanied two- and three-year-olds, last 75 minutes.) All gift cards and memberships (most drop-ins cost $150; a three-month/nine-class package is $349/month) include lessons in recipe-making and dining etiquette: At the end of each session, attendees set a community table and sit down to enjoy the dishes they’ve created together. To bring the fun home, wrap up Little Kitchen Academy’s progressive knife set ($125) for your future Tom Colicchio. 4064 E. Eighth Place
Crescent Moon Snowshoes
Fill a Thermos to the brim with hot cocoa while the kids bundle up in mittens and snow pants. Exchange good-natured banter as everyone straps on their snowshoes. Then head out as a family into an expanse of white through lightly falling flakes. It might sound like Hallmark movie magic, but if you place a pair of Crescent Moon’s kid’s snowshoes ($90) under the tree, it doesn’t have to be. The Englewood-based company uses foam and a Velcro-like material to create a snowshoe that’s easy for young adventurers to put on themselves and blissfully silent underfoot. Available online
Between Words by Saki Tanaka or Epilectra by Sue Seserman
The best books open up new worlds and perspectives, and these two 2024 releases from Colorado authors are certain to do just that for young readers. Between Words: A Friendship Tale ($19), is Denver illustrator Saki Tanaka’s first foray into writing, and the picture book’s story draws on her experiences of moving often as a child. Through charming, whimsical images, Tanaka shows that a common language isn’t necessary for kids to connect and play. Meanwhile, superhero-obsessed teens will love Book 1 of Sue Seserman’s Epilectra ($35) graphic novel series, in which characters’ disabilities (epilepsy, autism, endometriosis) are channeled into superabilities (lightning-weilding, electric neuroplasticity, super strength). Available online
Butterfly Pavilion Membership
Experiential gifts have gotten popular in recent years for good reason: Not only do they facilitate lasting memories, but they also mean less stuff in your house. Make Marie Kondo proud by purchasing a yearlong family membership to Westminster’s Butterfly Pavilion ($123). This invertebrate zoo delivers on its name with more than 1,800 free-flying tropical butterflies in its ever-present Wings of the Tropics exhibit. Your kids will want to go back again and again, however, to visit its more than 16,000 other residents from around the world—and they might need the repeat visits to work up the courage to touch ocean critters like sea stars and spider crabs and hold Rosie the tarantula. Available online
