Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

Nothing says Christmas like completing a new Lego set while filling your face with chocolate. But while the initial build is brilliant fun, it can be difficult to know what to do with whatever they’ve made once it’s complete. Do you put it on a shelf to gather dust with all the other Lego sets, or let them break it up and watch those very expensive bricks disappear into a huge box of unidentified Lego bits?

With the new “adventures with Luigi” starter course, you don’t have to make that decision – because the fun starts once it’s built. These Super Mario-themed sets are fully interactive via Bluetooth, so Luigi has an LCD screen on his stomach, and interacts with the various characters and blocks he meets as you whiz him through a computer game brought to life. Our tester got hours and hours of fun out of this, and there are lots of expansion sets you can buy to extend the fun. They make handy gift ideas for the wider family to buy, too – we’d recommend the Boss Sumo Bro topple tower (£24.99, Lego.com).

Best: For fidgety fingers

Rating: 9/10

If you’ve not come across fidgets or popits, you probably don’t have a six-year-old. These small sensory toys have become the latest playground craze, and their popularity shows no sign of waning in the run-up to Christmas. While there are lots of options to choose from, we particularly liked the Tangle toys we tested. Created by sculptor Richard X Zawitz, these are based on the idea of continuous motion – so you can fiddle with your Tangle, looping, tangling, and untangling it to your heart’s content. As well as the original version there are shiny metallic, textured crush, and cute pet versions with a little clip-on animal. Our testers couldn’t get enough of them.

For more fidget toys, read our round-up of the best

Best: For imaginative play

Rating: 9/10

Playmobil is always a good bet for this age group, and we particularly liked the fact this set has a fillable water enclosure. We found it easy to fill up and clean, and the rotating platform gave it an extra element of interactivity. As Dr Gummer explains, “Props that support role play can be popular at this age and children may create elaborate make-believe worlds with small world figures, dolls, or teddies”. If the happy sounds coming from our six-year-old playing with this in the bathroom are anything to go by, your giftee will be playing with this well past Christmas.

Best: For outdoor adventures

Rating: 9/10

The Den Kit Co stocks a range of brilliant DIY dens to encourage kids to get outdoors, but its forest den kit is our favourite. The most substantial in the range, it includes everything kids need to practice their bushcraft skills and pitch up an epic den – including a waterproof camouflage tarpaulin, groundsheets, camo netting, tent pegs and a wooden mallet, all packed up in a retro haversack. Extras like a cute enamel mug and khaki face paint make this a really nice gift that doesn’t need seven packs of AAA batteries or come wrapped in tonnes of single-use plastic. There are some nice mini-kits available too, which come in at less than a tenner and make great stocking fillers.

Best: For story lovers

Rating: 8/10

For a gadget, the Toniebox is decidedly low-tech – and it’s all the better for it. This clever cube-shaped speaker plays children’s stories without any flashy lights or gimmicks, and it’s ideal if you’re always being asked for just one more story, or have a child who loves books but can’t quite read independently yet. Once you’ve set the Toniebox up on you wifi and registered an account, choose a Tonie character, pop it on the top and hey presto, it will play stories or music. The starter set comes with the Toniebox and a creative Tonie, which allows you to put your own content on – including recordings from grandparents and loved ones. You’ll then need to buy the Tonies separately at £14.99 each. Admittedly it isn’t cheap, but it’s built to last and our tester absolutely adored it.

We also featured the Toniebox in our round-up of the best kids audio players that help reduce screen time

Best: For L.O.L. doll obsessives

Rating: 7/10

If you’ve ever bought the individual L.O.L. Surprise! dolls for a little one, you know they cost an arm and a leg for what seems like a very small gift. So we were pleased to find this glamper van, which – although expensive – does actually make a substantial gift, and doubles up as a handy place to store all the individual dolls in. There are lots of small accessories included, a fancy light-up pool, and bunk beds that fit both the small dolls and the larger L.O.L. Surprise! fashion dolls. Just bear in mind you’ll need to buy any dolls separately – a bit annoying considering the price – so we’d recommend this for any L.O.L. fan who’s already built a bit of a collection.

