Best Toys for Babies to Keep Them Entertained!

The best toys for babies are full of color and texture and delight baby’s developing senses.

Keep in mind that when you’re buying toys for babies for Christmas gifts or other occasions, you’re buying for mom and dad too. Because the best baby toys will hold the little dumpling’s attention long enough for mom or dad to finish their coffee.  😉

All the more reason to pick something really awesome! So to help you pick out the best toys for babies on your gift list, we’ve gathered some top picks from sources like Parents magazine, Toy Insider, Amazon favorites and others.

These are some of the best baby toys for 2019!

We spend loads of time finding cool stuff kids will love! Just a heads up that the links on this page take you to Amazon and if you buy something through a link, we may get a small commission (but you don’t pay more – Fist Bump!). Read more about how that works here.

In a hurry? >>>>Check out the hot selling baby toys on Amazon here!

Best Toys for Babies

One of the Top Baby Toys is the Winkle Sensory Rattle

Manhattan Toy Winkel Rattle and Sensory Teether Toy

The award winning Winkle Rattle by Manhattan Toy is a favorite among babies and parents both. We know cause the babies took a vote.  😀

Seriously, this classic toy won multiple awards for being one of the best toys for babies. 

• Holds baby’s attention within a few days of birth
• Gives babies multiple ways to grab it
• Pliable and BPA-free for safe chewing
• Under 5 inches and lightweight, perfect for baby flailing

Check out the parent reviews on Amazon and you’ll see why this one is a top seller. The inexpensive price doesn’t hurt either!

Age: Newborn – 24 Months

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Baby Gyms are the Best Toys for Babies

Fisher-Price Music and Lights Deluxe Gym, Rainforest

Baby gyms are great examples of baby toys that moms and dads love. Baby can lay on his back or tummy and be entertained by the toys, lights, sounds and textures all around him.

Meanwhile, mom or dad get a chance to catch up on Netflix shows, make dinner, fold laundry or do other stuff they can’t do while entertaining junior.

The Fisher-Price Rainforest Gym has these nice features:

• 7+ detachable toys, including a mirror
• Attach toys to the top or to the blanket for different playtime experiences
• Toucan senses movement then lights up and plays music
• Lots of blanket textures for baby to explore

Another reason a baby gym makes a great baby gift is that mom and dad can reuse it if they have another baby. These baby toys can get lots of mileage!

Here’s a few other top choices for baby gyms, each with some unique features. The Infantino gym on the left can be turned into a ball pit for older babies. And the Kick & Play gym on the right lets baby play piano with his feet, or the keyboard can lay flat for the more traditional budding pianist.

 Infantino Grow-with-me Activity Gym and Ball Pit Baby Einstein Caterpillar and Friends Play Gym Fisher-Price Kick & Play Piano Gym, Blue/Green

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Lil’Critters Moosical Cow is a Top Baby Toy for Christmas

VTech Baby Lil’ Critters Moosical Beads

Musical toys delight baby’s eyes and ears and are an early lesson in cause and effect.

This Lil’ Critters Moosical Cow has lots of contrasting colors for very young babies, and musical buttons babies can activate with a hand swipe when they get more active. Here’s some more pluses for this baby toy:

• Has two volumes and an on/off switch
• Plays over 30 songs and sounds
• Plastic ring is easy for baby to grasp
• Small enough to toss in the diaper bag and take on-the-go

This little talking cow offers loads of entertainment for babies at a super low price. It actually was released a couple years ago, but is still getting great reviews, so we’re keeping it on our 2017 best toys for babies list.

Age: Newborn – 24 Months

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Little Tikes Activity Garden Set is One of the Best Toys for Babies

Little Tikes Activity Garden Baby Playset
The best toys for babies grow and adapt along with the little munchkins.

The Little Tikes Activity Garden Set provides a safe playpen-type space for younger babies to explore. But it also opens up for a larger play space to accommodate older babies and toddlers. There are lots of fun features on this toy:

• Crawl-through archway and slide to encourage motor skills
• Multiple activities, like shape sorter, keyboard, ball drop and more
• Detachable activity center 
• Simple to rearrange
• Good for indoors or out

Parents will love this as a Christmas toy for their baby because it will keep baby entertained up to 3 years old. It’s great for families with multiple young children too!

