2025 Gift Giving Guide for Children, Teens, & Adults
The holidays are a wonderful time to slow down, connect, and show love through meaningful gifts. Whether you’re shopping for a curious kid, a thoughtful teen, or a hard-working parent, our therapists have handpicked items that nurture emotional growth, creativity, and connection.
These aren’t just gifts. They’re ways to support mental health, self-expression, and family well-being all year long.
Gift Ideas for Children Under 12
The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions
This beautifully illustrated story helps kids understand and name their feelings. It’s a gentle, playful way to start conversations about emotions and self-awareness.
Amazon Description: “One day, Color Monster wakes up feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy, calm, sad, and scared all at once! To help him, a little girl shows him what each feeling means through color. As this adorable monster learns to sort and define his mixed-up emotions, he gains self-awareness and peace as a result.”
Magnetic Building Blocks Set
Perfect for little builders, these colorful blocks spark creativity and problem-solving while encouraging cooperative play. A great way to build social-emotional skills.
Amazon Description: “Get ready to experience the fun of magnetic toys with this 1″ magnetic cubes kit! Build a forest castle to add your existing dinosaur toys, and start your forest adventure with role-play fun and pretend toys. Magnetic blocks open up a dream world of possibility, from simple to challenging construction.”
Squash It! Social Emotional Learning Game
This hands-on game helps kids practice handling frustration and managing big feelings in fun, age-appropriate ways. Great for home or classroom play!
Product Description: “A Unique, hands-on SEL game using adorable, squishable characters. It includes 10 squishable, individually wrapped animal characters, 10 character description cards, and 42 situation cards.”
Gift Ideas for Teens
A Question a Day for Self-Care: A 3-Year Journal
Journaling is a powerful way for teens to process emotions. This daily reflection book encourages self-discovery, growth, and mindful moments through simple, meaningful prompts.
Product Description: “Put your mental and emotional well-being front and center with this three-year daily journal that invites you to tune into your feelings. There’s an entry for every day of the year, each one posing questions to help you discover what inspires you and makes you happy, like: ‘Who or what can you always lean on?’ ‘What should you stop feeling guilty about?’ and ‘What three elements of your life provide the most joy?'”
Breathing Buddy: Mindfulness & Anxiety Relief Plush
This adorable plush friend helps teens (and younger kids!) learn deep breathing and relaxation techniques. A comforting way to manage stress or anxiety.
Amazon Description: “Whether you’re looking to relax, focus, or sleep, our device offers three effective breathing techniques to suit your needs. Choose from the 4-7-8 breathing for alleviating anxiety relief, the 4-4-4-4 Box Breathing for heighten focus, or the 5-5 breathing for relaxing mood. Each mode guides you through the breathing pattern with intuitive light cues, making it easy to achieve mindfulness.”
Self-Care Checklist Habit Tracker Notepad
A simple, visual way for teens to track self-care habits, boost accountability, and build confidence. It’s a thoughtful stocking stuffer that promotes balance and mindfulness.
Product Description: “Mark this checklist to show where or not you’ve taken care of your basic needs like sleeping, eating and drinking water. You can also track physical and emotional habits such as getting fresh air and giving thanks. The simple act of writing down your emotions on paper can often help us see the causes, and therefore, solutions more clearly. This particular style focuses on recognizing personal triggers and how to work past them.”
Gift Ideas for Parents & Caregivers
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
In a world of constant notifications and endless scrolling, this book by Cal Newport is a refreshing guide to reclaiming your time, focus, and peace of mind. It helps parents (and teens!) set healthy boundaries with technology and rediscover the value of presence, reflection, and real connection.
Product Description: “Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude.”
Tea for All Your Needs Kit
A soothing set of teas to meet every mood. Because parents deserve a few moments of calm too. Pair it with a quiet moment and your favorite blanket.
Product Description: “Coffee may be standard people fuel, but why fill your day with nothing but leaded or unleaded when you can infuse it with a myriad of life-enhancing teas? Maker Julie Pederson answers that question with her new collection of 15 hand-selected loose-tea blends made from fresh organic and fair-trade ingredients. Choose a black tea to kick-start your morning; savor a cup of green tea to energize the afternoon; soothe yourself at bedtime with calming chamomile; or get creative and combine flavors for a delicious custom blend any time.”
The Play Therapy Playbook for Parents
This practical guide offers child-centered techniques to strengthen communication, deepen connection, and bring play into everyday parenting moments.
Amazon Description: “In this book, you’ll delve into the essentials of play therapy and learn how to apply it with your child. Discover how play can be a powerful tool in enhancing your relationship with your child. By the end of this book, you’ll gain valuable insights into play therapy and practical ways to integrate it into your parenting style.”
The best gifts go beyond the wrapping. They help families connect, play, and grow together. These carefully chosen items inspire creativity, encourage emotional awareness, and promote healing in small, everyday ways.
At Bloom Child Therapists, we believe that nurturing emotional health is one of the greatest gifts you can give.
If you’d like more support for your child or family this season, our team of child therapists is here to help. Schedule an appointment with us today and start the new year with warmth, connection, and hope.