40 Stocking Stuffers for 4 Year Olds That Outlast Christmas

If you are filling a stocking tonight, these eight suit most 4 year olds:

1. Child safety scissors with a cutting book
2. A look-and-find or maze book
3. A tub of play dough with two cookie cutters
4. A sheet of stickers (small ones are fine at 4)
5. Bath crayons or foam letters for the tiles
6. A small flashlight for forts
7. Fun socks or a hat with ears
8. A clementine in the toe

For the "something to do" slot, our My Big Preschool Busy Book is the all-year option: everyday pictures 4 year olds love, with short tasks they can finish on their own.

What's inside My Big Preschool Busy Book: 40 pages of animals, trains, balloons and rockets for ages 3 to 5: big pictures to color and trace, coloring pages, 3 mazes, counting, dot-to-dots, tracing, matching, patterns, odd-one-out, cut-out word cards and a certificate. It's an instant PDF for US Letter or A4, so print a few pages for the stocking and keep the rest for January. Want to see the style first? Try our free printable book.

The jump from 3 to 4 is a big one for small gifts. The CDC's 4-year milestones include holding a crayon between fingers and thumb rather than in a fist, drawing a person with three or more body parts, catching a large ball most of the time and unbuttoning some buttons (CDC – milestones at 4 years). In stocking terms:

• Scissors are finally fun. A 4 year old can snip along a thick line.
• Mazes and tracing work. A short maze is a satisfying five-minute job.
• Stickers can be small. Peeling them is finger practice now, not frustration.
• Pretend play gets detailed. A notepad or a roll of bandage fills an afternoon.
• Simple games with rules land. Memory and odd-one-out click around 4.

For a fuller picture, see what a 4 year old should know and our fine motor activities for preschoolers.

Everything here fits in a stocking. Items marked (print at home) are printables: download and print tonight, nothing to ship.

Little hands and fine motor

1. Child safety scissors, blunt-tipped, ideally spring-assisted, with a strip of lined paper to cut right away.
2. Snip Snip! Scissor Skills Book (print at home). Eighteen cutting pages in six levels, from straight lines to loops, for ages 3 to 5. See the book.
3. Play dough and two cookie cutters. Pinching builds the hand strength pencil grip needs.
4. Triangular crayons or thick colored pencils. The shape nudges fingers into a good grip.
5. Lacing cards or large wooden lacing beads. Slow, careful, oddly calming.
6. Washi tape or painter's tape. Roads on the floor, stripes on paper, "repairs" to every box.
7. Tweezers and large pom-poms to sort into a muffin tin. Keep pom-poms away from toddler siblings.
8. A sticker book with scenes to fill. Peel the first corner if they get stuck.

Pretend play

9. A roll of real bandage and a toy stethoscope. Every teddy becomes a patient by lunchtime.
10. Paper play money and a coin purse. Counting coins into a hand is early math.
11. A mini notepad and a click pen for café orders; the Seasonal Pretend Play Pack adds printable hot-cocoa café menus (print at home).
12. A small flashlight with a screw-closed battery cover. Forts, shadow puppets, reading under the covers.
13. One dress-up accessory: a cape, a crown, a bow tie, a tool belt. One piece starts a whole story.
14. Finger puppets, or a sock with googly eyes.

Books and printables

15. A picture book about their current obsession, diggers, space, kittens or volcanoes. Specific beats generic.
16. A first riddle or joke book. Expect the same joke eleven times.
17. I Spy & Look-and-Find Book (print at home). I-spy counting, find-the-shadow and odd-one-out pages, ages 4 to 6. See the book.
18. The Big Book of Mazes (print at home). Thirty-eight mazes, friendly to twisty, that last from 4 to 7. See the book.
19. Dino Friends Coloring Book (print at home). T. rex, triceratops and a hatching baby in big simple lines, with a word to trace. See the book.
20. My Big Preschool Busy Book (print at home), the all-year pick above.
21. A Christmas busy book (print at home) for the stretch to New Year: the Merry & Bright Christmas Busy Book.
22. Our free book (print at home), with a maze and a step-by-step drawing a 4 year old can manage. Get the free book.
23. An alphabet tracing book (print at home) if they're asking what their name starts with; see alphabet tracing tips.
24. Blank cards and envelopes for "mail" to grandparents.

