Holiday gift guide
Screen-free gifts for kids ages 6 to 10
A good screen-free gift gets used with other people and is still wanted in February. Here are eight for kids 6 to 10, starting with a phone that has no screen at all, and an honest note on when to skip it.
In this article
What counts as a screen-free gift
Search for screen-free Christmas gifts and you get long lists of toys. A better test for a child of 6 to 10 is two questions. Will it be used with other people? Will the child still want it in February? The eight gifts below pass both.
One disclosure first. Ring Ring Club makes the phone in item 1, so weigh that. It is the right gift for some kids and the wrong one for others, and this list says which. The other seven have nothing to do with us.
1. A home phone of their own
A kid’s home phone is a handset with no screen, no apps and no browser. The child dials. A parent decides in the parent app who can call and who can be called, and a favorite person is one quick-dial key away (* and a number from 1 to 9). It fits the years when a child wants to call a friend or a grandparent without borrowing a parent’s phone. Our page on the home phone for kids explains what a landline means in 2026 (it runs on your home internet, with no copper line), and the screen-free phone page covers the case for leaving the screen out.
There are three ways to buy it, each a one-time hardware price:
- Modern Kit, $75. A Wi-Fi handset. No separate phone needed.
- Nostalgic Kit, $89. A corded classic phone with the Bridge included.
- Bridge, $59. Connects a compatible analog phone you already own to your router with an Ethernet cable.
The free Club Line plan is $0/month and calls other connected Ring Ring families only. It cannot call cell phones, outside landlines or 911. A real phone number, calls to approved US phone numbers such as a grandparent’s cell, and 911 need the paid plan, $8.95/month or $96.66 billed annually, plus a verified address. A Modern Kit on the monthly plan comes to $182.40 for the first year before tax and shipping, or $171.66 on the annual plan.
When a phone is the wrong gift
It needs power and home internet, and it stays in the house. It carries voice only: no texts, no photos, no video. If you need to reach your child at soccer practice or a friend’s house, a phone they carry is the right tool and a home phone is not.
On the free Club Line plan, a call connects only if the other family also has a Ring Ring. A child whose friends and grandparents all use ordinary phones needs the paid plan, so budget for it. And a kid who would rather build, draw or run will get more from items 2 to 8.
Seven more screen-free gifts for kids 6 to 10
We list no prices for these seven, because prices vary by store and we have not checked them. Match each to what your child already does.
- A deck of cards and two games to learn. A 52-card deck plays Go Fish, Crazy Eights and Rummy. It travels, needs no charger, and an 8-year-old can teach a grandparent in one visit.
- A library card and the first book of a series. The second book is the reason to go back.
- A building set. LEGO, a marble run or a wooden kit. Pick the one that matches what your child builds now, not what a box says is educational.
- Art supplies in a case. A sketchbook, 24 colored pencils and a pencil case. Good for the kid who already draws on every receipt.
- An instrument. A ukulele or a recorder. Add a lesson if you can, since the first month is the hard part.
- Something that gets them outside. A scooter, a jump rope or a sled, depending on where you live and what month it is.
- A shared experience. A class, a museum membership or a pass to a rink or pool. It comes with a built-in reason to spend time with you.
Shopping for the grandparents’ side of the family instead? Our guide to gifts for long-distance grandparents covers it.
How to give the phone
Ring Ring has a gift option at checkout. On the buy page, choose “This is a gift,” then pick one of two ways:
- Email it to them. We send a claim link, and their kit ships once they claim it. One kit per e-gift. It suits a family in another city.
- Hand it over. The kit ships to you, and each box carries a printed scan-to-claim card. It suits a gift you want to wrap.
US shipping is $7 flat for one kit. We list up to 2 days to ship, then 2 to 3 days in US transit. Carriers can run behind in December and we cannot promise a delivery date for the 24th, so order well before the holiday week.
Returns run 30 calendar days from delivery, in the original packaging with all cables and power adapters, and a kit in the same working condition gets a full refund. A kit that arrives in early December can be returned into early January, so check the dates against when it will be opened. The details are on the refund policy.
Where to go next
If you are not sure your child is ready, read what age a first phone makes sense and the first-phone guide. For the bigger picture, see how to delay your kid’s first smartphone. You can compare the kits on the shop page.
Ring Ring is not the only kids’ home phone. Tin Can and Pinwheel make similar ones, and our Tin Can comparison lays out the differences.