Nap notes

Giving a plush as a gift

Which of our plushies work as presents for whom, from a first stuffed animal for a baby to the desk plush for somebody who insists they are too old.

Notes from twelve years of being asked

The first plush, for a baby

Small, light, one piece, nothing removable. A palm-sized plush or a 12-inch cat plushie with embroidered eyes is the safe answer. Skip anything with a separate hat, a monocle or a detachable peel until the recipient is old enough to not put it in a mouth, and skip the long pillows entirely for a cot.

For a child between four and ten

This is the easiest age to buy for and the only one where size genuinely matters. Pick the hugging size, pick the animal they already talk about, and if you do not know which animal, pick the banana duck. Children who have no particular feelings about ducks still like the banana duck.

For a teenager

Long plush pillows. A 34 or 51-inch long cat or dinosaur reads as furniture rather than a toy, which matters enormously at that age, and it ends up on the bed anyway. The axolotl plushies land well here too — the shape is odd enough to be a choice rather than a default.

For an adult who says they do not want a plush

Desk-sized, slightly ridiculous, from the food and plant shelf. A croissant cat, a pea pod, a persimmon. The joke carries the gift past the protest, and plush enthusiasts are mostly adults anyway — our own team takes more of these home than anyone.

Buying two on purpose

Matching plushies for siblings work better than one shared plush, and the same animal in two colourways works better than two different animals. It removes the argument about whose is whose and it keeps the pile looking like a collection.

Where this leads

Everything above comes out of sewing the same animals over and over and hearing back about them. If it helped, the shelves are the next stop; if it did not, write to us and we will add the answer here.