A Few Thoughts on Christmas

Last year, I bought most, if not all, of the girls' Christmas presents at the consignment shop. I just had really good luck, and I found great gifts. This year I didn't have as much good luck. So, I ended up buying new stuff in the store. Not everything, but a few things. I broke some of my rules this year--one being that I wouldn't buy stuff that required batteries. (We do have a supply of rechargable batteries and a charger, so we can deal with a few battery-requiring items.) But, toys that require batteries are not my favorite. The other thing is that storebought stuff always has packaging, whereas thrift shop stuff doesn't. When we were done opening presents last year, there was basically no trash--I think there was one piece of packaging that we had to throw away. I recycled all of our wrapping paper and that was that.

Another rule that I broke was buying storebought stuff made out of plastic. Plastic toys aren't my favorite either , but I did buy two plastic toys this year that I couldn't find on eBay, Craig's List, or Freecycle.

I do have to mention here, that I have a few things from the consignment shops, AND my friend Polly gave me a big container of Legos and a set of dollhouse furniture for the girls. Both vintage. I cleaned everything up, and Brendon made a few repairs to the furniture, so these recycled toys will appear under the tree.

It's also a little harder this year because Ellie is getting bigger, and she knows what she would like Santa to bring. She didn't ask for too many things, which is nice. And the other day, she told me she didn't want Santa to bring too much because we already had a lot of toys. I told her we would share the toys that she and Robin had outgrown with other kids. She likes that idea a lot, thankfully. (I've really been trying to get her involved with Freecycle.)

Next year, I hope to do better. I wanted to make reusable cloth bags this year to wrap our gifts, but I didn't get to it.

Here are my other ideas for next year:

-Start early on everything

-Try again to shop at thrift stores and consignment shops, Craig's List, eBay, and Freecycle

-Try to make as many gifts as possible

-Give books! There's no packaging!

-Buy gifts on Etsy whenever possible

-Buy gifts from local artists whenever possible

-Wrap gifts in cloth bags or recycled materials (my friend Serene is doing all recycled wrapping this year and she inspired me)

-Try to get Ellie and Robin to make gifts for each other and for Daddy

-Give to as many charities as I can

-Do more vegan holiday cooking and baking

Any other good ideas? Send them to me!