You definitely want to check out the reviews on this one, it’s a top baby toy that’s another parent and kid favorite!

Age: 6-36 Months

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Manhattan Toy Baby Stella is a Top Infant Toy

The Manhattan Toy line makes the cutest dolls for babies and toddlers. These are great to encourage nurturing in young boys and girls.

Here’s my favorite features of the Baby Stella dolls:

• They’re soft and cuddly
• Great bedtime comfort toys
• 15 inches long, to fill the arms of little ones
• Wee Baby Stella comes in 12 inches for smaller children
• Simple features and clothing that’s easily removable
• They come in a variety of skin tones
• Huge selection of outfits and accessories to go with them
• High quality soft dolls for babies at a reasonable price!

If you order a doll and accessories, do make sure you’re ordering the right size accessories for your doll, since the dolls do come in two sizes.

Below are a couple of their popular dolls and the most ADORBS doll pajama set ever! (#IWantGrandkids)

 Manhattan Toy Baby Stella Boy Doll Manhattan Toy Wee Baby Stella Baby Stella Goodnight Pajama Set

Aww, heck, there’s too many cute ones to just show you three! Here’s the link to the whole selection of Manhattan Toy Baby Stella items on Amazon.

Age: 12 Months – 6 years

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No Ants – Just One of the Best Toys for Babies!

LeapFrog Shapes And Sharing Picnic Basket
The LeapFrog Shapes and Sharing Picnic Basket keeps babies and toddlers busy sorting, matching, stacking and filling, while mom does the same thing with the laundry!

When youngsters lift the lid, the cheery basket sings or asks questions about shapes and colors. This parent favorite is loaded with other fun features:

• Great price!
• 14 picnic items for imaginative play
• Teaches shapes, colors, motor skills and manners
• Pieces fit inside for easy storage
• Speaks or sings over 30 songs, phrases and sounds

For the price and everything you get, this is one of the best Christmas toys for babies!

Age: 6-36 Months 

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Ding Dong! Baby’s Home!

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Home Playset [Amazon Exclusive]

There are lots of fun interactions babies can do in this pint-sized house playset from Fisher-Price!

The Smart Stages Home Playset is an educational toy for babies that interacts differently as baby grows. Parents can enter their baby’s age, then the toy responds with different levels of age appropriate learning activities. Here are some highlights of this entertaining toy:

• Level 1 helps baby explore sights, sounds and cause and effect
• Level 2 gives baby simple learning instructions and activities to follow
• Level 3 encourages toddlers to pretend play
• Multiple kids can play from both sides of the toy
• 75+ songs and phrases

Since this toy has a variety of activities to appeal to kids all the way up to 3 years old, it’s a gift parents could get a lot of use out of, especially families with both a baby and a toddler.

Age: 6-36 Months

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Hape Pound & Tap Bench is a Top Infant Toy

Hape Pound & Tap Bench with Slide Out Xylophone

Babies will be delighted by the tinking sounds they’ll hear as they tap the colored balls onto the xylophone in the Pound & Tap Bench by Hape.

This classic toy not only encourages musical development in babies, but it also teaches colors and cause and effect. Here are some other reasons this is one of the top baby toys this year and years past:

• Solid quality wooden toy built to last
• Non-toxic materials
• Encourages audio recognition
• Xylophone is removable, so there’s two ways to play

This toy has been around several years, but it’s still a big seller and gets great reviews. I’m not surprised, because Hape is known for their good-quality wooden toys for kids. You can be sure if you buy one for a gift, it’s going to last.

Age: 12-36 Months

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VTech Sit, Stand and Ride Baby Walker

VTech Sit, Stand and Ride Baby Walker

Baby’s a rollin’ stone and the VTech Sit, Stand and Ride toy is just the thing to help her get where she needs to go!

