Buying character drinkware for a child

Character drinkware is an easy gift to get slightly wrong. The character is right, the object is not, and it sits in a cupboard. Three decisions settle it.

Material comes first

• Plastic multipacks for anyone under about six. They bounce, they are light, and losing one does not matter.
• Steel tumblers from school age up. Heavy when full, but they survive a rucksack and keep a drink cold all day.
• Ceramic for older children and adults. Breakable, so it belongs on a table rather than in a bag.
• Glass for display and for teenagers who will not knock it off a desk.

Then size

A full 40 oz tumbler weighs over a kilo. That is fine on a desk and unreasonable for a seven-year-old carrying it home. For small hands, 12 to 16 oz is the range where a cup stays comfortable when full.

Then the lid

A lid turns a cup into something that can travel. A straw makes it easier to drink from without tipping, and easier to lose. If the cup lives in a bag, a screw lid beats a push lid every time.

Only then the character

This is the part everyone starts with, and it is the easiest to satisfy: most of the big ranges here cover mugs, tumblers and bowls, so you can match the character to the right object rather than the other way round. The character index lists each range in one place.