Presenting your annual Dayton-area holiday gift guide! Whether you’re looking for awesome new gift ideas for your kids, want experiences to gift, or are searching for a good cause to gift to on behalf of your family, we’ve got our top picks all rounded up here for you.
Blue Turtle Toys
Blue Turtle Toys
2314 Far Hills Ave.
Dayton, OH 45419
(937) 294-6900
Blue Turtle Toys is a family-friendly toy store located in the Shops of Oakwood. The unique selection of quality toys and gifts are from all over the world and are for all ages, from babies to adults. They will even gift wrap your purchase for you. Blue Turtle Toys is the exclusive retailer in Southwest Ohio for Charlie Bears, a delightful line of plush teddy bears from England. When you’re looking for something special and not sure what you want, visit Blue Turtle Toys to find that memorable gift.
Name Stories - The Gift of a Lifetime
A name can encompass many things: a badge of honor… a sense of self… a story. As a gift or keepsake to honor and inspire someone special in your life, their art prints make for smart, engaging, and distinctive décor. Combining typography with artistic expression, Name Stories’ original content is a result of years of rigorous research and carefully curated pieces of history. Every story they tell, they tell with love. An amazing gift to last for years and years to come!
Womple
Bring the wonders of the world to your child’s fingertips with WompleBox! WompleBox is an award-winning subscription box that takes your child on a rollicking adventure to a new country each month. It’s the most engaging and exciting way for kids to discover geography, culture, sciences, wildlife, and more to deepen their knowledge of the world. Every box includes an illustrated early-reader adventure book that will transport them to a new place, two hands-on STEAM projects, fold-out map & fact-filled country guide, ‘Pen Pal Pack’ with stickers, stationery, envelope, and postcard, and a collectible from each place.
WOMPLE UNBOXING!
Hinterland Organic New Zealand Raw Manuka Honey
This amazing honey is beautifully presented in glass jars and makes a great gift for health and wellness and for foodies, etc. Hinterland is one of only a handful of certified organic honey producers in New Zealand. Enjoy all the goodness of Mānuka honey, with the added benefit of being certified organic!
GoSili Silicone Cups, Straws, & More
What’s better than the holidays? A nice glass of wine during the holidays! Our friends at GoSili® have the best 12oz Stemless Silicone Wine Cups! They come in packs of 2 and are a great gift for the wine-lovers in your life (or for yourself!)
Loloma Pure Organic Coconut Oil
This gift-worthy coconut oil from Loloma comes in a pretty gold container and has multiple uses in one jar! It’s the world’s purest organic coconut oil and perfect for moms and babies.
Music Together of South Dayton
Locations in Beavercreek, Centerville, and Oakwood
Contact Info: 614-499-4133 | [email protected]
Special Holiday Offer – 15% off Gift Certificate orders when you mention this ad!
“Fun. Fabulous. Uplifting. Magical.” These are just a few ways parents describe Music Together, an early childhood music program for children birth to age 8 (and the grownups who love them®). Each week, families become active music makers and connect with other musical families. Enrolled families also receive a songbook – the perfect keepsake to make the memories last at home! – and code to download their award-winning music through the Music Together app.
Class Gift Certificates are now available for the holiday gift-giving season! Certificates never expire and can be given by parents, grandparents, or any other grownups who want to give a unique, memorable gift to the special children in their life.
They’re on a mission to make the world a better place by making it more musical™. Bring the gift of music to your little ones in the new year!
Land of Illusion Christmas Glow
GIVE THE GIFT OF A HOLIDAY LIGHT SHOW!
Land of Illusions’ Christmas Glow – Christmas Drive-Thru is here to create memories and celebrate the season with your family! Celebrate the season at The Christmas Glow, over 3.8 million lights at the 2-mile long Christmas Around the World drive-thru experience, visit Santa at the Christmas Village Santa Workshop, or just take in the majestic lights of the 45-foot Christmas Tree as you and yours warm by the gas fire pits.
Open November 27th – December 30 from 6pm to 10pm
Closed Christmas Day.
Drive Thru Only December 26th-30th
Pogo Pass - A Year Full of Fun!
Give the Ultimate Experience Gift!
This holiday season, give the gift of our city. A Cincinnati Pogo Pass gets you a year full of fun to 15+ venues and attractions across the tri-state! During their Black November sale, each annual pass is only $44.99 with code cincymompogo through November 31, 2024!
