6 Best Travel Toys for a Toddler on a Long Haul Flight Home for Christmas
Picked by a Childcare Educator Who Travels With Her Own Toddlers
- No screens
- No batteries
- Ages 6 mo to 5 yrs
- Fits in a cabin bag
I've spent the last six years caring for toddlers, and the last three flying halfway around the world to family with my own. So I know the long haul Christmas trip from both sides.
Nine to twenty four hours. At least one overnight leg. A connection somewhere you've never seen in daylight. And at the other end, jet lag, a toddler wide awake at 3am in a time zone their body doesn't believe in, and a house full of relatives who would love a cuddle.
The iPad comes too, and it will earn its keep somewhere over the ocean. But it's the backup, not the plan. Batteries run flat long before a long haul flight ends, and headphones have a way of disappearing between legs.
The toys that actually work on a trip that long are small, quiet and fiddly. They give a toddler a problem to solve with their hands, they pack flat, and there's nothing to lose down the seat gap. They're also the toys that come out at 3am on day one, when everyone else is asleep.
Six toys I'd pack for the long haul home, and every one of them keeps earning its place once you land.
1. Montessori Busy Board
Ages: 6 months to 5 years
Supervision recommended under 18 months.
Why It Made the List: If you only pack one toy, make it this one. Zips, buckles, locks, latches, laces and a puzzle page, all the small fiddly things little hands want to figure out, in one quiet board. One toy that lasts beats twenty that don't.
Why Parents Love It: It packs flat in a cabin bag and folds shut like a book, so when a nap finally hits you can close it and tuck it away. No batteries to beep at security. No music to earn you looks from the row in front. And it unzips into halves, so two children can have half each.
Why It Survives the Trip: The activities are real world skills, zipping a zip, working a latch, so it never feels like a stand in for a tablet. It sits on a lap or a tray table without sliding around, and when you arrive, it's something to do on the floor while the adults catch up.
2. Suction Fidget Spinner (3 Pack)
Ages: 6 months to 3 years
Why It Made the List: Three little spinners that suction onto any smooth surface. The plane window. The tray table. The car window. The high chair at the other end. They spin, they click, and the suction is strong enough that a toddler can pull on one without it popping off.
Why Parents Love It: The dropped toy problem is the parent problem, especially on a plane, where anything that falls rolls under the seat in front and you can't reach it without unbuckling. Once these are stuck on, they stay.
Why It Survives the Trip: Three of them means one on the tray, one on the window and one in your bag as a backup. They turn any smooth surface into something to do, from the airport gate to the kitchen table when you arrive.
3. Giraffe Busy Book
Ages: 6 months to 5 years
Why It Made the List: A soft felt book with 8 pages of things to pull, thread, match and sort. It opens flat on a lap or a tray table, and a toddler works through it page by page with their hands.
Why Parents Love It: No batteries, no charging and no sound at all, so it works on a plane and at a table without bothering anyone. It's CE certified and made from non toxic felt, and it weighs next to nothing in a bag.
Why It Survives the Trip: Hand it over a few pages at a time. Save the last pages for the second half of the flight, or for the drive after a layover, and it feels new again when you need it most.
4. Magic Water Coloring Book
Ages: 3 years and up
Why It Made the List: Fill the pen with water, run it across the page, and the colour appears. Let the page dry, and it goes blank again. The same book gets used again and again, and the only thing a child needs is water. There is no cleaner creative activity for travel.
Why Parents Love It: No markers on the tray table. No paint on the car seat. No lids left off and dried out. The pen is the only thing in your bag, and there's nothing to clean up.
Why It Survives the Trip: It does what colouring is meant to do, without any of the cleanup. It works on the plane, on the road and on the floor at the other end. Anywhere you can refill a pen with water, you have an activity. It's rated from 3, so it's one for the older toddlers in the family.
5. 7 in 1 Montessori Cube
Ages: 6 to 24 months
Why It Made the List: This is the one for the under 2s. A busy board on every face: telephone dial, windmill, mirror, rope toggle, a sliding piece, a spinning maze and a little roll out animal. A baby turns the cube, finds a new side, and starts again. Seven toys in something the size of a small lunch box.
Why Parents Love It: It's compact enough to live in a nappy bag without taking up half the space. It's one solid piece, so there's nothing to roll under the seat in front of you.
Why It Survives the Trip: Moving between activities is what keeps a little one busy on a long travel day. Most single purpose toys run out of surprises quickly. This one resets every time the cube turns.
6. Montessori Geometric Eggs
Ages: 18 months and up
Why It Made the List: A carton of eggs, each one opening to a different colored shape inside. A toddler twists one open, finds the shape, and works out which lid goes back on which base. When it's right, it clicks shut, so they know without anyone telling them.
Why Parents Love It: They come in their own carton. Hand over two or three at a time and keep the rest in your bag, because an egg that hits the cabin floor will find its way three rows back. No batteries, no sound, nothing to charge.
Why It Survives the Trip: Opening, matching and closing is the kind of puzzle that holds a toddler through a delay at the gate, and it works just as well on the floor at the other end when a cousin wants a turn. They're for 18 months and up.
One Last Thing Before You Pack
The trick to getting a toddler through Christmas travel isn't packing more toys. It's packing the right ones, and not too many.
Two or three of the toys on this list, rotated through a flight or a long drive, will get you further than a whole bag of single use stuff. The reason is simple. A toddler doesn't get bored of an activity, they get bored of an activity they've just done. Hand them something different and it feels new again.
If I had to start with one, I'd start with the busy board. If I had room for two, I'd add the suction spinners for the plane, or the eggs for the long wait at the gate.
Keep the iPad charged for the last stretch if you need it. The point is to arrive with a toddler who still has some patience left, and a parent who does too.
Safe travels.
Childcare Educator + Mum of Two