National Crayon Day is on Wednesday, March 31, 2027, and it falls on March 31 every year. It celebrates the wax sticks that give most of us our first art lesson. Grab a box and color, whatever your age.
When Is National Crayon Day?
It’s always March 31. It’s an unofficial day, popular in classrooms.
Who Started National Crayon Day?
No founder or start year has been documented.
Background: when Crayola crayons started
In 1903. That year, Binney & Smith sold the first box of Crayola crayons, with eight colors for five cents, according to Crayola.
Cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith had formed the company in 1885. Before crayons, they made pigments for products like paint. In 1958, the 64-crayon box arrived with a built-in sharpener.
How Are Crayons Made?
Crayons are paraffin wax mixed with powdered pigment, How Products Are Made explains. The hot, colored wax is pumped into molds, where it cools in about four to seven minutes.
Machines push the crayons out, and inspectors check each one for chips and bubbles. Rejects are melted down and recast. The good ones get a double-layer paper label.
Paraffin melts at about 135°F, which is why crayons soften in a hot car, and why a hair dryer can turn them into art.
How to Celebrate National Crayon Day
- Make melted crayon art: glue crayons along the top of a canvas, then aim a hair dryer at them so the wax drips down.
- Recycle broken pieces: peel stubs, sort by color and bake in a silicone muffin pan at low heat to make chunky crayons.
- Try crayon resist: draw with a white crayon, then paint over it with watercolor to reveal the design.
- Do rubbings: lay paper over leaves, coins or tree bark and rub with the side of a crayon.
- Color for calm: pick up an adult coloring book and spend 20 minutes without a screen.
- Donate a box: give new crayons to a children’s hospital, family shelter or classroom.
- Name a new color: invent a crayon shade and give it a name.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the name “Crayola” come from?
Edwin Binney’s wife, Alice, coined it. She combined “craie,” French for chalk, with “ola,” from “oleaginous,” meaning oily.
What were the first eight Crayola colors?
Crayola lists red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown and black in the original 1903 box.
Have any Crayola colors been retired?
Yes. In 1990, eight retired colors, including maize and raw umber, went into the Crayola Hall of Fame in Easton, Pennsylvania.
How do you get crayon off a wall?
Try a damp sponge with a little baking soda, rubbing gently. Test a hidden spot first so you don’t damage the paint.