Children love exploring the world with their own hands - be it through painting, crafting or creative design. Not only are kindergartens, schools, and childcare facilities in constant need of inspiring materials and ideas; at home, parents, grandparents, and friends also want to offer children gifts that spark the imagination. For the younger generation creativity is more than a mere pastime - it playfully strengthens creative skills, boosts concentration, and offers unforgettable moments filled with joy and pride in one’s own achievements.
Attention to Detail: Miniature Worlds
The story of The Mouse Mansion is truly a fascinating one. Artist Karina Schaapman created a family business on the adventurous tales of mouse couple Sam & Julia. The children’s book isn’t illustrated in the traditional way, but rather uses photographs of self-crafted scenes.
At the heart of the story is the Mouse House, a lovingly crafted miniature world made solely from cardboard boxes and scraps of fabric. Today, Sam & Julia is a beloved children’s book series with over 21 original titles and more than a million copies sold in 27 languages. This year, an animated TV series is set to launch globally. The success of Sam & Julia has been recognized by a third place in the Children’s Product of the Year category at the Creative Impulse Award. Many fans, both young and old, want to design their own rooms, restaurants, and shops. As a result, the Sam & Julia brand also offers craft kits, accessories like furniture and décor, and a band of ten mouse characters.
Miniature worlds are also a trend as DIY décor pieces for your bookshelf. Tiny bookstores, apothecaries or flower shops come in kits that you assemble, complete with lighting, offering a sweet surprise tucked among your reading material. Crafts & Co. carries not only book nooks but also small rooms assembled from paper templates.
The Scandinavian tradition of a little elf visiting during the run-up to Christmas is increasingly popular in Germany, too. HobbyFun displayed an impressive range of elf accessories for the holiday season, birthdays, vacation time or garden fun in fairyland.
All-time classics: Working with paper, wood, and wool
Extending beyond the most recognizable trends, Creativeworld offered a wide selection for young artists, with materials including fleece, knitted items, paper, wood, and wool. BeaverCraft is a Ukrainian manufacturer of woodcarving tools and bushcraft equipment. Their Santa carving set includes everything needed for an exciting woodcarving project, making it easy and safe for beginners and children to create a charming Christmas decoration.
The professional knitting machines from addiExpress are reminiscent of the shuttle tatting technique but facilitate DIY projects with knitted tubes in terms of efficiency and accuracy. Models such as addiEi with six needles, Professional with 22 needles, and Kingsize with 46 needles quickly produce various sizes and shapes of knitted pieces with just a few turns of the hand. The addiExpress book series provides practical instructions and showcases numerous ideas with step-by-step instructions and variations. With the Coccolino sets from exhibitor Stafil, sewing a cuddly toy becomes child’s play: simply cut out the pieces, sew them together, fill them, and you’re done.
Painting is often the first creative activity that fascinates children. And they’re not the only ones who love the visually stunning artwork made possible by painting by numbers. In this segment, the industry remains innovative and presented fresh motifs at Creativeworld. Figured’Art, for instance, displayed a bespectacled giraffe on canvas.
Children can colour and learn interactively with the winning product of the Creative Impulse Awards: the “Go to Museum” colouring book by Hangzhou Miya Stationery impresses with its design and well-presented information about the architecture and exhibits of renowned museums worldwide. It invites children to reinterpret the museum spaces artistically using the included double-sided markers. By restricting the palette to just a few colours, each removable colouring page can be combined, for example as a wall display, to create a cohesive overall look.
Another great example of child-friendly products encouraging creative freedom: The water-soluble bath crayons from Mungyo Kyojai awarded second place at the 2025 Creative Impulse Awards. The colour adheres to different surfaces like bathtubs, glass, mirrors and tiles and can be easily washed off after a creative bath time session.
Next trade fair dates:
Creativeworld will continue to take place at the same time as Ambiente and Christmasworld at the Frankfurt exhibition centre.
- Creativeworld: 06 to 09 February 2026
- Ambiente/Christmasworld: 06 to 10 February 2026
Nots for journalists:
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