Looking for a fun or educational gift for the budding young chef in your life? Check out this Holiday Gift Guide: Cooking Gifts for Kids!
Unlike when I was a child, today kids cooking is HUGE and if you have any children you are shopping for this holiday season, chances are they might want something cooking related and if they haven’t specifically asked for anything, a small cooking/food gift is a great way to encourage kids to get in the kitchen and explore.
Below are some of my favorite cooking gifts/gadgets just for kids!
Cooking Gifts for Kids:
1. Cookbooks or Books About Food: I love gifting cookbooks, and books in general, to kids and adults. In this day and age where everything is electronic, gifting a good book is humbling and a great way to encourage people, especially children to explore new things. There are many kids cookbooks on the market today and many can be purchased at online or and local new or used bookstores. Here are my top recommendations for Kid Friendly Cookbooks. Also, if you have a picky eater or a child who just loves everything about food and cooking, a children’s story book about food would be an excellent stocking stuffer. Check out these 50+ Children’s Books All About Food recommendations.
2. Fun Dinner Plates: There are so many fun dinner plates and cups made just for kids. From these “face” plates that kids can use their food to decorate, to more educational plates with balanced meal recommendations, to dinnerware with popular movie characters; there so many great options. Not only are these plates fun, but they are great for picky eaters and encouraging kids to try new foods.
3. Chef Coat or Apron: How adorable are these pint sized chef coats! If you have a serious young chef, then a chef coat and hat is perfect for them! Many kids chef coats come in a variety of colors and can even be personalized with the child’s name. Another option would be a child’s sized apron; which if you and your child like to cook together, getting matching aprons would make their day!
4. Food/Cooking Kits: Food kits, filled with all the tools and recipes needed to make a specific food, from everything like cheese and pizza, to homemade lip gloss, are great because they have everything to make a specialty food item. While you could certainly make most of these things without a special kit, it is a fun way to get children excited about cooking and have almost everything you already need on hand.
5. Cookie Cutters: One of my earliest memories of being in the kitchen is making sugar cookies with my Mom. And while we had a TON of cookie cutters in all sorts of shapes and sizes, now days there are so many cookie cutters available from different sports and interests (like ninja and ballerina shapes) to popular movie and book characters. If you have a child that likes to make sugar cookies, a fun shape in one of their favorite hobbies or interests, would be a fun and unique stocking stuffer.
6. Mini Appliances: While typically I am not a big fan of kitchen gadgets or unnecessary appliances, something like a personal sized blender, ice cream or Popsicle maker can be worth the investment and a good gift for kids and adults alike, especially if they are really into making smoothies or homemade treats.
7. Placemats: Just like custom dinnerware can help encourage picky eaters to get to the dinner table, a special placemat, like these educational ones or these cute animal placemats, can help make meal time a little bit more manageable. Kids can even create their own placemat art with some fun and educational food related activities found in this placemat art book!
8. Herb Garden: I love seeing children not only get in the kitchen and get cookin’, but learn where their food comes from! While not everyone has access to a farm or can plant a vegetable garden, growing a small herb garden is a simple yet rewarding way for children to learn about fresh food and to see the plant growing cycle first hand.
9. Kid Friendly Kitchen Tools: Just like kitchen gadgets are not necessary to make most recipes, for kids or adults, most standard kitchen tools are just fine for kids. However, things like these nylon knifes, are great for younger kids to learn important knife skills and safety. Other pint sized tools, like smaller rolling pins, or oven mitts, are more suited for tiny hands. And some tools, in bright colors or with special designs, are just more FUN for all, especially kids!
10. Cooking Classes: With the growing popularity of kids cooking, there are many kids only cooking schools popping up all over the country. These cooking classes are perfect for kids to learn not only basic cooking skills, but where food comes from, what food is in season, to explore and try new foods (cooking classes are great for picky eaters!) and to learn specific cooking techniques like how to work with yeast and decorate cakes using different piping bags. To find a kids cooking school near you, search online, or check places like Central Market, Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma, that offer both kids and adult cooking classes. For those in central Texas, check out this popular cooking school, this one or this one.
Looking for more foodie gifts? Check out this Holiday Gift Guide: Foodie Gifts Under $10!
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