Disney Imagineers: they are the picture of brilliant creativity and whimsical ingenuity. We love stepping into the worlds they have created at the Disney parks, and we love learning about their creative processes. If you have a kid who wants to be an Imagineer, we have five great gift ideas to delight and encourage them below.
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Give a Kid the Toy Behind Soarin’
Have you heard the story behind the design for Soarin’ Over California (or Soarin’ Around the World)? The story is that Imagineer Mark Sumner conceived of the ride system by building it with his old Erector set. Is there a better gift inspiration than the toy behind a perpetually popular attraction? For a kid who wants to be an Imagineer, give a gift that helps them play like one, and then give them time and space to create!
You can buy an Erector set like this one and give your kids the toy that built Soarin’.
Looking for some other options? You could go with some other classic building sets like this K’nex “roller coaster” or really any Lego set (but check out this awesome one).
Our kids also love playing with these circuit sets, and here is a really fun roller coaster building set that gets a lot of play in our house.
Gift Our Favorite Imagineering Books for Kids and Adults
We have said it once, and we will say it again. We love the Imagineering Field Guide books. These are amazing gifts for kids and adults alike, and we bring them along on all of our Disney parks visits! With photos, illustrations and short blocks of texts, they bring you into the creative process behind each Disney park. We like that the information relates to physical things you can experience inside the parks, and we think this is what makes them especially accessible to kids.
These books are no longer in print, but we believe they are excellent and worth finding used. Some of the information relates to attractions that have been replaced since the books were published, but we like reading about the history of those extinct attractions. Fortunately, at the time of writing, the Imagineering Field Guide Books are not too hard to find online. Still, we would probably snap them up sooner rather than later, because they are not making more of these (even though they should)! There are Imagineering Field Guide books for each US park. Here are links to each on Amazon:
- Disneyland Park (Disneyland Resort, California)
- Disney California Adventure Park (Disneyland Resort, California)
- Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World, Florida)
- EPCOT (Walt Disney World, Florida)
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World, Florida)
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Walt Disney World, Florida)
Promote Kids Imagineering with Art Supplies
Many of Walt Disney’s first Imagineers were originally Disney animators, and drawing is a great way to get creative. Encourage your little Imagineer by gifting them some kid-friendly art supplies. Here are some gifts our kids have and enjoy using:
We frequently open up this backpack / travel-ready paint set. We use it at home and while we are out.
When we are at home, we store it in this art tool box that makes our little artist feel like a pro.
We also keep that tool box stocked with these kid-ready oil pastels.
We like these hardback sketch pads for creating on the go.
They also work with these glittery color-changing markers for sparking the imagination.
But really, any art supplies will do! Back-to-school season is a great time to find sales on drawing tools like crayons, markers and colored pencils plus other arty things like scissors and glue. Snap some up for your little artists! You can even snag this mega-crayon set.
Give Your Imagineer Kid Some Classes, Camps or Other Creative Experiences
We like to give our kids experience gifts. An experience gift is something like a class, a concert, an outing or other special experience rather than a physical item. For a recent birthday, we gave the chance to go “behind the scenes” at a zoo. We suggest looking around your local area for opportunities. Here are some ideas to get you started thinking of experience gifts for a child who wants to be an Imagineer:
- A visit to a local art museum or gallery.
- A visit to a science or engineering museum.
- A STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) class. If you do not have something appropriate nearby, you could get a box like this instead.
- An extra special experience on your next Disney parks visit, like a tour
- For a free alternative to the above, consider the many videos Disney posts featuring interviews with Imagineers. You can even find step-by-step drawing instructions on the Disney Parks Blog for many Disney animated characters. Here is one for Stitch.
We like to pair these intangible gifts with some small physical item to unwrap. So, we might give a set of artist pens with a certificate for a drawing class tucked into the wrapping.
On a similar theme, we have lots of ideas for surprising someone with a Disney trip, and you could use those as inspiration for your surprise reveals for experience gifts. For our best ideas for gifting a Disney trip, see (1) 12 Creative Ways to Gift a Disney Trip, (2) Disney Trip Reveal Ideas: Spring Break Edition and (3) Disney Trip Surprise Reveal Ideas, With a Summer Twist.
Clay and Other Sculpting Gifts for Kid Imagineers
Spend some time watching The Imagineering Story or other videos about the creative minds at Disney, and you will see plenty of Imagineers sculpting figures, building scale models and just generally getting their hands dirty. We started this list of gifts for a kid who wants to be an Imagineer with some building sets. Time to finish it with another medium for 3D creation: clay!
Have you used Model Magic? It is a very soft modeling clay that air-dries into a colorful featherlight finish. The kids and adults in our family like using it, and we have many Model Magic figures adorning our shelves. Here is a deluxe variety pack with lots of color choices (plus you can mix colors together to make new hues).
Another beloved squishy medium in our house is Kinetic Sand. This moldable sand is not for permanent pieces but for ever-changing play ideas. Here is a fun castle building set.
And of course, there is the classic Play-Doh! There are so many different sets ranging from this classic starter one all the way to this themed Marvel set.
Whatever you choose, we think materials for open-ended creation are great gifts for kids who want to Imagineer.
Thank you for reading our gift suggestions for the kid who wants to be an Imagineer.
We hope you have found something to spark your own gift giving creativity. For other gift ideas from MouseBrief, see 12 Creative Ways to Gift a Disney Trip, Disney Stocking Stuffers for Fans and Disneyland Visitors and Spring Surprises & Easter Basket Ideas for Your Disney Fans. And please, do not forget to read our free and complete Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep and subscribe to our newsletter below. Thanks again for reading!
