regifting christmas

I was at the local dollar store the other day with the kids, and was quite surprised to see how many kids toys they had for only a dollar. It used to be that all you could find were cheap plastic toys made in Taiwan. Now, they've got a large assortment of plush animals, dolls, die-cast cars, and all kinds of games and gag gifts. Granted, they're probably still made in Taiwan, but it's awesome to be able to walk into a store and say to the kids, "pick one thing and I'll buy it for you; anything you want in the entire store."

While we aren't exactly rolling in the dough this year for the holidays, I was recently discussing with Choosymom that it would be nice of we could donate some toys to the local food bank, to be dispersed at Christmas. I was actually thinking about picking up fifty dollars worth of toys, and that fifty dollars sure would go far at the dollar store. The toys aren't going to be name brands and they're not going to be super-fancy, but my kids like them so why wouldn't somebody else's? Choosymom also suggested that we go through our kids current inventory and try to pack up a few bags of the better looking toys for redistribution to the needy.

Our kids have a TON of toys, but they play with very few of them regularly. Even though we occasionally thin out their toy boxes, they always accumulate more at every birthday and holiday that passes. I guess it is part of living away from your extended family - our relatives feel the need to frequently represent themselves by sending lots of care packages to the kids. Most are your run-of-the-mill impulse at the checkout type items. Some may be promotional items from the casinos or from their place of employment, and on a rare occasion someone will actually send personalized gifts. Obviously, we're not going to be donating any toys that have our children's names printed on them, but there's nothing wrong with redistributing some of the others during this holiday season.