Chances are, you’ve heard of Melissa and Doug. Known for its collection of quality toys for kids, Melissa and Doug have been making wooden, plush, educational toys, activity boards, and games for years. So, if you’re currently looking for gifts for kids for birthdays, holidays, and special occasions, look no further than our list of the best Melissa and Doug toys available right now.
With quality-made toys suitable for children of all ages, Melissa and Doug is boasted as the #1 parent-recommended toy brand for creativity and learning in the United States. Melissa and Doug toys are notable for their screen-free play: absolutely no screens or no apps. These toys are designed to engage kids in hands-on, imaginative play without all the tech. And, you know what? They’re great. The Melissa and Doug “Get Well” Activity Center even took home the 2019 Good House Keeping Best Toy Award. For all the most popular Melissa and Doug toys, read on.
Our Review
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon If you’re looking for big gifts for kids with true imagination and an interest in creating their own fun, check out the Melissa & Doug Doctor Activity Center.
Featuring a waiting area, exam room, sink, and reception area along with all the doctor’s equipment like a blood pressure monitor, scale with movable weight, adjustable height bar, eye chart, clock with movable hands, movable tool hooks and holders, sink, sanitizer pump, and more. The assembly instructions are straightforward and easy to follow.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Pounding Bench Activity Center toy features a wooden pounding bench which includes eight colorful pegs and a wooden mallet. The pegs are non-removable which prevents them from getting lost or injuring a child, and the mallet, while sturdy, is light-weight in order to eliminate the worry of children accidentally hurting themselves while playing with the toy.
Each peg features a smiling face and is designed in a different bright color. Children can have fun pounding the pegs in and out of the pounding bench while learning the names of common colors and developing their fine motor skills with this toy.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon Bring the fun of the grocery store into your house with this fun and interactive set from Melissa & Doug.
As one of Melissa & Doug’s highest-rated and most talked about toys on Amazon, this freestanding children-sized grocery store includes a conveyor belt, a bagging area, a card swipe machine, a realistic beeping scanner, and a cash drawer for a realistic experience.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Melissa & Doug Monster Plush Bowling Game is a monster-themed bowling set designed for young children ages two and up. It includes six bowling pins and one bowling ball; each pin is crafted from soft, fuzzy, light-weight plush material in order to avoid injury for young children.
The pins and ball are also designed in bright colors with a different funny monster face on each one. The bowling set is extremely durable and is designed to withstand the rough handling of babies and young children. Along with providing fun for children, the Monster Plush Bowling Game also helps children learn elementary hand-eye coordination skills.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon One of our favorite new Melissa and Doug toys of 2018 is the Star Diner Restaurant Playset, which is a little diner booth themed with a ’50s diner aesthetic. It’s SUPER cute!
On the other side, there’s a full kitchen, complete with an oven, stovetop and grill, a two-shelf fridge, drink dispenser, and a milkshake mixer — so they can pretend to make those iconic milkshakes from the 1950s that you see in the movies.
It also comes with a cute sign that has clips on one side for orders.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Magnetic Farm Hide and Seek is another toy with classic wooden construction that is rare within the modern toy industry but is a traditional feature of many Melissa and Doug products. The toy features a magnetic puzzle board with nine hinged doorways and nine removable animal magnets.
Babies and children can entertain themselves by attaching the various animal magnets behind the hinged doors and then opening the doors to find the hidden animals. This hide and seek game can provide children with fun while also helping them learn their animal names and noises as well as improving their memory and fine motor skills.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon Bring the excitement of an ice cream truck into your everyday life with the Melissa & Doug Snacks & Sweets Food Cart. Kids will love participating in pretend play and serving up their favorite sweet treats. The cart is made from high-quality wood, making it very durable and easy to assemble. It comes with 40 play food pieces and realistic features like pull-out drawers, a working bell, sliding see-through doors, reversible awning, and a double-sided, write-on menu.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Deluxe Latches Board is crafted from smooth and sturdy, durable wood. It features a wooden board with several numbered doorways that can be opened using metal locks, clasps, and latches along with colorful animal shapes that can hide behind the numbered doors and correspond in number to the number on each door.
All edges of the board and removable pieces are sanded smoothly in order to ensure that children cannot hurt themselves on sharp edges during playtime. With this toy, children can hone their fine motor skills while opening the clasps and latches on the doors and improve their counting and math skills while counting the animals behind each door.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Melissa & Doug Chef’s Kitchen playset has a modern vibe and we love it. Featuring an integrated design where every element is installed in a common cabinet, your kids will love playing with this incredibly cute set.
This kitchen playset includes a stove with an oven, a fridge, microwave, sink, a freezer, and a functional ice dispenser – so cool! What’s cooler? No water is needed. Two pretend ice cubes are included and pop out with the press of a button. And, like other Melissa & Doug toys, build quality is top-notch.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Melissa and Doug Magnetic Car Loader is a wooden vehicle set which features a large red loading truck with a trailer and a magnetic arm that can attach to four included magnetic wooden cars with real rolling wheels and load them onto the trailer. The wooden cars are designed in different unique colors and each display a different number in order to encourage children to develop counting and sorting skills as they play with the toy.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Cutting Food Set allows curious children to play pretend with a kitchen-themed toy that allows them to slice fruit while remaining one hundred percent safe. The toy features a wooden storage crate which holds seven different colorful, realistic wooden fruits that are pre-cut, allowing children to easily pretend to slice them with the included wooden, smooth-edged knife.
