When I originally wrote this post I had a Dinosaur loving 3-year-old and an almost 5-year-old (both boys) who were squarely in the “dinosaur” loving phase of their young toddler life. As the parent of two dino-loving kids, every time a new holiday or birthday comes around I’m searching for more dinosaur gift ideas for toddlers.
The good news is as they’ve grown (now 4 and 6) they still love their dinos so many of the dinosaur gift ideas listed below are still beloved toys (and will be for at least another couple years with my youngest!)
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They’ve seen every episode of Dino Dan; Dino Dan: Trek’s Adventures; and the beloved updated and modernized, Dino Dana at least half a dozen times. (If your Dino lover isn’t watching these they’re on Amazon Prime and they’re so great!)
We’ve also gone down the Dinosaur Train, rapped along in the car to The Story Bots episode about dinosaurs, (and memorized every song, “What’s the chorus? Tyrannosaurus!”),
We’ve even hit some dark corners of Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix (Dino and Dinah anyone?) to learn more about other things via dinosaurs.
We’ve collected impressive dinosaur books, some with detailed encyclopedias about dinosaurs, their bones, the paleontologists who discovered them, and everything about what they may have eaten. Other books are just sweet little board books with a dinosaur as the main protagonist.
We’ve gathered (and destroyed) dino sticker collections, the dino games for the iPad (Dinosaur Park anyone?), and of course: the dinosaur gifts for kids that keep the imagination going wild.
We’ve collected so many dinosaur toddler toys over the past few years that they have multiple dedicated locations in my house (and my boy’s hearts).
Hot tip – I use these little boxes to store all our little toys, including these dinosaur gifts.
Extra bonus tip – make sure you have Ebates/Ratuken set up because at the time of this posting I bought a few more boxes to store some other little knick-knacks the boys love and got 5% cashback!
I feel confident in my ability as a mom of toddler kids who love dinosaurs to share with you some of the best dinosaur gift ideas for the dino-loving toddler in your family.
Consider this the ultimate dinosaur gift guide full of all the dinosaur gift ideas you might need for future birthday parties, Christmas gifts, or to give to your child’s dino-loving friend for their first birthday down the line.
Dinosaur Books for Kids
I’m starting here because this tends to be a sweet spot and a gateway for dino lovers. I’m also a big believer in having a lot of different styles of books ( even some far more advanced than your toddler’s current ability to understand, but I love assuming my kids will still love to look at them.)
This dinosaur encyclopedia is one of my oldest favorite books and even though he can’t read (completely) he loves flipping through the pages and telling me all about these dinosaurs as if he is, in fact, reading them.
There are so many well thought out dinosaur facts for kids in this book that it will last for years to come — or at least until the dino-obsessed phase of my children’s youth is over.
This Dinosaur Book is great and full of some awesome info:
I love this book as a primer and perfect for a first or second birthday present.
This is a great picture book for the dinosaur loving child.
This is a perfect board book that also has some realistic dinosaurs.
We like to use this book (and well all of them) to reference the type of dinosaur and then find a Youtube video that explains more about the dinosaur in question.
This dinosaur book is super cool for your toddler (not so cool for you because it requires batteries).
I love having this one in the car – and bring it out when we’re driving home right before nap time in a way of keeping the kiddos awake. It roars and makes all the dino sounds.
This is a super sweet dinosaur book that is great for the younger dino lovers in your household (it’s a touch and feel dino book!)
This is an incredibly well thought out encyclopedia of dinosaurs and it’s illustrated with over 1000 of them…
(woah)
It’s definitely better for slightly older dinosaur lovers, but it’s worth investing in for sure.
By DK
This book was a favorite with my boys. Creating fun interactive combinations of dinosaurs was always a hit. But as a warning – time this book for earlier in the day or else bed time is gonna drag on and on and on!
By Drehsen, Britta
Dinosaur Gifts for 3-Year-Olds
These are so great because they’re super quality, they’re also Phthalate, Lead and BPA Free Materials – for Ages 3 and Up
These little toys – Great for party favor dinosaur-themed gift bags, or just to have all on their own.
Both my boys have a different set (I’m not sure why) and they kept getting them confused. This allows them to clean them up, pack them in the car, take them to the park, and make sure they feel some control over their favorite dinosaurs.
This is a great set of dinosaur toys (five of them) to give as stocking stuffers, or as a full set for a toddler who loves ‘em.
I’m not even kidding when I say we have three sets of these dinosaur toys – I love that it comes with a little booklet that teaches about the dinosaur (and coordinating pictures with the toy!)
This dinosaur egg kit is super clever and fun for hours while they dig, discover, dig, plant, and dig again! (yes the eggs are already broken but my boys just keep planting them again). My sister-in-law gave this as a gift for my oldest this year and it was legit fun for hours. They popped all the dinos in the water table outside and were busy all morning.
They still have some eggs they haven’t broken open yet which I plan to bring out on a day when they feel like they “have nothing to dooooo!”
My boys spotted these Duplo dinosaur legos at a local museum gift shop and go gaga for the fun that can be had with switching out the toys and recreating the landscapes. We paid $24 for them back in the day so there is some major price gouging happening now…But I found some others that are more price friendly.
Duplo blocks are also perfect for stem development and for developing motor skills.
Speaking of Digging up I may have loved this one more than my kids (there are REAL DINOSAUR FOSSILS INCLUDED!)
