2026 Holiday Gift Guide for tweens
Sharing lots of ideas for the tween girls you’re shopping for this holiday season! I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments, too.
Hi friends! I hope your week is going well! I’ve been working hard behind the scenes this week – something fun coming for my friends who join Spark next week – and recovering from the double birthday and Halloween madness. And now, it’s officially November which means holly jolly season is here.
I’m starting this year’s gift guide party with my favorite one to put together: holiday gifts for tweens 🙂
I love shopping for this age group and between our two girls, we check a lot of the boxes when it comes to gift request diversity. We have the real life Liv and Maddie situation (did anyone else have kids who watched that show?). Liv is into skincare, fashion, and arts, while P is our sporty STEM girl. P just turned 11, so she’s right in that *tween* age, so I’m sharing lots of ideas that she would love or already owns.
As always, if you have any ideas or if you’d share your tween’s gift requests in the comments, that would be amazing!
2026 Holiday Gift Guide for tweens
Squishies ANYTHING. Need-dohs, dumplings, the butter squishies, crunchy peanut squishies, they want them all.
or an Owala water bottle
Hatch light. This made a huge difference in my stress levels, so I got one for Liv a couple of years ago. She prefers to have bird sounds wake her up instead of me lol.
Lip butter with clean ingredients
Aviator Nation hoodie. These are an amazing special occasion gift! I get new ones for the kids for Christmas since they’re always trying to borrow aka steal mine.
White Fox, Comfrt, Alo and Pink Palm Puff hoodies are also popular
Or any books that they’re into. P is LOVING The Academy series.
A Kendra Scott pendant. These are a huge hit with all of the kids. They also have super cute sports-related necklaces, like volleyball, golf, and soccer. This is actually my go-to birthday gift for P’s friends. I buy them when they’re on sale and have a couple on hand for gifts.
A new iPad (this was the big one on Liv’s list this year)
Concert tickets or tickets to a basketball game or event they’d love
Uggs or Birkenstocks. If you get Uggs, these are the ones! The water resistance makes a huge difference.
Scented spray that isn’t totally horrible
Items related to their favorite activities, like art sets, dance attire, competition leotards, etc.
A hoverboard. This is so random but we have one and the kids love it.
An e-bike. I fought this one hard because it’s a giant hazard but P isn’t allowed to go past a certain speed and has to wear all of the protective gear. She LOVES riding this thing around the neighborhood.
Gift cards to their favorite spots, like boba, Starbucks, toy shops, Dick’s Sporting Goods, etc
A wall-mounted basketball hoop
Are you shopping for any tweens this year? What’s on their list?
xo
Gina
A little note: Affiliate links are included above, which don’t impact purchase price and enable me to earn a small kickback. I love putting these together each year and companies are not able to sponsor spots on my gift guides. I know that a lot of creators share gift guides this time of year and it means the world to me when you shop through my links. I use my affiliate income to cover the many costs related to keeping this blog up and running, and your support is so appreciated.
Truth be told I do enjoy these lists and can find them helpful, but I do wonder what audience you’re trying to relate to? I find our family is well-off compared to others in the area, but I really have a hard time relating to your lists for tweens (and often the other lists too). We are a family who also strives for clean items, but $35 for a lip balm my child could easily lose? Or hundreds of dollars on a clothing item — a $200 hoodie, $100+ shoes? a new iPad, which appears to be ‘just because’?! Unfortunately there is no way I would expose my child to thinking they should be wearing or requesting items of that value. It just isn’t important in our household, and while I wouldn’t even buy those on a one-off circumstance, I definitely would not be buying them those items PLUS additional ones for Christmas. Perhaps I’m not your target audience? I just wonder if you realize there’s a good chance you’re relating to about 2% of your readers.
hi stacey,
I totally understand, which is why I try to include a mix of price points. some people go WILD for Christmas (and good for them haha!). we tend to stick to the, “something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read” for our kids + they get a gift from Santa and some stocking stuffers. they own a couple of the aviator nation hoodies, but they also own $20 ones from amazon. we switched to a star system for the kids’ spending money (not for Christmas, but just for life) so they’ve become very aware of how much things cost. for example, liv wanted the Uggs (and I was planning on getting them for her) but last night she told me she wants the cheaper ones from amazon instead, so there ya go.
I think in cases where kids take good care of their belongings, it can be worth it to spend more on quality items (like the lip gloss. it has better ingredients than cheaper options, and i got one for liv a few weeks ago and she hasn’t lost it or anything like that). they’ve worn their Kendra Scott necklaces for years, etc. I think it just depends on so many factors including budget, which is why I tried to include a mix of price points in every gift guide
Love @staceys comment and your reply! Such a mature way to have a conversation without hate and judgement. So many good points shared on both ends-Thank you ladies!
I would love to hear more about teaching kids financial literacy. The star system sounds great! #futurepost ? 🙂
yes I can totally do a post about it – thank you!