“Ring, ring, ring… Hello, may I ask who’s calling?”
“We’ve got a call from 1-800-FUN-TOYS on the line. Would you like to pick up?”
Remember back in the day, when real phones were made of wood?
Well, you probably wouldn’t — since that was back in the early 1900s when manual switchboards were a thing. Nowadays, even the original iPhone from 2007 seems like an ancient artifact.
Call me old fashioned, but I think wooden telephones are the bee’s knees! So, I’ve put together a collection of the best wooden phone toys for babies and toddlers.
Which one’s right for your little one? You make the call!
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In a hurry?
Here’s a quick list of my picks for the top 5 wooden play phones!
- HABA “Baby’s First Phone” Wooden Toy – Best battery-free cell phone style
- Janod Beech Wood Smartphone – Most realistic cell phone play experience
- Mirari “myPhone” Wooden Phone with Remote Control – Most interactive sounds & features
- Le Toy Van Vintage Wooden Phone Toy – Best classic rotary style
- Treasured Family Creations Personalized Wooden Toy Smart Phone – Best custom-engraved gift
Wooden Cell Phone Toys (Non-Electronic)
Natural wood and not much else! Here are some battery-free picks for parents who appreciate creative imagination over beep-boop stimulation.
HABA “Baby’s First Phone” Wooden Toy
Best for baby selfies
Recommended Age: 18 months and up
Designed with young tots in mind, it’s got just three simple buttons and a tiny bell well the antenna would be — so it’ll jungle when your baby gives it a shake. What’s really special about this baby phone is it’s rotating phone screen. One side has a friendly cartoon bear to pretend FaceTime with, the other side is a tiny mirror — so you can teach your baby how to make a proper duck face for Instagram early in life.
Plan Toys “My First Phone” Wood Toy
Best for environmentally-conscious families
Recommended Age: 3 years and up (but some parents say 12 months)
A phone with five wooden buttons, and a translucent screen that acts as a child-safe magnifying glass. The phone has no batteries and doesn’t make sounds or light up when you press down the buttons. Since toy phones are a healthy substitute for mind-numbing real phones, that’s something lots of parents prefer. Plan Toys is known for its eco-friendly toy manufacturing, and this toddler’s phone is no exception. Made of sustainable wood without nasty chemicals, it’s safe when your little one inevitably puts it in their mouth.
Wooden Mobile Phone Toys (With Sound)
For phones that ring and buttons that beep — here’s the best of both worlds! A hand-selected roundup up interactive battery-powered wooden toy phones.
Janod Beech Wood Smartphone
Most realistic pretend smartphone experience
Recommended Age: 18 months and up
With a bright red silicone phone case and soft plastic buttons that look like app icons, this toy makes it the most realistic smartphone alternative for toddlers. Each button makes a unique sound, so your child can multi-task on-the-go just like mommy and daddy. Sure, silicone and plastic aren’t what wooden toy aficionados usually look for, but the phone body is made of solid beech wood to balance it out. Overall, this is a great pick for a life-like smartphone role play.
Mirari “myPhone” Wooden Phone with Remote Control
Lets you record and play-back custom voice messages
Recommended Age: 6 months and up
This is the most full-featured quality wooden phone on the market — and the only one that lets you record personalized messages for your baby. That’s a perfect way for distant relatives to keep in touch with your baby between visits. It comes with a remote control that lets parents trigger sounds give your baby a call, just like a real phone. (You can choose whether or not you let your baby know you control the remote.) Plus, just like other models, different buttons make different sounds — just look at the icon to guess what sound it’ll make!
Original Toy Company Wooden Screen-Less Mobile Phone
Best if you like the early-2000s-style phones
Recommended Age: 3 years and up (but some parents say 18 months)
Like a wooden version of a screen-less mobile phone from the early 2000s. Appearance-wise, it’s got a 0-9 numpad, big green call button, an earpiece, and an antenna snub — and that’s about it. Simple does it! All the numbers depress into the phone when pushed, and you’ll trigger a call ringing sound if you press the call button. Yep — it’s got batteries, and that’s one thing to take note of before you buy. The batteries are SR41 or LR41, so it might be a little tricky to replace when they run out of juice.
