The Top 5 Toys of Christmas 2024
An animatronic blue alien, a card game with a mean streak, a cartoon dog family, a revived 1980s doll and a shark in bricks: five toys from Christmas 2024.
November 3, 2026 · ZABI LLC
When we went through the lists for Christmas 2024, we did not find one single craze of the old kind, the sort that sends parents to three shops and a car park. What we found was quieter and more varied: toys that had each earned a place on at least one list, from an animatronic puppet to a set of bricks aimed squarely at the adult who is buying.
That variety is the story of the year, and it makes a good case for choosing by the person rather than by the headline. Here are five that we think show the range, with what each one is and what is worth checking before you buy.
The five
Documented on: 2024 DreamToys list; 2025 Toy of the Year (overall)
RealFX Disney Stitch Puppetronic
Made by WOW Stuff, this is an animatronic Stitch, about 45 centimetres tall, with more than 100 combinations of action and sound and a response to touch and voice, according to the DreamToys description. It is closer to a puppet than a plush, and it moves with the slightly unnerving confidence of a small creature that has noticed you.
The Toy Association gave it the overall Toy of the Year prize at the awards reported on March 1, 2025, and it also took Tech Toy of the Year. If you are weighing it up, the DreamToys list gives the age as 6 and over, so check the box against the age of the person you have in mind, and think about where something with that much motion will live.
Documented on: 2024 DreamToys list; 2025 Game of the Year
UNO Show 'Em No Mercy
UNO is the game that most families already own in some battered form. This Mattel version, as the DreamToys panel described it, adds new special rules and action cards to the familiar deck, and the name tells you what the new rules are for: this is a game for people who like to see an opponent draw a handful.
The Toy Association named it Game of the Year. A separate note for the sceptical: Circana's 2024 awards named the plain UNO Card Game Assortment, not this version, as the top seller in US games and puzzles, so the brand has a long reach whichever box you pick. The list says ages 7 and over. Before you buy, consider the temperament of the family it is going to; the cards reward a thick skin.
Documented on: 2024 DreamToys list; Bluey won 2025 License of the Year
Bluey 3-in-1 Transforming Plane Set
Bluey had a very good awards season. The Toy Association gave the cartoon its License of the Year prize for 2025, and the 3-in-1 Transforming Plane Set earned a place on the DreamToys list in November 2024. The set, for ages 3 and over, converts into a resort and a boat as well as a plane, with lights, sounds and 15 pieces.
What sets this apart from a plain vehicle is the idea behind it: one toy that does three jobs, which suits a household without much shelf space. If you are buying for a preschooler who knows the programme, the likely draw is the familiar family; if you are not sure they do, ask a parent who does or watch an episode first. Check the age grading on the packaging, as with any set with several small parts.
Documented on: 2025 Doll of the Year (Toy Association)
Rainbow Brite 12-inch Doll
Rainbow Brite began at Hallmark in 1983 as a series of cards, and an animated series followed in 1984. In 2024 the franchise turned forty, and The Loyal Subjects marked it with a new line, including a 12-inch plush doll that has yarn hair and a sheet of stickers and packaging that nods to the original 1980s toys.
The Toy Association named that doll Doll of the Year for 2025. It is a good example of a revival that works on two audiences at once: a grown-up who remembers the original and a young child who has never heard of it. If the gift is for the second of those, check that the details suit their age; if it is for you, the packaging is half the point. For more from the decade, see our look at the toys of the 1980s.
Documented on: 2025 Grown-Up Toy of the Year (Toy Association)
LEGO Ideas JAWS
This is the one on the list that was built for the adult. LEGO's own announcement describes a 1,497-piece set for ages 18 and over, released to the general public on August 6, 2024, with three minifigures: Police Chief Martin Brody, marine biologist Matt Hooper and sailor Sam Quint. It marks the 1975 film, and it began as a fan design submitted through the LEGO Ideas platform.
The Toy Association named it Grown-Up Toy of the Year in 2025, which is a category that exists because a good many toy buyers are not buying for a child at all. For the person who saw the film at the cinema, or who grew up with the shark on a poster, it is a gift that does not pretend to be anything else. Allow an evening or two for the build, and a shelf for the result.
What the year tells us
Look at the five together and a pattern appears. Two of them are screen characters, Stitch and Bluey, two reach back to something older, Rainbow Brite from 1983 and the 1975 shark film, and one is a game most of us already know. Almost none are strictly new. In this selection, at least, much of the toy aisle is addressed to grown-ups, either as buyers with long memories or as the people who will be playing too.
If you want to see how the story continued, the toys of 2025 show Stitch back on the list in a different form, and the classics that outlived every craze explains why some of this keeps coming back.
Sources
Where the facts in this post come from. Rankings and lists belong to the people who published them; the selection and the stories are ours.
- DreamToys 2024: top 20 Christmas toys, PA via RTE — DreamToys 2024 list, panel, descriptions of Stitch Puppetronic, UNO, Bluey plane set
- DreamToys 2024, Toys n Playthings — Date (Nov 13, 2024), panel, makers of Stitch Puppetronic and UNO
- The Toy Foundation reveals 2025 Toy of the Year Awards winners, The Toy Book — Overall Toy of the Year, Game, Doll, Grown-Up Toy, License and Tech Toy winners
- Top toys of 2025 according to Circana's data, Gifts & Decorative Accessories — UNO Card Game Assortment as the 2024 top-selling US game (Circana)
- Celebrating 40 years of Rainbow Brite with The Loyal Subjects, GoCollect — Hallmark 1983 origin, 1984 series, the 12-inch doll's yarn hair, stickers and 1980s-style packaging
- LEGO Ideas JAWS set announcement, LEGO Group — 1,497 pieces, ages 18+, Aug 6 2024 release, minifigures, 1975 film, fan design