Trading Toys at Christmas: A Green Gift-Giving Strategy
Imagine a Christmas without all of the trimmings and trappings—and the January debt hangover. My family tried it last year and, amazingly, we succeeded.
The plan hatched quite accidentally last July while visiting my sister and her family. My three-year-old son, Pete, couldn’t bear to part with his cousin’s collection of plastic toy food when it was time to leave. Since it had been gathering dust in the bottom of the toy bin for several years—all 200 pieces—my sister offered to send it home with us.
Then, as if in a cartoon, with a light bulb literally glowing above me, I looked at my sister and said, “Wrap it up for Christmas. He won’t know the difference.”
Well, that got us going. What else could our children, ranging in age from three to 10, exchange? Computer games, toys and books—the list was endless. The idea really got wheels when we brought the kids on board. They came up with a long list of gifts they could make, such as T-shirts, scrapbooks of holidays spent together, comic books and so on.
Even the adults got involved. In the past, we’ve drawn names to limit spending, but this year it seemed appropriate to lead by example.
The idea came at a time when both families were feeling a financial crunch, which proves that necessity is the mother of invention. My sister and her family were saving for a huge home renovation; we were struggling as I tried to build a business from home. We have always tried to get our families together at least once a year, a major expense with them in Alberta and us in Ontario. We would have to make financial concessions and Christmas gifts would be one of them.
As we got closer to December 25th, we were getting a little skeptical that the kids would buy in on Christmas Day, when they realized they were getting “old” toys or their cousin’s idea of a “gift.” Still, we were hopeful they would all learn a lesson in giving, with the added environmental message about recycling.
It felt strange, at first, not to be rushing from store to store. While friends were taking time off to shop, racking up credit card debt and worrying about what to buy the teenage niece they hadn’t seen all year, I felt what I can only describe as lightness. I actually worried that perhaps I was being just too laid back about this whole Christmas affair. After all, my shopping was limited to my parents and my own children, as even my husband and I had decided to stick to stockings only.
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