There's a great variety of prices of crayons, especially at back to school sale time from fifty cents down to a penny. So many choices...how to choose! We want to send nice things to the children in our
Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, but we don't want to spend money just to get a name brand. So I decided to do some tests on various crayon brands from my local stores.
(This post contains marked affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links, that is how I afford the time to write these posts, and do these tests)
We tested five crayon brands for both coloring quality and resistance to heat (that they might experience in transit). The brands we tested were Crayola, which you can normally get for $0.50 at Walmart & Dollar General during back to school sales, Cra-Z-Art, normally $0.25 during back-to-school sales at Walmart,
Playskool which can be found at Dollar Tree (affiliate) and other dollar stores for $1, and Dollar General offers a brand I*Magine often 3 for $1 or $0.33/$0.34 a piece at Back-to-school sales. Also at Office Depot I got some Scholastic brand for $0.01. All those prices are for 24 count except Playskool that is 36. For those who are concerned about manufacture location: most are made in China, Crayola is made in the USA or Mexico, you'll have to check the package.
First, how do they color?
You can see images and thoughts of our coloring test post here:
Crayon Brands Coloring Test
Second, how do they hold up to heat?
UPDATE: Just wanted to be clear, OCC USA, encourage us to send them. They do not have any brand preferences, and has not had problems with any melting. So, this is just extra info if it is still something that worries you, or you want reassurance-my research shows most hold up quite well at expected transit/storage temperatures validating OCC USA's stance.
My understanding is that Australia & New Zealand have had so many problems with crayons melting in OCC shoeboxes, that they've added them to the "do no send"
We tested five crayon brands for both coloring quality and resistance to heat (that they might experience in transit). The brands we tested were Crayola, which you can normally get for $0.50 at Walmart & Dollar General during back to school sales, Cra-Z-Art, normally $0.25 during back-to-school sales at Walmart, Playskool which can be found at Dollar Tree (affiliate) and other dollar stores for $1, and Dollar General offers a brand I*Magine often 3 for $1 or $0.33/$0.34 a piece at Back-to-school sales. Also at Office Depot I got some Scholastic brand for $0.01. All those prices are for 24 count except Playskool that is 36. For those who are concerned about manufacture location: most are made in China, Crayola is made in the USA or Mexico, you'll have to check the package.
One problem I run into when packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, is how to fit in everything I want to send. A shoebox just doesn't seem to hold everything I want to give to the child. Over the years I've learned some things to help me fit more things in, and love testing to figure out new ways to make things fit. So I thought I'd share some things I've learned in case it could help someone else! You can see in the photo at left everything I got in this one box. Here's a list of what fit in (in no particular order):