This puppy is the fully loaded Mercedes of baby ride-on toys. It’s a floor toy for young babies, a walking toy for slightly older babies and a full-on ride-on when baby is old enough to hit the road (so to speak). Check out all the other features it has to offer:

• Interactive activity panel with TONS of learning fun
• 60+ songs, melodies and sounds
• Activity panel removes for floor play
• Motion sensors activate sounds and songs as baby moves it forward
• Speed control (no speeding tickets for baby!)

With the versatility and price of this toy, it’s easy to see why it’s one of the best toys for babies this year!

Age: 9-36 Months

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Activity Cubes are Among the Best Toys for Babies

Hape Country Critters Wooden Activity Cube

There’s a reason you see activity cubes in all the pediatricians’ offices. They keep little ones of all ages occupied and happy!

I love this Hape Country Critters Activity Cube because, like I mentioned above, Hape makes great quality wooden toys. Also, the country critter theme of this one is so darn cute and colorful. It features the always engaging moving beads, but is loaded with other activities too:

• Shape sorter
• Movable maze
• Ball dropper
• Non-toxic
• Non-electronic (nice for quiet time!)
• Versatile appeal for many ages

The other thing I love about this toy and activity cubes in general, is that parents can put it in a family room and it occupies several young kids at once.

It takes the place of multiple small toys scattered around the room and parents will thank you for that!

Here’s two more activity cubes with great reviews that are top baby toys. I really love the Manhattan Toy Tree Top activity center, pictured on the left. Manhattan Toy is another toy line with an excellent quality record.

Manhattan Toy Tree Top Adventure Activity CenterALEX Jr. My Busy Town Wooden Activity Cube

Age: 12 Months – 6 Years

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This Smart Puppy is One of the Best Baby Toys for 2017

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn First Words Smart Puppy

The Laugh & Learn First Words Smart Puppy was just released in 2017.

Just look at that cute little puppy face! Babies love faces, so that feature alone is a real eye-catcher for babies. But there are lots of other reasons babies and parents are loving this new baby toy:

• Three age settings for different learning levels
• Babies swipe or place blocks on the platform and hear puppy speak
• Teaches numbers, colors, objects, animals and more
• Various textures for baby to explore
• Lots of songs and phrases in a delightful childlike voice

The Smart Puppy is priced pretty reasonably too, for an electronic toy. For all of these reasons, it was on several best toys for babies lists last year. 

Age: 9-36 Months

The Laugh & Learn Smart Puppy is a wonderful educational toy for babies. For more toys like this, check out our Best Learning Toys for Babies article.

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Rockin’ Rider Pony Ride-On is a Top Baby Toy for Christmas!

The Rockin’ Rider Pony Ride-On toy is a rootin’ tootin’ good time. 😉 Cowbabies can ride off into the sunset rocking horse style, or the bottom comes off and they can giddy up on wheels.

This cute little pony also sings and talks when the ears are pressed. The other nice thing about this baby toy is that it’s soft and huggable for little ones, unlike most other ride-ons.

It’s like baby has her own little pony pet that she can push or pull around when she’s not riding it.

According to the reviews, parents and little ones love this pretty pony!

Rockin’ Rider Candy 2-in-1 Pony Ride-OnRockin’ Rider Charger 2-in-1 Pony Ride-On

Age: 12 Months+

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YKS Plush Giraffe Developmental Toy is a Top Infant Toy

Plush Giraffe Toy For Babies

This colorful giraffe developmental toy for babies is a big hit with parents and little ones. Here’s a few reasons why he’s so popular:

• Bright colors grab baby’s attention
• Rings on him are safe for biting
• His floppy legs are easy for baby to grasp during tummy time play
• He’s 13 inches long for baby to hold for soothing and comfort
• Can attach to a stroller or car seat

One last note on this toy – the manufacturers instructions say to spot clean him, but a few reviewers machine washed him on the delicate cycle and air-dried him and reported that he came out of it just fine. Parents can put him in a pillow case (tie the end of the case in a knot) first for extra care. I’ve machine washed many a plush toy this way successfully.

This is a really versatile toy at a great price and would be a lovely Christmas or shower gift for new parents.

Age: Newborn – 24 Months

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Babies Love the Playskool Explore N’ Grow Busy Ball Popper

Playskool Explore N’ Grow Busy Ball Popper

Babies love watching these multi-colored balls travel through the chute and pop out of the top of the Playskool Ball Popper.