Best: For encouraging independence

Rating: 8/10

Kidly stocks a carefully curated edit of toys for younger children, with a focus on eco-conscious brands and design-led products. This portable wooden Moulin Rory toolbox includes a saw, a hammer, a flat head and a Philips screwdriver, a ruler and a pencil. They’re all real tools, not toys, made with wooden handles and just the right size for little hands to have a go at their very own woodworking projects. The presentation is second-to-none, and this is the kind of gift they can pass on to their own little people one day.

Best: For the latest craze

Rating: 7/10

There were some serious squeals of joy from our testers when the Orbeez came out. These squishy water beads – which are actually super-absorbent polymers originally created to add moisture to soil – are apparently A Thing on various social media channels, and another great option for sensory play. The kit includes 1,000 clear Orbeez and some food colouring, which you use to dye the beads in different shades. They’re non-toxic and biodegradable, but don’t flush them down the loo when your kids are done squishing – leave them out in the sun and they’ll shrink back to dry pellets.

Best: For the whole family

Rating: 9/10

Although this game is recommended for ages seven and up, our own six-year-old absolutely loves it and has zero problems playing. Created by former Xbox game designer Elan Lee and The Oatmeal’s founder Matt Inman, it’s a brilliantly irreverent card game with lots of weird and wonderful characters, and the aim is basically not to explode. Up to five people can play and we like the fact this is just as popular with adults as it is children, so you’ll be genuinely happy to play with them. Plus, there are some new launches to pick from this Christmas including Recipes For Disaster, which includes remixed versions of the original game.

Best: For unexpected fun

Rating: 7/10

From the makers of Fingerlings, My Squishy Little Dumplings launched this summer and were an instant win with our testers. As the name suggests, these palm-sized, dumpling-shaped characters have a squishy head that – when squeezed – pops out a little body underneath. The different characters coo and gurgle as you play with them and chuck them around, although we were pleasantly surprised that the volume was fairly quiet. In all honesty, it’s hard to put our finger on why these were such a hit, but as any primary school parent knows – there’s no point arguing with a six-year-old.

Best: For crafty kids

Rating: 9/10

If you want to give a gift that’ll last, consider a ToucanBox subscription. Every month your recipient will get a craft kit delivered to their door, and you can choose from a three, six or 12 month sub. The crafts are really varied – we loved trying out the Halloween and Christmas-themed boxes and our tester only needed a little help here and there. The gift subscription is sent via an E-certificate that they’ll need to activate before the boxes start arriving, but there’s an option to add a gift pack for an extra £10 so they get a colour-in craft apron to open on the day itself.

Best: For multiple children

Rating: 8/10

If you want a gift for siblings, a personalised book from Wonderbly is a nice idea. Its latest book is a sort of Where’s Wally but with customised characters based on the kids you’re buying for. Our testers were amazed to see their names in a book and happily hunted for their faces in the pictures. We liked the fact there’s also a story woven in, so there’s some reading involved, too. There are lots more books to choose from in Wonderbly’s catalogue including birthday and Christmas-themed stories, and you can add a personalised gift message to be printed on the front.

Best: For nineties nostalgia

Rating: 9/10

Remember Tamagotchis? The tiny digital pets are back, with all the same features you remember from the Nineties. The re-released original version lets kids feed, bathe and nurture their little VR friend until it reaches adulthood and transforms into a surprise character. Plus, Bandai has also released a new version – the Tamagotchi pix – with a bunch of extra features. That includes a camera to take selfies with your pet, and the ability to connect with other Tamagotchi pix. It’s four times the price of the original so a bit more of an investment, but both options went down a treat in testing.

Best: For Stem fun

Rating: 8/10

We found it quite tricky to find a mechanics kit suitable for six-year-olds, so we were pleased to find this one by Clementoni and the Science Museum. It includes all the bits you need to build one of five motorised dinosaur models, including rubber panels, pulleys, tacks and cubes. Once it’s built, the dinosaur actually walks – and our tester was pleased as punch to have made it all by herself. If you want something a bit more challenging, have a look at Clementoni’s mecha dragon – this one’s for eight years and up, but perfectly doable with a bit of parental help, and a fun way to introduce them to robotics.