As a momma, I love to see the big smiles and hear the excited squeals on Christmas morning as my girls open their gifts! My two-year-old, beaming in delight that Santa brought her the teddy bear she asked for. My oldest trying her hardest to make music on the guitar she’d been waiting all year for!
As a momma, I don’t like seeing broken toys discarded too soon. Or finding tiny Hatchimals in the seat cushions, months after the holidays.
And don’t get me started on trying to find the perfect gift my husband. As adults, it’s so easy to just get what you need so when it comes time to buy a gift it can be hard to find that “perfect gift.”
But you know what doesn’t make a mess or get lost? Memories! Watching my girls beam with pride going down a water slide or their faces scrunched in concentration as they work on learning something new, or seeing my husband’s face light up when he realizes we are going to a concert is a gift we both enjoy well after the snow has melted.
I recently saw a quote that said, “The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been, and the memories we’ve made along the way.”
Experience gifts are a great way to gift those you love with a memory that will last a lifetime. So while I will still gift the youngest the Peppa Pig Campervan she’s dreaming of and my girls will all find LOL dolls in their stocking, there will be fewer toys and most definitely a few experience gifts.
Here are some awesome experiences to gift right here in the Dayton area:
For Children
- Family membership to Boonshoft Museum
(DMC Mom Tip: Thanks to reciprocity programs, a membership here will also get you a discount to the Cincinnati and Columbus Zoos, the Cincinnati Museum Center and COSI!) - SkyZone Passes or annual membership
- Cookie Decorating class at ele Cake Co.
- A Cinemark Movie Club membership
- Mommy and me painting session at Painting with a Twist
- Overnight stay at Great Wolf Lodge
(DMC Mom Tip: Get a family suite and bring the grandparents… or grandparents, feel free to treat!) - Family membership to Aullwood Audubon
- Family Passes to the Victoria Theatre Family Series
(DMC Mom Tip: Some shows are sensory-friendly!) - Ice Skating at the Kettering Recreation Center
- Swim Lessons at Aqua-Tots Swim School Springboro or Beavercreek
- Group outing to Team Combat
(DMC Mom Tip: Tactical laser tag can be a great way to engage the teens in the family.) - Membership to the YMCA of Greater Dayton
(DMC Mom Tip: Take advantage of everything the YMCA has to offer, from youth leagues, fitness classes, swim lessons, summer camp, onsite childcare, and more!)
- Membership to the Dayton Art Institute
(DMC Mom Tip: Enjoy a discount to events all year!) - Gift a Hothead Burrito’s Dragon’s Kids Club Membership
(DMC Mom Tip: Includes tickets to a game and a movie night, but some fan gear would be a fun addition.) - Snow tubing at Mad River Mountain
- Canoe trip with Adventures on the Great Miami
- Family Membership to Carillon Historical Park
For Adults
- Cooking Class at Dorothy Lane Market
- Weekend Getaway to Hocking Hills
- Indoor skydiving at iFLY
- Concert tickets to an event at Rose Music Center
- Dinner and a show at La Comedia Dinner Theater
- Dayton Brewery Tour with Gift Cards from those in our Brewery Guide
(DMC Mom Tip: Get a couple of friends to also gift this to their significant other and you’ll have a fun group outing.) - Gift Card to Top Golf
- A 5 pass card for rock wall climbing at Urban Krag
- Challenge yourselves with a Breakout Games escape room visit.
Will one of these ideas be wrapped in a box under your tree this year?
Make sure to check out our Summer Camps 2024 guide for ideas of camps you could gift as well!
Monetary/Food Donations
Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Family Resource Center, 51 South East Street, is accepting food, clothes, toys, money, and gift cards. To apply for help or to donate, call (937) 848-3810 or e-mail [email protected].
The Foodbank, 427 Washington St., serves Montgomery, Greene and Preble counties, and is accepting money, non-perishable food. Call (937) 461-0265.
Clothing/Food Donations
Ephiphany Lutheran Church, 6430 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, is accepting children’s winter clothing, especially boys pants in sizes 3-7, blankets, sheets, and larger adult clothes. Call (937) 433-1449.
*Please make sure to comment if any of this information needs updated, or if you have more to add to the list!
Love this list, Amy! Aullwood is definitely on my list to check out! We did a Boonshoft membership last year, and I can’t recommend that enough! This list truly proves there is so much to see and do in our area!
Thanks Mallory!! We loved our boonshoft membership passes this year too!!!