After months of testing and deliberating, our expert toy buyers have announced the top 10 toys for Christmas 2024. This year the top picks focus on togetherness with all toys designed to play with friends or family and encourage imaginary play and escapism
As Barbie celebrates her 65th anniversary this year we expect the dolls to be high on wishlists. The versatile Barbie stable set can be played with as a solo toy or with other Barbie products, and thanks to our medal success in the Olympics searches on the John Lewis website for ‘horse’ are up 32% in August year on year.
Food related toys are set to be popular this year, with searches for ‘toy kitchen set’ up 50% compared to last year, encouraging creativity in a practical way. The John Lewis deluxe play kitchen is perfect for younger children to test out their imaginary culinary skills and features a full dinner service set, cooking utensils and even condiments. The modern design is great news for parents and adults as it will seamlessly fit into communal areas at home.
For a sensory gift, the Play-Doh ice cream set combines arts and crafts with role-play, while the wooden vending machine toy adds an educational element through counting and letter recognition. ‘Play-Doh’ searches are already up 70% on the year, while ‘wooden baby toys’ are up 260%.
LEGO continues to be a number one best-selling brand across John Lewis’ toy offer with a wide range of gifting options this festive period, including seasonal options such as the LEGO santa’s sleigh with reindeers, a creative option for older children that can be built collaboratively as well as solo.
Across construction toys, we also introduce new brand Connetix, magnetic building blocks that develop problem solving and investigative skills. The transportable record player from VTech is great for musical play featuring 5 ‘vinyl records’ that are sure to become the soundtrack of Christmas morning, plus searches for musical toys are up by 10% in 2024 versus 2023.
Alan Wright, toys and books buyer, says: “We know how important it is to bring people together during the festive period and this factored heavily into our decision making when pulling together this year’s Top Toys. Whether that’s by building toys together as a family or role-playing with friends, each of the toys encourage social play in a unique way no matter the age.”
Top toys for 2024:
Squish-a-Longs 14 Pack – £14.99 (available September)
Play-Doh Rainbow Swirl Ice Cream Set – £20.99 (available now)
VTech My 1st Record Player – £27.99 (available now)
Gecko Hexbug – £29.99 (available now)
Bonnie Bear – £32.99 (available October)
LEGO Sleigh – £39.99 (available for pre-order September)
Connetix Magnetic Tiles Rainbow Motion Pack – £45 (available August)
Ultimate Barbie Stables – £69.99 (available now)
Melissa & Doug Vending Machine – £79.99 (available now)
Wooden Deluxe Play Kitchen – £250 (available for pre-order September)
Alongside the top 10, John Lewis has an extensive range of toys available for the festive season, starting at just £6, with over 1,400 products under £20 including TY soft toys from £7.00 and LEGO sets from £8.99.
