A 2026 gift guide for the craft and squishy kid

If there's a NeeDoh in your kid's backpack, a half-finished friendship bracelet taped to the kitchen table, and a sticker on the dog, this post is for you.

Crafty, squishy kids are easy to shop for in one way, because they like a little bit of everything. They're hard to shop for in another, because they have very specific opinions about all of it. It's the Nice Cube, not the Groovy Glob. It's the pastel thread, not the neon. And it's definitely not the squishy Grandma found at the gas station.

That's a lot for the rest of the family to keep track of, which is why a wishlist pays off here more than usual. Here's the one I put together. You can use it as a starting point for your own by clicking the link under the list:

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The NeeDoh situation

If you haven't been paying attention to NeeDoh, here's the short version. They're squishy stress balls made by Schylling, a toy company in North Andover, Massachusetts that's been around since 1975. The first one, the Groovy Glob, came out in 2017 for $3.99 and sold out in 30 days. Then this January TikTok found them, and Schylling sold through a whole year's worth of inventory in nine weeks.

The Nice Cube is the one everybody wants. It's a squishy pastel ice cube that's soft when you squeeze it slowly, firm when you squeeze it fast, and always comes back to a cube. It retails for $5.99, and at the height of the shortage one sold on eBay for $500. The CEO told the Boston Globe, "We created this brand around 'chill' and 'mellow,' and I'm under more stress than I've ever been."

The shortage brought knockoffs with it, and they're everywhere. The Toy Insider's editor recommends buying from Schylling or your local toy store so you know you're getting the real thing. Local toy stores are also where the "drops" happen. One Learning Express told the Globe it was getting about 50 NeeDoh calls a day. Your kid will know a fake, which is why the note on this list says "A real one from Schylling."

The advent calendar is the long shot. It's 24 mini NeeDohs behind 24 doors for $29.99, and it sells out every year, usually long before December. Last year's calendar is part of what started this whole craze. If someone happens to spot one at a toy store in November, grab it.

The slime

The GUI GUI Mega Slime Haul made the Toy Insider's Hot 20 this year. It's five scented slimes in five textures (cloud, clear, butter, jelli and crunch) with more than 50 pieces in all, counting the figurines, charms and mix-ins. The twist is that it's set up like a "get ready with me" beauty routine, so it comes with a little gua sha tool for smoothing and sculpting the slime.

The trip to Sloomoo Institute is the slime experience. Sloomoo is basically a slime museum. There are over 500 gallons of slime to walk through and poke at, a DIY bar with eight textures, 60 scents and 120 charms, and Sloomoo Falls, where you put on a poncho and get slime poured on your head. Every ticket comes with a custom slime to take home. There are locations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and LA, and a new one outside DC at Tysons Corner. Their experience gift cards work at every location, so you don't have to pick a date for them. That's the link on the list.

The bracelets

Friendship bracelets came back. One line in "You're On Your Own, Kid" goes "so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it," and fans took it literally. Trading bracelets turned into a whole Eras Tour tradition, and kids picked it up.

There are two kinds on this list, because there are two kinds of bracelet kids. The My Friendship Bracelet Maker from Choose Friendship is for the knotted thread kind. It's a little loom with grippy pegs that hold the threads in place, so your kid can put a half-finished bracelet down and pick it back up later without the whole thing unraveling.

The clay bead kit is for the other kind, the ones that spell out a name or a lyric. This one has more than 9,000 flat clay beads in 48 colors, sorted into organizer boxes, plus a box of letter beads, hearts and smiley faces.

The stickers

Puffy stickers are back too, and kids like to keep them in a collecting book nowadays. The Iconic one from JetPens has 40 pages of sticker backing paper, so stickers peel back off without getting ruined, which is what you need when there's a trade going on at recess. There's a pocket inside each cover for the sheets that haven't been used yet. It's not just here, either. Japan is in the middle of its own sticker craze over puffy, glossy "drop stickers," and about 90% of elementary schoolers there say they trade stickers with classmates. That craze has its own sellouts and counterfeits, which sounds familiar.

Pipsticks is a monthly sticker club. The Kids Club sends 15 sheets of stickers every month, including puffy ones and scratch 'n sniff ones, plus an activity booklet, for $19.95 a month with free shipping in the US. You can give it as a gift subscription. The stickers are only half the appeal - for a kid, an envelope in the mailbox with their own name on it can feel like a big deal.

The bin of everything

The Kid Made Modern Arts & Crafts Library is the "stuffed bin of supplies" gift. It's more than 1,000 pieces (pom-poms, fuzzy sticks, googly eyes, beads, felt, floss, glue) in a carrying case that becomes the craft storage afterward. It's rated 8 and up, and there's a "My First" version with bigger pieces for kids as young as 3. It means you never have to run out for googly eyes the night before a school project again.

The afternoon at the craft store doesn't have a link. Give your kid $20 and an hour at Michaels or a local craft shop, then let them wander the aisles and pick whatever. They'll probably come home with something you'd never have thought to buy.

In conclusion

What these kids want changes fast, and they keep careful track of what they already have, so the people buying for them really need a list. If you want to start one for your own crafty kid, the list above copies straight into a new WishPoster list with the Juicy Fruit theme, the one with fruit-slice confetti tumbling down the page. Or start your own list from scratch and let them fill it in - you can add individual items to your list from the above.