35 Best Gifts for 11

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From tech sets to DIY gifts, these are the best birthday and Christmas gifts for 11 year olds.

Now fully into their tween years, 11-year-olds are ready to leave all their little kid stuff behind. But that doesn't mean they're fully done with toys, games and other fun things — they just want more sophisticated versions of them. That makes it a little tricky to find gifts for kids this age, but there are plenty of great options if you know where to look.

The Good Housekeeping Institute makes it easy to find gifts for tweens by asking the people who matter most: the 11-year-olds themselves. Each year, it sends hundreds of toys to kids of all ages and solicits honest feedback from testers. (The best of the best go on to win Good Housekeeping Best Toy Awards). At the same time, experts evaluate the same toys in the lab for safety, quality of construction and ease of use. To their picks, we added some fun best-sellers and editor's picks and came up with these gift suggestions.

Our top picks for the best gifts for 11-year-olds in 2023:

As you can see, fun room decor, DIY projects and tabletop games are all among their favorites this year.

Looking for more great gifts? Shop these Good Housekeeping guides:

Best Gifts for 11-Year-Old Boys | Best Gifts for 11-Year-Old Girls | Best Gifts for Teens

Those summer-camp days feel like they're here forever with this friendship-bracelet kit. Not only does it come with 20 pre-cut threads (in their own storage drawer, no less), it has a board that holds the bracelet and strands in place while the creation is in-progress. (The board even comes in several colors!) You can also use its app to find friendship-bracelet patterns and instructions. Ages 8+

Tweens are still into the fidget craze, and this amazing box will give his hands something quiet to do for minutes on end. It unfolds into different shapes, revealing different patterns inside, and then it's a puzzle to get it back into its cube form again. Ages 8+

Get them started on an entrepreneurial path with this kit, which helps them get a pet-care business off the ground. It comes with some tools of the trade (like some pet toys, a collapsible water bowl, a pet brush and poop bags), but also marketing materials (door hangers, pins, business cards, etc) and items to keep them organized (a client book, receipts). Or, if pet care isn't their passion, there are also It's My Biz kits for a lemonade stand, babysitting business or baked-goods business. Ages 8+

Kids love Nee Doh in all shapes in sizes, from the very small to the very large to groovy shapes like fruit or cats. The Nice Cube is still fun to squeeze and squish like all the other shapes of Nee Doh, but, no matter how much you smush it, when you put it down it will always return to its cube form. Ages 3+

Why does milk go sour? What can scientists learn from studying dinosaur poop? Do we drink the same water that was around during the pre-historic era? If the 11-year-old in your life is full of these kinds of questions, this book has the answers. Experts from the Good Housekeeping Institute take readers from deep within the human body to way out in space to bring them the most interesting scientific tidbits around. Ages 8 – 12

You can credit TikTok with selling more than 3 million Kanoodle games, with those accepting the #KanoodleChallenge trying to solve the brain-teasing puzzles online. But by 11, they might be ready to step up and try the harder Kanoodle Pyramid. To play, contenders have to select a puzzle with a certain configuration of pieces, and then use their smarts to see if they can fit in the remaining pieces to make a 3D pyramid shape. Ages 7+

Who wouldn't want to cozy up and read, play video games or text and chat in a chair like this? This chair impressed Good Housekeeping Institute testers with its firm fill, but really won over Lab experts with how easy it was to clean the fabric. It comes in several colors and prints, and has a handle so you can drag it around.

RELATED: The Best Bean Bag Chairs, According to Expert Testing

Axolotls are the animal du jour, and this plush gives you two for the price of one. It comes in a galaxy pattern with a happy expression, but flip it inside-out and you get the firey one with an angry expression. If you don't like that pattern combo, it comes in more than a dozen others. Ages 3+

These glowing, flying spheres are definitely trendy among tweens, and this one has received more than 4,000 five-star ratings on Amazon. The whole thing is controlled by hand, not remote, and kids can learn how different throwing angles result in different flight paths. Ages 6+

They can take their art projects into the next dimension with this pen, which gives them the basics for 3D printing. It lets them control the flow speed for the plastic filament, and it also comes with three colors (though you can always get them extras).

This lamp is 3-D printed to look just like the surface of the moon. Kids can use a remote control to change the color and pattern of the lights or set an automatic shutoff timer. It also comes in four sizes.

This gift is a win-win: It gives kids a (screen-free) way to bond with their grandparents, along with a keepsake they'll be able to save forever. The sheets offer prompts and activities to help get over writer's block on either end.

Good Housekeeping testers were impressed with this STEM set, saying that it felt like dinosaurs were right there in the room with them. The set comes with VR goggles, an 80-page book filled with immersive activities and supplies for hands-on projects to do at home. Ages 8+

Easy to learn, fast to play, this is the epitome of a game you can just break out whenever there's a dull moment. Players have to flip over cards while saying one of five words (appropriately, either "taco," "cat," "goat," "cheese" or "pizza"), and if the word they say matches the word on the card they've played, all the players have to rush to slap the pile. Whoever gets there last has to take the pile, and the player who gets rid of their cards first wins. People love this so much, it has more than 38,000 five-star ratings on Amazon. Ages 8+

This game takes their marble runs to the next level: The STEM-themed brain-teasing game challenges players to make different kinds of marble runs using limited pieces. Good Housekeeping Institute testers say that, since there are challenges of varying difficulty included in the same box, older and younger siblings were able to play together. Ages 8+

LEGO fans and Super Mario Bros. devotees will be thrilled to be able to build out Donkey Kong's jungle habitat, complete with a Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong. (There's also a smaller, less expensive Dixie Kong set.) And, if you have the figures from the Super Mario Starter Course (or Peach Starer Course), you'll be able to send them through the area and use the LEGO app to collect digital coins. Ages 7+

Cell phone cameras get the job done, but it's way more fun to take pictures with an instant camera — especially when there's film involved. They'll especially appreciate the small mirror that makes taking selfies so much easier. The camera comes in several colors, and you can buy additional film with fun borders. (And get an album to put the pictures in, too!) Ages 8+

They'll love personalizing their rooms with these lights, which feature 50 clear clips to hang photos from on 17ft of lights. Their walls will be one-of-a-kind.

This fits everything they need and lets them keep their hands free in one shot. It comes in nearly a dozen colors and patterns, and it can be worn on the waist or cross-body.

If Across the Spider-Verse has them wondering what their multiverse Spidey persona would be, then the might be interested in wearing this zip-up hoodie around Earth-1610. It also comes in Peter Parker, Ghost Spider and even Venom designs. Sizes 2T – 16

Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.

Rachel Rothman (she/her) is the chief technologist and executive technical director at the Good Housekeeping Institute, where she oversees testing methodology, implementation and reporting for all GH Labs. She also manages GH’s growing research division and the analysis of applicants for the GH Seal and all other testing emblems. During her 15 years at Good Housekeeping, Rachel has had the opportunity to evaluate thousands of products, including toys and cars for GH’s annual awards programs and countless innovative breakthroughs in consumer tech and home improvement.

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