The Cutting Fruit Set helps children hone their hand-eye coordination skills as well as their fine motor skills while encouraging imaginative, creative pretend play.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Melissa and Doug Pizza Party toy is another kitchen-play game that inspires imagination and creativity in young children. The toy includes a wooden pizza that is held together with velcro tabs but can be sliced into six equal pieces and dished up with the included sanded wooden rolling pizza cutter and wooden spatula.
The set also features fifty-four small wooden disks designed to look like various pizza toppings, allowing children to slice their own pizza and get creative while decorating it with whatever topping they want. The Pizza Party set can be packaged neatly into a wooden box in order to promote easy storage and prevent the small pieces from getting lost.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon Melissa & Doug also has their own cardboard playhouse, but this one is in the form of a food truck. The Mel & Doug Food Truck Indoor Playhouse is a roomy and well-made cardboard food truck, with one side being BBQ-themed and the other side being ice cream truck-themed. It’s loaded with cutesy details (like a sandwich board), and your kids will love to pretend to be a food truck worker. It’s recommended for ages 3 years and up.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Melissa and Doug Basic Skills Board allows children to learn hand-eye coordination skills that they can apply to real life. It features a wooden board with a picture of a bear in an undershirt, along with several clothing pieces and accessories that allow children to dress the bear and learn to zip, lace, snap, and buckle its clothes.
This toy is great for children who are learning to dress themselves or tie their own shoes, as it allows them to apply these skills in a fun and entertaining way. The board and its various detachable pieces also help children learn about different shapes, colors, and sizes.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The See and Spell Toy includes sixteen wooden blocks with various pictures of common objects on them, including a bus, a fish, a car, and a bird. Each wooden block has indented letter shapes on it which spell out the word for the object on the block.
The toy also includes colorful letter shapes that correspond to the words on the blocks, allowing children to attach the letter shapes to the indents on the blocks to spell out words. The See and Spell helps children learn about basic letter shapes and begin to develop spelling skills. All the pieces of the toy fit neatly into a wooden box to prevent the small letter shapes and blocks from getting lost.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Stack and Count Parking Garage is a toy crafted from high-quality wood in a traditional design. It includes ten small wooden toy cars, each of which is designed in a different bright color, as well as a wooden sliding counter designed to look like a classic parking garage.
The toy’s wooden design is incredibly durable and features a drop-down counter that helps babies and children learn some of their first simple math and counting skills through a fun and entertaining toy. It’s one of the best wooden toys for kids available.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon Think about how often your child plays with plastic, mostly low-quality hair salon toys? Often, right? Throw the plastic away and get them this high quality wooden beauty salon from Melissa & Doug. It comes with 18 pieces, including a hair dryer, a brush, a comb, makeup, and more.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon This adorable Melissa & Doug wooden train set comes with 130 pieces for the ultimate imaginative play and choo-choo experience. Featuring cars filled with cargo, all kinds of wooden tracks, and dozens of other accessories and toys, your kids will have a total blast as they build their own railroad tracks. Here’s the best part: everything is easy to assemble, tear down, start again, and even comes with instructions for 4 different tracks to get them started.
A great gift for birthdays, holidays, or special occasions, we know any kid will love to play and get creative with this incredible collection and train set.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon The Melissa & Doug Deluxe Standing Art Easel is a popular pick and comes highly-rated and reviewed. It’s also completely cute! Featuring a dry-erase board, chalkboard, locking paper-roll holder, and equipped with a child-safe paper cutter, four easy-clip grips, and two large plastic trays for all of their art supplies, this is the total package.
Since this easel does not have an adjustable height, it’s best suited for children three and older.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon If your children love cats, dogs, and are 100% pet-friendly, this Melissa & Doug Pet Vet Play Set is just the gift for them. Equipped with all the tools and accessories necessary to feel like a real vet, they’ll be saving and caring for their favorite stuffed animals in no time at all. The set comes with the following pretend tools and toys: stethoscope, thermometer, syringe, ear scope, tweezers, clamp, cast, bandages, “treatments,” “ointments,” and a reusable double-sided checklist for office visits. A plush cat, dog, and a carrying bag are also included for the full experience.
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Shop now at Amazon From Amazon Who says cleaning can’t be fun? A cool yet completely educational gift for kids, the Melissa & Doug Dust, Sweep & Mop playset is a great addition to any playroom. Giving children a sense of purpose has been proven to help with their behavior and is also a nice form of entertainment. The cleaning kit inspires pretend play as well as helps with coordination and fine motor skills. The bright colors are kid-friendly and inviting and the set is very well made.