Toy demand is seasonal and toy manufacturing is seasonal in the opposite direction. Buying at the busiest point of the factory calendar costs more and takes longer, so the useful planning question is not "what do I need in November" but "when should this be on a machine".
1. The shape of the year
- January to February. Chinese New Year. Factories close for two to three weeks and restart with a labour squeeze, so output in the two weeks after the holiday is lower than normal.
- March to May. The most comfortable window for new development. Sampling is fast, and there is capacity for tooling changes and packaging revisions.
- June to September. Peak shipping season for Q4. Container space tightens, freight rates rise, and factory lines fill with repeat orders.
- October to December. Christmas stock has sailed. This is the window for samples and for the next season's development, with quiet factories and fast responses.
2. Working back from a retail season
For goods that must be in a retail warehouse by early October, sea freight has to sail in August, which means production in June and July, which means the order and artwork are confirmed in May, which means sampling in April. A first order that starts in August for an October delivery is already late.
The reverse also holds: a buyer who places a first order in November gets sample rounds turned around quickly and often a better price, because the factory is quoting for the following season.
3. Chinese New Year is the planning anchor
The holiday moves each year with the lunar calendar, so the exact dates change annually. Two rules cover most cases: do not plan a production start in the two weeks either side of the holiday, and place any order that must ship before it at least three months ahead. Buyers who order in November for a spring delivery avoid the problem entirely.
4. A first-year calendar that works
- Month 1: shortlist items, agree the target retail price and the age grade.
- Month 2: samples and packaging artwork, compliance test plan agreed (/knowledges/179.html).
- Month 3: first order placed - three to five items, mixed across price points.
- Month 4 to 5: production, inspection, sailing, delivery.
- Month 6: read the sell-through data before re-ordering, then repeat the winners at higher volume and better unit prices.
5. What to keep flexible
Timber and paint are the two inputs that move. If a species or a colour is in short supply, a small change to the specification usually protects the date - which is why we flag substitutions early rather than at the end of production. /knowledges/183.html breaks the same timeline down stage by stage, and the wooden toy FAQ covers quantities and payment terms.
If you already know the season you are buying for, send the date with your enquiry through the contact form and we will come back with the latest date the order can be confirmed.
The calendar above assumes a single plant running its own machining and finishing lines; the workshop is described on our wooden toy factory page.
Items with a shaped silhouette, such as the rocking horses, need the tooling stage started earlier than that calendar assumes.
Where the calendar is driven by delivery windows rather than by a single order, the planning view is set out in volume supply for retail chains, and the constraint behind it in wooden toy MOQ.
The one fixed date in that calendar is Chinese New Year: the 2027 factory shutdown dates and order cut-offs show when the workshop stops, when it restarts, and the last PO date for each EU delivery window.
Container space is the one line in that calendar you book against cartons, not against units, and our carton and container loading figures show what one order actually fills.
Fairs are the fixed points a sourcing calendar is built around, and the toy trade fair calendar lists the dated ones: Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg, Toy Fair New York, London Toy Fair, Kind + Jugend in Cologne, China Toy Expo in Shanghai and the Canton Fair, each verified against the organiser's own website.