Like most of the shops and boutiques on Front Street, this one is long, narrow, and claustrophobic…read more You're going to have a difficult time navigating through this one, and more than most others: here you'll find more kids and strollers per square foot than anywhere else in Leavenworth!
Still, it's a fantastic shop to find small toys, gifts and stocking stuffers for the littles. Everything from books and games, puzzles, stuffed animals, blocks and bricks, rubber figurines, finger puppets, fidgets, dice, gag gifts and, yes, true to its name, lots of wooden toys in various forms and functions. Need a rubber band gun, or a prop plane powered by a similar elastic engine? This is your place.
As someone who has recently become a father for the first time (and maybe this is the curmudgeon in me talking), but toys that provide hands-on, analog stimulation are far more enriching and engaging that the endless, mindless crap spit out by the algorithms behind YouTube and TikTok. The Wood Shop is the kind of store that specializes in the types of toys that were popular before smartphones became the ubiquitous child distraction devices that they are today. On that point alone, I'm glad it's here, and (seemingly) thriving.