Oh mittens. They are equal parts annoying and life saving and thus are an essential buy for an outdoor family.
Your child is going to take their mittens off no less than a hundred times every day.
And you are going to be asked to put them back on.
Which makes it valuable to your sanity to make sure they can go on quickly and easily.
The other factor is your child’s hand size. If their fingers and thumb don’t reach all the way to the end they are going to have an extra hard time picking things up or holding anything. Which means they are going to come off even more often.
Key Attributes
- long cuff
- elastic or drawstring cuff
- no zippers
- fits OVER a coat
- fits their hand size
NO EXCEPTIONS.
If I had to do it over again I think I’d buy a pair of Stonz for my toddler (maybe Jan & Jul) purely for the warmth factor. Little hands get cold fast and a cozy mitt on a cold day is worth its weight in gold for being able to happily stay outside comfortably.
In the image here:
Note the dead elastic in the red pair, these will fall off.
The blue and yellow pair have a cuff that needs to go under a coat sleeve, this is not helpful.
The orange pair in the middle have a long elastic cuff that can easily go over a coat sleeve, they are the best.
The Best Mittens
- MEC Toasty Mitts – little ones – bigger little ones
amazing mittens, we have a pair from the 90s that are still useful. - Jan & Jul – Toasty or Cozy (available locally)
these are new to the market so I can’t speak on durability. I will update next season. - The North Face – rock solid will last several kids
- Columbia Chippewa long
- Mountain Warehouse long cuff – Fox
Honorable Mentions:
- Stonz are bulky and hard for children to wear but they are the warmest mittens out there.
- Kombi are affordable and easy to find but wear out quickly so buyer beware.