Outdoor and active

25. Chunky sidewalk chalk. Hopscotch, roads for toy cars, giant letters to walk along.
26. A bubble wand set or bubbles with a no-spill lid.
27. A soft playground ball. Catching a large ball is a 4-year-old milestone.
28. Movement Challenge Cards (print at home). Thirty-six animal moves for rainy days; cut and bundle with a hair tie. See the cards.
29. A pinwheel or a small kite.
30. A set of beanbags for tossing into a laundry basket.

Bath

31. Bath crayons for the tiles.
32. Foam letters that stick when wet. Many 4 year olds are learning letter names; see letter recognition activities.
33. Pouring cups and a funnel. Filling and comparing is real early math.
34. An animal-shaped washcloth or bath mitt.

Practical and cozy

35. Fun socks or a hat with ears, in their favorite animal or color.
36. A character toothbrush and a two-minute sand timer.
37. Their own water bottle with a name label.
38. A kid-size apron. Four year olds can pour and stir with supervision, and an apron says "real helper."

Treats that aren't candy

39. A clementine in the toe.
40. A homemade coupon book: pancakes with dad, a library trip, an extra bedtime story. Often the most-used thing in the stocking.

Most of the list works for a 3 year old with a little adjusting. Pick the chunky end of each category (egg crayons rather than pencils, big stickers rather than small), expect to sit beside them for scissors and mazes, and skip items 5, 7 and 10 if they still mouth things.

For a 3 year old boy or girl, interests matter more than the aisle label: diggers, dinosaurs, farm animals and kittens all cross over, so go with whatever they talk about at dinner. Our stocking stuffers for toddlers guide covers the younger end of three, and what a 3 year old should know explains what they are working on.

Scissors change most between 3 and 4: a 3 year old makes single snips, a 4 year old can follow a line. One book covers both.

What's inside the Snip Snip! Scissor Skills Book: 23 pages for ages 3 to 5: 18 cutting pages in six levels (straight, diagonal, wavy, zigzag, castle and loop lines), each starting at a picture, plus tips for holding scissors, cut-out cards and a certificate. Instant PDF for US Letter or A4. Print the first two levels for a 3 year old and add the rest later.

Small gifts carry most of the holiday safety risk, so give each a quick check.

• Read the age label. US toy age labels reflect safety as well as skill; the strict small-parts rule applies to toys for children under 3, which is why so many items say "3+" (CPSC – Toy Safety). If a younger sibling shares the house, keep small parts out of both stockings.
• Button batteries hide in light-up toys, musical cards and key fobs and can cause serious internal burns within hours if swallowed. Choose screw-secured battery covers and go to the emergency room at once if you suspect one has been swallowed (AAP – How to Buy Safe Toys).
• High-powered magnets and magnetic putty are not for this age.
• Balloons. The AAP advises keeping uninflated or broken balloons away from children under 8.
• Water beads and anything that swells when wet.
• Cords and ribbons long enough to wrap around a neck, including the stocking's own.
• Scissors should be blunt-tipped and used sitting down with an adult in the room.

A PDF can be the most exciting thing in the stocking if you give it some shape. Print at home: nothing to ship, no delivery cut-off to miss.

1. Make a mini book. Print 8 to 12 pages, add a colored card cover with their name, staple the left edge and cover the staples with tape. Tie a ribbon round it.
2. Roll and tie. Roll the pages into a tube, slide a few crayons inside, tie with a short ribbon.
3. Envelope surprise. Big envelope, name in large letters, sticker seal.
4. Gifting to a grandchild or nephew? Any book can be sent from our gifts page on the date you choose, with a printable gift certificate for the stocking.

For bigger printable presents, see Christmas gifts for preschoolers.

If the list feels long, use this: something to make, something to do, something to read, something for the bath, something to wear, something to eat. Six slots fill a stocking and every one gets used. For a typical 4 year old: safety scissors and a cutting book, a maze book, a riddle book, bath crayons, animal socks and a clementine.

These are the three printables we would pick for a 4 year old's stocking: look-and-find pages for waiting rooms, mazes to grow into over the year, and dinosaurs for the child who knows a triceratops from a stegosaurus. All print on US Letter or A4, and you can reprint favorite pages for siblings at home.

• CDC – Milestones by 4 Years: the 4-year skills referenced above: crayon grip, drawing a person with three or more body parts, catching a large ball, unbuttoning buttons.
• CPSC – Toy Safety: why age labels matter and the small-parts rule for toys intended for children under 3.
• HealthyChildren.org (AAP) – How to Buy Safe Toys: the AAP's guidance on age labels, button batteries, magnets and balloons for young children.