The news: Amazon is sending millions of copies of its 2026 Holiday Kids Gift Book to consumers’ homes.

This is the ninth year Amazon has shipped a holiday toy catalog. This year’s edition features more than 600 toys and gifts, an original illustrated story, and family-friendly activities. That’s a significant discovery channel: 19% of US holiday gift buyers expect to find gift ideas through catalogs this year, per a July Tinuiti survey.

The catalog is designed around discovery, allowing consumers to browse by age and categories such as building sets, STEM and learning, and crafts. It also highlights products from Amazon’s Top 100+ Toys list, a hand-selected assortment chosen by its in-house toy experts.

Why it matters: Competition for consumers’ attention is intense heading into the holiday season, and retailers are taking very different approaches in helping kids and caregivers discover what they want.

• Amazon is betting that a physical catalog filled with toys, stories, and activities can capture kids’ attention away from screens—and ultimately drive families back to Amazon to buy.
• Target on Monday launched a digital Holiday Kids Catalog on Target.com and its app featuring nearly 500 toys, games, and gifts, along with interactive content, toy demonstrations, and video reviews from creators.
• Toys R Us is emphasizing physical retail, rapidly expanding from 40 standalone stores to 160 this holiday season as it seeks to reclaim authority as a toy destination in a market where sales have splintered across mass merchants, ecommerce platforms, and other retailers.

Implications for retailers and brands: The holidays are prime time for toy sales, which is why retailers are fighting for consumers’ attention before purchase decisions are made. That’s particularly important this year given the current macroeconomic pressures: Toys and hobby is one of just three categories where we expect ecommerce sales growth to accelerate during the holidays compared with the rest of the year.

That makes discovery especially valuable. While Amazon, Target, and Toys R Us are taking different routes, each is looking to get kids excited about products and influence the wish lists that ultimately guide caregivers’ spending.

For brands, winning a prominent spot in those discovery environments can be just as important as being available at checkout. The earlier a toy lands on a child’s wish list, the better positioned it is to capture holiday spending.