With amazing Amish influence, let’s take a look at Pennsylvania’s best wooden toy brands in 2025 — Made in Pennsylvania, for Pennsylvanians by Pennsylvanians.
Bur first a quick fact! Pennsylvania’s official state tree is the eastern hemlock (tsuga canadensis).
You betcha! Places like Philadelphia have a rich toy history! According to The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, the Schoenhut Company introduced toy pianos, pulls toys, dolls, and figurines as early as the 1870s.
Today, Amish toy makers like Lapp’s Toys are Pennsylvania’s highest-quality and most-established.
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Pennsylvania’s Top 2 Wooden Toy Companies
- (01) Lapp’s Toys – Lancaster, PA
- (02) Wood’N N’at – Gibsonia, PA
(01) Lapp’s Toys
Handmade wooden toys from Pennsylvania’s Amish country. Lapp’s Toys toys are honest and well-made — albeit a little on the pricey side. Straight out of Lancaster, PA — everything from wooden blocks, to zooming race tracks, to large-scale semi trucks, to ride-on toys.
Whether they go by the name Amish Toy Box, Dutch Crafters, Amish Made Store, or Lapp’s Toys — I’m pretty sure — they’re all from legitimate Amish woodcrafters in either Pennsylvania or Ohio — and they’ve got you covered.
Visit the Lapp’s Toys official website.
(02) Wood’N N’at
A Gibsonia, PA maker of heirloom-quality wooden toys and puzzles using select hardwoods — finished with safe and eco-friendly natural oils and beeswax.
The Wood’N N’at brand’s freestanding animal puzzles stack together into playful scenes — multiple individual animals stacked atop each other — like a mountain of cats or a family of bears. For little ones, classic push toys feature smooth light-hue poplar bodies and contrasting reddish-hue maple wheels — available with or without a pull string.
(03) Little Explorers Play
Little Explorers Play bundles beginner-level sewing kits designed to introduce children to the art of embroidery. Each set includes burlap, fabric, yarn, beads, and a wooden embroidery hoop for easy stitching. A Camp Hill, PA busy-hands business sells well-curated all-in-one embroidery sets to spark creativity and teach the timeless skill of sewing by hand.
Colors, colors, colors! Beginners can explore simple rainbow or aquatic color patterns, while more confident young sewers opt-in to set patterns — like a moth or butterfly or bunny rabbit.
See Little Explorers Play on Etsy.
(04) Green Lane Learning
Domino Maps were invented by accident in Green Lane, PA. The idea was to keep it screen free — using run-of-the-mill standard dominos — but how could it become more engaging to actually keep kids’ attention?
Each Domino Map — a tried-and-tested layer of paper with patterns to follow along — lays out challenges for arranging dominos into loops, turns, and waves — guiding kids to try setting up dominos into all kinds of new and creative directions.
Dominoes have always supported children’s development of fine motor skills, patience, and persistence — but now kids actually ask to play dominious. Five-star inventiveness!
See Green Lane Learning on Etsy.
(05) Jack + Link
When an educator falls in love with wood — it’s Jack + Link — all about wooden learning toys as beautiful as they are functional.
This Bainbridge, PA shop offers learning boards, trays, frames, props, and playthings that bring school subjects to life — we’re talking wooden grammar boards, money and math activities, even phonemic spelling — have I lost you? It’s a real comprehensive power-pack for early childhood development — reading, writing, math, and fine motor.
Visit the Jack + Link official website.
(06) Cranberry Creek Forest
Mystical handmade wooden toys you’d find in a fantasy forest — magical wooden unicorns, majestic play figurines, and more! Cranberry Creek Forest offers adorable mythical toys in a delectable pastel color scheme — full of whimsy imagination.
See Cranberry Creek Forest on Etsy.
(07) Channel Craft
Channel Craft calls themselves a leading purveyor of historically significant playthings — they supplying museums, parks, and attractions with nautical, historical, nature, and science-themed creations — what they proudly call “Edu-Tainment.”
They’ve made authentic American toys, games, and puzzles for over 40 years — with a nice selection of wooden jack knife toys and train whistles — plus some non-wooden airplanes, boomerangs, basic craft kits.
Visit the Channel Craft official website.
(08) Gems From Before
For over 12 years since 2013, Gems From Before has crafted nature-inspired, open-ended, hands-on learning toys — handmade with beeswax polish, sometimes lightly colored with food-grade dyes.
Gems From Before doesn’t include actual gems, but the plaything called wooden gem blocks do!
Native to Chester Springs, PA — their sustainable line-up includes wooden play dish sets, kitchenware sets, and honey pots with dippers — beautifully curated sensory kits featuring scoops, buckets, and bowls — and don’t overlook those all-natural acorns and eggs!
(09) My Little Song Bird 23
Specialized in Montessori-inspired play equipment — My Little Song Bird 23 offers safe, natural playthings for growing healthy and happy at every stage.
Find a wide range of large indoor equipment for little tikes to build strength and coordination — climbing to the highest heights. Bigger toys include balancing boards, walking activity boards, climbing triangles and arches with ramps, slides, balance beams, and arch rockers—all designed to support motor development.
For babies and toddlers, smaller items for everyday play span teethers, push vehicles, doll clothes racks, and classic wooden rattles.
See My Little Song Bird 23 on Etsy.
(10) Play Nice Wooden Toys
Call them pretty neat — or just call them very pretty! The Play Nice Woode Toys brand offers complete sets of thick-cut wooden figurines — crafted from maple and cherry hardwood in Dalton, PA — all designed flat on both sides for sturdy, imaginative play.
Playset themes range from woodland animals and wooden dinosaurs to outer space explorers for broad child-like appeal — or for special occasions see their nativity sets, or seasonal holiday characters like spooky Halloween figures. Parents more interested in learning will love to know they also create educational number sets.
See Play Nice Wooden Toys on Etsy.
(11) Silver Birch Woodshop
Most Amish communities allow for the moderate consumption of alcohol — and we’re glad — otherwise, this Lancaster, PA maker probably wouldn’t have come up with such an elaborate array of good ole’ fashioned wooden bar games.
Silver Birch Woodshop has all the bar-favorite brain teasers — dice tower tray game, ring slinger rope toss, triangle peg solitaire — Guter Rosch — nine men’s morris, bottle caps tic tac toe, scatter game — Guter Rosch.
See Silver Birch Woodshop on Etsy.
(12) Nana & Papa’s Toy Box
Something like claymation — Bethel Park, PA’s original wooden dollhouses, buildings, vehicles are extra cartoon-like — even the chunky little people blocks are solid painted wood columns — that’s it!
Nana & Papa’s Toy Box lets your child turn the places he or she sees around town into a hands-on play experience — schools, car washes, hospitals, and gas stations.
See Nana & Papa’s Toy Box on Etsy.
(13) Reichert Woodworks
A buzz saw toy — also known as a whirligig — is a classic folk toy made by threading a string through a wooden disc. Reichert Woodworks — a Carbondale, PA maker — specialized in wooden buzz saw toy kits perfect for children’s group activities.
Once assembly is complete — you twist and pull the string to spin the disc — and hear a buzzing sound — hence the name. Important for high-velocity wooden toys, the edges are guaranteed smooth-sand and safe.
See Reichert Woodworks on Etsy.
A Pennsylvania Toy Making Time Capsule
- Mama May I — Until the year 2023 — Mama May I was a very memorable Philadelphia, PA maker of beautiful, simple, colorful handmade learning toys and games. Montessori- and Waldorf- inspired, Mama May I was like a starter-pack for parents who wanted to set up an enriching at-home learning environment for the little ones.
