I recently rediscovered the magic of crayons. As a kid, I always had a box of crayons at my disposal and would look forward to the 96 pack I would get every Christmas in my stocking. Let's be honest. There are very few people in the western world who experience childhood without the influence of crayola crayons.
Here's why they are awesome:
So many colours!
I'm pretty sure that at some point the marketing team began making up their own colour pallets because there are some funky looking greens in those boxes. Regardless. No matter what you were trying to colour, there was always a crayon that matched it.
Leonardo DaVinci used crayons.
That's right. The guy who painted some of the world's most famous and iconic works of art had a hand in the development of our modern crayon.
They smell.
I'm not talking about the scented ones. I'm talking about the honest-to-god smell of crayons. I'm pretty sure that if childhood had a smell, it would be this one and the smell of Johnson's baby shampoo. In fact, in a study done by Yale, crayons ranked 18/20 for the most recognizable smells.
The colours of pastels without the mess.
I love saturated colours, but nothing irritates me more than the mess pastels leave on your hands. Enter the crayon - all the colours, 0.5% of the mess. Plus they don't wear down so fast.
Crayola is multicultural!
In 1992, Crayola introduced 16 new colours that represented various skin tones, giving kids choices beyond "peach" and "brown".
Crayons are amazingly versatile.
Whether you are simply colouring in your Disney Princess colouring book, or creating a masterpiece, you can use crayons to make it work. With all the different colour options and the various shading techniques you can use, crayons are an excellent medium for blending colours.
The built in sharpener.
Dear god. What an invention. There was nothing worse as a kid than having your crayons become stumpy and pretty well unusable for fine detail work (AKA hands). Enter the crayon sharpener. This is potentially one of the best revolutions in the world. So simple, yet genius. It prologned the life of the box of crayons that much further. Well, at least until your 3 year old brother got a hold of them and snapped them all in half.
Broken crayons are still crayons.
How many things can you say that about. If I break my laptop in two, it no longer functions as a laptop. If you snap a crayon in half, it it not only still usable as a crayon, but has now reproduced by means similar to mitosis. It also makes sharing really easy :)
They're a good way to relieve stress.
People say that the best way to relieve stress is to do something with a repetitive action that directly results into a finished product. Millions of people could probably throw away their heart medications if they simply picked up a 64 pack of crayons and colouring book (Please don't do that. It's pretty likely that crayons do not actually cure heart disease...). Doing something simple gives a sense of accomplishment, at least for a little while and tends to make you think that you're not wasting your life on something that you'll never be able to complete because you were too dumb to set a realistic goal for yourself.
They are so much fun.
It doesn't matter what the finished product turns out like because using crayons makes you think back to simpler times. You can sketch, colour, blend and draw with them, tear it out and stick it on the fridge to show off just how awesome they actually are.
Here's the challenge: Go buy a pack of crayons (8 pack or 96 pack. Doesn't matter). Print off some colouring sheets. Sit down and watch your favorite childhood movie with a glass of milk and some cookies while colouring. Do this alone, with your boyfriend, with your best friend or with your kids. It doesn't matter. You will have a great time.
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