Drawing, colouring and crafting: presents that run out, and why that is good

Craft materials are the only toys in the shop that are meant to disappear. A box of markers still full after a year was not a thrifty present — it was a present that never got used.

Two categories, and the difference is the threshold

Drawing & Colouring is material a child can start on alone: markers, colouring blocks, paint, paper. Nobody has to sit down beside them and there are no instructions. That makes it the category that works on a wet Wednesday afternoon.

Hobby & Crafts is a project: there is a beginning, an end, and usually an adult called over halfway through. That is a different kind of present — better to do together, less suited to keeping someone busy for an hour.

Topping up is a present in its own right

If you gave a set last year, you do not need to give a new one. Loose paint, paper or clay makes the existing box complete again, costs less, and almost certainly gets used — where a second set often just sits beside the first.

It is also the present parents rarely think of and can almost always use.

Here the age is usually about the parts

With craft materials the age marking more often reflects small parts than difficulty: beads, sequins, caps. So read what the packaging says before buying for a younger brother or sister than it is intended for. What is on the box is the manufacturer’s marking, and it is not there by accident.