Personalized Wooden Telephone Toys
Looking for a memorable baby shower gift? With your child’s name engraved directly into the surface of the phone, these play phones make a thoughtful gift that’ll last a lifetime.
Treasured Family Creations Personalized Wooden Toy Smart Phone
Bestselling personalizable gift
Recommended Age: 6 months and up
No more wondering whose phone is whose. Modeled after a modern smartphone, it’s a bestselling wooden phone that you can personalize with your baby’s name on the back. No moving parts, no batteries — just a simple phone-shaped wooden block of natural maple wood. Its edges are smoothly rounded and the wood has a food-safe finish, so it’s durable, baby-safe, and makes a perfect personalized gift.
Keepsake Toys Custom Engraved Wooden “iPhone” Toy
Best customizable iPhone imitation
Recommended Age: 6 months and up
For the baby who loves to gab all day and who’s got a particular animal they love most, these custom-engraved solid wood “iPhones” not only let you etch your little one’s name on the back — but also come in the choice of your favorite animal on the screen: cat, dog, elephant, lion, hedgehog, sheep, squirrel, or crocodile. Especially awesome if you get a set for all your family members. You’ll be “calling” and “texting” each other on the regular.
Wooden Rotary Phone Toys
“Hey Siri, how did people call each other before cell phones?” With a totally retro feel of a simpler time, these classic rotary toy phones are a blast from the past!
kiko+ Rotary Telephone Toy
Most stylish visual appeal
Recommended Age: 3 years and up
A Japanese-designed contemporary wooden rotary phone available in yellow, pink, or black. Though it’s designed for toddlers, it looks s-o good that some parents grab it as a nostalgic home decoration. One delightful surprise is it the phone has a slot for coins. Insert a coin to make a call, and when you hang up, the coin will come out the other side. What better way to teach your kids the value of a heart-to-heart conversation?
Le Toy Van Vintage Wooden Phone Toy
Best if you’re feeling nostalgic
Recommended Age: 2 years and up
Natural wood painted in beautiful red with gold accents, this is a hefty landline for children who’ve never experienced a good old fashioned rotary phone — but really should. The retro-looking rotary dial moves freely as your finger spins it along, and there’s a bell inside the handset that makes a nostalgic ringing noise. An overall excellent pick with timeless appeal.
Wooden Phone Toys 101: Shopping Guide
With so many toy phones to choose from, how do you know which one’s right for your little one?
Once you’ve decided to go with wood instead of plastic, there are fewer options to choose from, so the decision-making process becomes that much easier. (Especially since you’re here, and I already shopped around for you!)
Wood vs. plastic toy phones — what are my options?
Lots of parents prefer wooden toys over their plastic counterparts — because wood is a natural material, better for the environment, and without all those synthetic chemicals to come in contact with your child.
When it comes to toy phones, however, there’s a balance you have to make for yourself. Even for wooden phones, it’s common for plastic or silicone parts to be used. What’s more, many parents will prefer phone toys that make sounds, and in this case, batteries are part of the toy — even if it’s wood.
For wooden toy purists — the good news is, some models include no plastic and no electronics at all.
What are the educational benefits of toy phone role play?
Phone play encourages various areas of child development! Using his or her fingers to dial-up digits, your baby or toddler will develop motor skills and improve hand-eye coordination. If your youngster is new to numbers, there’s an added benefit of learning basic math. For those phone toys with sounds, it can help your child begin to associate sounds with things in real life.
Role-playing telephone conversations is good practice for common social situations, too — whether that’s calling grandma to send your love or calling your imaginary friend to tell them a secret. As a parent, you can also use a toy phone to teach your child about useful life skills — like calling to order a pizza, calling your local library to reserve a book, or even how to call 911 in case of emergency.
Over to you!
There you have it — a world-class round-up of the world’s best wooden phone toys to give your little one a head start on their social graces. From all-natural and battery-free to ringing-and-recording electronic models, we’ve dialed into the entire spectrum.
Who does your little one like to call? Or maybe he or she’s more into texting!? Let me know in the comments below!