Here are some more awesome dinosaur gift ideas for 3-year-olds
Cute Stone
Dinosaur Sticker Books for Toddlers
This dinosaur sticker book is so awesome. Not only is it packed with such a variety of stickers, but it also has a few “landscapes” in the back for your dino-loving kiddo to set the scene with his stickers.
This is the updated version (they include over 600 stickers!)
Dinosaur Coloring Pages for Toddlers
Dinosaur coloring pages are all the rage and help amplify that love of dinos that our kids are feeling.
By Workbooks, Preschool
By Jan Sovak
Jurrasic World Dinosaur Gift Ideas for Kids
Have your kids hit the Jurrasic World dinosaur phase yet? What a time to be alive and have a kid who loves dinosaurs.
Btw. in case you’re wondering the Indominous Rex and the Indorapter below are fake dinosaurs genetically created in a lab.
Fun fact…my husband thought the Indominous was an actual dinosaur and for weeks was trying to convince our oldest that it was real. But he was insistent that it wasn’t. (And he was right!) It’s really fun to see a 5-year-old school an adult on things from time to time.
Dinosaur Gift Ideas for 5 Year Old (Legos)
While my almost 5-year old will certainly play with the above dinosaur toys he’s getting into “real” legos now so these are on our list for his upcoming birthday:
Dinosaur Clothes for Kids and Other Gear
Because a child who loves dinosaurs and wants all the things isn’t limited to toys, here are some awesome dinosaur gift ideas that are perfect for the other areas of your toddler’s life.
Dinosaur Costume
Whether you’re looking for a play costume for around the house or a dinosaur Halloween costume look no further:
This dinosaur costume is understated. Great for around the house or even for those nights when they want to wear a costume to bed!
This dinosaur hoodie is also super cute and sort of functional (which is a two for one in my DGAF opinion!)
These foam masks are perfect for a toddler Dinosaur themed birthday party or for just running around the house playing “dinosaur” (depending on the dino of the day).
Dinosaur Shoes
No dinosaur obsessed toddler should be without their favorite pair of kicks:
These Carters skate shoes are SUPER sweet and combine the perfect amount of kitch with cute.
And of course, your toddler will probably roar for these dinosaur socks:
These Toms shoes are FANTASTIC and as a bonus, whenever you buy TOMs they donate a portion of the proceeds to gun violence prevention and research.
Dinosaur Toddler Dress
I don’t have girls, but damn when I see some of the cute dinosaur toddler dresses that make appearances on the internet I feel that familiar pang in my uterus and wonder…could we do this one more time?
For now, I’m just going to give heart eyes from the sidelines at these adorable little dresses.
Dinosaur Bedding for Kids
Omg, there’s so much cute dinosaur bedding stuff for toddlers for their big boy and big girl beds that are Cretaceous, Triassic, or Jurrasic themed.
Personally, I’m into this sort of understated look from J Pinno.
It’s on my 3-year old’s list for a dinosaur Christmas gift for sure!
This is super cute for a nursery or when your toddler transitions into a big boy bed (or all of the above!)
And what child doesn’t love some glow in the dark action (My boys are currently obsessed with any and all glow in the dark dinosaur shirts!)
These decals are perfect:
Dinosaur Toddler Shirt
These Glow in the Dark T-shirts and Pj’s are fantastic for the bit of fun and (and knowing they can test out the glow actually encourages them to dress without me saying “time to get dressed!” 14506260 times.
These come in a variety of sizes from 2 – 10!
If you’re going for a fully themed Dinosaur Birthday Party this set is perfect (and adorable!)
This shirt comes in mom sizes too (and dad sizes!) Perfect for the whole family.
Dinosaur Games and Dinosaur 3D Puzzles
My boys use my iPad mini that I bought in a panic about 8 years ago when I was on location producing a TV show and my computer died.
It has virtually no memory.
If they want a new game, we have to delete an old game.
I’m talking games for the iPad. or for the Amazon Fire tablet. There are tons and they are really fun.
Pink Fong Dino World: Look. I’m gonna be honest. My boys somehow turned on this game in Japanese – and since it is a Japanese company (they’re the same creators of Baby Shark song too btw) I didn’t think anything of it. Then we discovered one of the songs on You Tube in English and realized we could change the language settings and their world was BLOWN apart.
They loved the Japanese versions and were even singing along with the songs but now they understand more of what they’re saying. Every once and a while though, they’ll flip it back to the Japanese version (which I kind of love).
Download Pink Fong Dinosaur Games (and songs)here:
Dinosaur Train:
Download the Dinosaur Park Game here:
These Dino Park Games from Yateland below are all really fun and the boys LOVE to dig and make puzzles out of the fossils they collect:
Whether you have a casual dinosaur lover, or a die hard -must-have-all-the-dinosaur-toys kind of kiddo, I think you’ll find that there’s something for everyone on this list.
But just in case none of this suits your fancy, be sure to check out even more dinosaur gifts from my parenting and blog buddy, Worth Writing For.
Other Content from the DGAF Mom? Check These Posts Out:
Horse Gifts for Girls, 25+ Horse Gift Ideas She’ll Love
12 Tips to Prepare Your Toddler for a New Baby
How to Prepare Your Whole Life for a Toddler and a Newborn
Wanna Have a Second Child? Here’s What You Need to Know
How to Deal With a Picky Eater
The Benefits of Daycare for You and Your Child
How to Help Your Child Adjust to Daycare Without Drama
