Selling kids' items this holiday season: what federal product-safety rules actually require

The holiday run ahead means more small hats, teething toys, quilted baby blankets, felt ornaments meant for little hands, and kids' t-shirts crossing a table than any other stretch of the year — gift buyers shopping for the children on their list are one of the biggest reasons Markets and Festivals get busy from here through December. What a lot of vendors don't realize is that the moment a product is designed or intended primarily for a child 12 or under, it stops being covered only by the ordinary rules of selling handmade goods and becomes a "children's product" under federal law — with its own testing, labeling, and documentation requirements that apply whether it was made in a factory or at a kitchen table.

This isn't a Show rule an organizer invented, and it isn't limited to toys in the narrow sense. It covers apparel, blankets, bibs, stuffed animals, wooden toys, jewelry marketed to kids, and plenty of other items that show up at a holiday booth without a second thought. This article lays out what the requirement actually is in plain terms — there's a fuller caveat at the end, because the details genuinely do depend on your specific products and are worth confirming with a professional before you rely on them.

What actually counts as a "children's product"

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) defines a children's product as one designed or intended primarily for children age 12 or younger. That's a "primarily intended" test, not a "could a kid use this" test — a set of coasters isn't a children's product just because a child might pick one up. But a lot of what sells well in a holiday booth is squarely inside the line: kids' clothing and outerwear, blankets and loveys, plush toys, wooden or fabric toys, teethers, bibs, and children's jewelry all count, regardless of how small the business making them is.

The three things the law actually asks for

Strip away the acronyms and CPSIA compliance for a small maker comes down to three things:

Lead limits. Lead in any accessible paint or surface coating on a children's product is capped at 90 parts per million, and lead in the substrate material itself (the fabric, wood, plastic, or metal the product is made from) is capped at 100 parts per million. These limits apply to the finished product, including any dye, paint, hardware, snaps, or trim — not just to a raw material you bought that was already marketed as compliant.

Tracking labels. Every children's product manufactured for sale needs a permanent, durable mark on the product itself and its packaging identifying the manufacturer, the location and date (or date range) of manufacture, and a batch or run number or other detail that lets that specific product be traced back to your production records if a safety issue ever comes up. For small items where a permanent label isn't practical, or for certain reversible garments, a securely attached hang-tag is generally an acceptable alternative — but the underlying information still has to be there.

Testing and certification. Most children's products need to be tested by a CPSC-accepted third-party lab for the relevant safety rules — lead content, phthalates, and, for products intended for children under 3, small parts and choking-hazard requirements — and the manufacturer issues a Children's Product Certificate stating the product meets those standards, based on that testing.

The "handmade means exempt" myth

It's a common and understandable assumption that a one-person handmade business is too small for any of this to apply — it isn't. There's no size-based exemption from the underlying safety standards themselves; every children's product sold in the U.S. has to actually meet the lead limits and safety rules regardless of who made it or how many units exist.

What does scale down for a small maker is the testing burden, through the CPSC's Small Batch Manufacturer program. A business that registers as a Small Batch Manufacturer and stays under the program's annual gross-revenue and per-product unit thresholds (both figures are set by the CPSC and adjust periodically, so check the current numbers on cpsc.gov rather than relying on a figure that may already be dated) can get relief from mandatory third-party lab testing for some safety rules. It does not remove the requirement to actually meet those standards, to keep records showing your materials comply, or to third-party test for the rules the program doesn't cover — lead and small-parts/choking-hazard testing generally still require it regardless of batch size. In plain terms: the exemption changes how you prove compliance for part of it, not whether compliance is required.

What this looks like heading into the holiday rush

None of this has to bring holiday production to a halt, but a few things are worth doing before the busiest stretch of applications and booths:

• Sort your own lineup first. Go through what you're planning to sell between now and January and flag anything designed or marketed primarily for a child 12 or under — including items you may not have been thinking of as "toys," like a baby blanket, a felted ornament shaped like an animal, or a kids' size of an item you also make for adults.
• Check what's actually touching a child. Snaps, buttons, beads, paint, and dye are common places lead or small-parts issues show up, even when the base fabric or wood is fine on its own — a trim or hardware supplier's own documentation is worth asking for.
• Look into whether Small Batch Manufacturer registration fits your volume. If your children's product line is genuinely small-scale, registering can meaningfully reduce the third-party lab testing burden — but confirm the current thresholds and which safety rules still require testing regardless, since that hasn't stayed static over the years.
• Build the tracking label into your production process now, not as an afterthought before a big holiday Market — a batch number system is much easier to set up before a season of production than to reconstruct after the fact.
• Ask before you assume an Event doesn't care. Some juried Markets and Festivals with a strong children's or family category ask vendors selling kids' items for proof of compliance alongside the usual insurance paperwork — worth confirming in the vendor agreement rather than finding out at check-in.

The takeaway

If it's designed for a child 12 or under, it's a children's product under federal law the moment you sell it — handmade, one-of-a-kind, and sold at a single holiday Market all included. The lead limits and tracking-label requirement apply across the board; the testing burden is the one place a genuinely small operation can get real relief, through Small Batch Manufacturer registration, and even that comes with real limits worth understanding before you count on it.

This article shares general information, not personalized legal or regulatory advice. CPSIA rules, testing requirements, and Small Batch Manufacturer thresholds are set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, include exceptions and category-specific details this article doesn't cover, and change over time — for your specific products, check current guidance at cpsc.gov or talk to an attorney or compliance professional familiar with children's product safety law.

Sorting out which items in your holiday lineup count as children's products, and which Events are asking for compliance paperwork alongside the usual insurance request, is easier to do once instead of re-deciding it every time an application comes in. The Tracker's notes field on each application is a simple place to keep that detail next to the deadline and everything else for that Show. Artisans Almanac offers a 30-day free trial if you want this holiday season's paperwork organized in one place.