Crayola still wins for durability and color

Crayola is the right answer for most kids’ art projects. They hit the sweet spot of tough enough to survive drop-tests and vivid enough that the art actually looks like something.

The standard Crayola crayons (24-count or 64-count) are thicker than cheap off-brands, which is what keeps them from snapping in half when a five-year-old goes full pressure. The colors are rich and layer well, and the “break-resistant” claim mostly holds up — you’ll get a few casualties if your kid digs in hard, but not the pile of broken shards you get from dollar-store brands.

Prang has slightly better pigment saturation, I’ll admit. But Prang crayons are more brittle and have a thinner core, so they’re more of a school-art-class option than a keep-kids-happy option. Lyra makes great German crayons with nice smooth wax, but they’re pr