I've got a bit of holiday cheer to spread, by request: Ken Williams, you are dearly missed. Please gather your family and find your way back to New York.
My sister and I have both been trying to find ways to be a little more earth-friendly, so when we drove to Virginia, I packed up a dozen or so children's books for a book exchange. Erin packed some up for us and E-Beth has really been enjoying all the new reading materials. She LOVES books.
Erin and I are also packing up several of last year's no-longer-loved presents and will wrap them up as gifts for each other's kids instead of buying NEW things for them to ignore.
For example, Erin will be giving Adam one of the infant toys that her kids no longer care about, and I'll give her kids some of the toys E-Beth no longer cares about. Every time they visit, Ethan loves to play with the little cleaning set we got for Elizabeth last year. Unfortunately for me, Elizabeth has no interest in cleaning and has ignored it for one full year.
For the rest of the gifts, Erin has come up with a wonderfully "green" plan:
From Erin's blog:
I have decided to set the following criteria for purchases and each gift must meet at least two out of these three standards. Because, as Meatloaf taught us, two out three ain't bad.
1. The gift must be made out of a renewable resource. (NO PLASTICRAP)*
2. The gift must be made in the USA to avoid the whole shipping-pollution issue.
3. The gift must foster or otherwise promote good stewardship or love of the outdoors.
*Of course, if I feel that Daphne just CANNOT be denied a Baby Alive, I can get her one -- as long as I buy it second-hand. That is my 'get out of jail free card'.
I'm following Erin's plan of attack, and if time allows, I'm also adding that I'm going to make as many hand-made gifts as possible. I have purchased more plastic than I had originally planned, but ALL of the plastic items are second-hand. Elizabeth is just starting to enjoy games, so I broke down and bought several second-hand ones off eBay. And BALLS. The only thing Childypants has asked for for Christmas this years is BALLS.
"What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas, Libby?"
"BALLS! Colored ones, lots of them, and a soccer ball so I can be JUST LIKE DORA!"
I bought second-hand balls for her, too.
In her blog, Erin wrote about giving second-hand gifts:
It's not a difficult task, but it is a difficult stigma that we all need to just get over, myself included. "New" is not synonymous with "better" and "used" does not necessarily mean "used up".
She really hit the nail on the head with that one, because even though I should feel really good about buying recycled gifts, I can't help but feel a little twinge of guilt about buying "hand-me-downs" instead of buying shiny NEW plastic crap for my kids. Insane, isn't it? Do my kids care? Not one bit. And in a year, when they toss these gifts in the corner, I will box them up and send them to my sister so her kids can enjoy them for a while.
So, if you receive a previously-loved gift from me, it's not because I don't care about you.
It's because I DO care.