And parents love the surprised look on baby’s face when the balls sometimes fly out and around the room. Here’s a few fun features of this top toy for babies:

• Plays 8 songs
• Easy push button start
• Keeps baby’s attention
• Encourages baby to crawl after the balls and bring them back

This is a fun toy for toddlers too and gets them moving as they run after the balls. This toy comes with only 5 balls, so you’re probably going to want to pick up some more. This pack of refill balls works well with this toy, according to reviewers.

Age: 9-36 Months

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Our Favorite Best Toy for Babies are Activity Tables

VTech Magic Star Learning Table

All of these are top baby toys for Christmas 2017 and would make wonderful gifts for babies and parents. But if we had to pick just one favorite out of all the best toys for babies, it would have to be the VTech Magic Star Learning Table.

I like activity tables for little ones because of their versatility. Parents can put the top on the floor for baby to play with while he’s on his tummy or sitting. When baby is older, parents can add the legs and baby can play while he’s standing.

Because they offer a variety of activities for babies, activity tables are like having several toys in one. Here are some other reasons I really like the Magic Star Learning Table:

• 65+ sounds and phrases
• English and Spanish modes
• Steering wheel drives the bear around the track
• Teaches colors, numbers, songs and more
• Comes in two colors
• Great reviews and price

One thing to keep in mind about activity tables is that most are not sturdy enough for a baby to use it to pull himself up to stand. In standing mode, it’s meant for babies who are able to stand up on their own. Just something parents need to watch out for.

LeapFrog Learn and Groove Musical Table Activity Center

A second activity table I really like is the LeapFrog Learn And Groove Musical Table.

It features learning games, but also has a music mode geared more towards helping babies develop an ear for different musical sounds.

It too, has English and Spanish modes and comes in two colors.

It’s another great choice for an activity table and either of these would be wonderful gifts for a baby.

Age: 6-36 Months

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VTech Baby Rattle and Sing Puppy is One of the Top Infant Toys!

VTech Baby Rattle and Sing Puppy

Rattles have been among the best toys for babies going back 2500 years, if you can believe that!

They’ve come a long, long way, baby, and the Rattle and Sing Puppy is not the same rattle grandma played with. Here’s some fun modern features:

• 20+ songs, sounds and phrases
• Puppy’s cheeks light up
• Lots of colors, textures and sounds to discover
• Perfect on-the-go toy

This one holds lots of entertainment value for baby, parents love it and it’s super affordable!

Age: 3 Months+

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Fisher-Price Grow ‘n Learn Garden Caddy Grows with Baby

Smart Stages Grow ‘n Learn Garden Caddy [Amazon Exclusive]

I love this concept! The Grow ‘n Learn Garden Caddy uses gardening to teach babies colors, shapes, ABCs, object names and more.

It has the Smart Stages technology, so parents can set it to the appropriate level for their baby’s age. Here’s some other reasons this is one of the best toys for babies this year:

• 50+ songs, sounds and phrases
• Babies can “water” and learn cause and effect
• Perfect size for little hands
• Several activities packed into a compact toy
• Handle for easy carrying

This is a cute toy for any baby, but what a great gift it would be for a baby of gardening parents!

Age: 9-36 Months

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The Best Toys for Babies to Go Places

Little Tikes Push & Ride Racer

The Push and Ride Racer isn’t a fancy ride-on toy, but it’s great for babies for a number of reasons:

• Helps improve walking skills as baby pushes it
• Helps motor skills as baby learns to straddle and sit on it
• Works baby’s muscles as he uses his legs to power it forward
• Low seat is easy for young toddlers to ride on
• Seat lifts up to tote a favorite toy

The other reason parents will thank you for this toy? It’s quiet!

Age: 9-36 Months

Below are a couple of top baby ride-on toys for slightly older babies (12 months and up).

 Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Scooter Little Tikes Go and Grow Lil’ Rollin’ Giraffe Ride-on

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We hope this list of the best toys for babies helps you to pick out an engaging toy for that special baby (and parents!) on your gift list. Happy shopping from Toysenberry!

 

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