For the past few years I have made the majority of my Christmas gifts. I have had my "summer" in October or November and have had the luxury of time. But it wasn't always like that.
A few years ago I got my cousin two doll house sized Cabbage Patch dolls. I was excited to get one that looked like Riley and one that looked like her newly adopted sister Amanda. I imagined them playing sisters with the dolls. Visions of sweetness were dancing in my head.
I was flying to Florida that Christmas and taking the gifts with me. To save space in my suitcase, I decided to take the dolls out of their packaging and wrap them in smaller gift bags.
Thank Goodness! Have you tried opening a toy lately? Homeland Security has nothing on toy packaging!
My Christmas fantasy was tarnished by an hour long battle with wire ties and stitched up hair. I thought I was going to loose my mind teasing through the tiny stitches that held the hair perfectly in place on a plastic card. And, I was only opening two gifts! Imagine what Santa has to go through! I was so thankful the rug rats weren't hovering while I tried to free the dolls from their plastic prisons.
Today good news came across my Google Reader!
Consumer Reports to the rescue! This year they have launched a campaign along with Amazon.com to reduce the packaging in all things gifty. Down with those nasty (and sharp) clamshell packages! Down with wire ties and sewn doll hair! Down with unnecessary packaging clogging our landfills!
You can read Amazon's open letter to manufacturers here and can turn in the worst offenders of packaging abuse by nominating them for the CR Packaging Hall of Shame here.
That's fantastic! I've been seeing lots of excessive packaging firsthand with the wedding gifts we've received and they really haven't been that bad in the grand scheme of some packaging I've seen. We do have a big pile of cardboard boxes for recycling this week though!
ReplyDeleteWow, genius idea! Yes, those clamshells are GNARLY! And the little twist ties and whatnot . . . its amazing parents keep their children from getting hurt on Christmas mornings with all those wires and sharp shards of plastic lying around.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I just invested in some smaller packaging materials for my Etsy shop . . . just in an effort to make less waste (my old, larger jewelry boxes weren't dangerous to small children, I hope!:))
Ooh, I saw this the other day on Amazon and thought it was SO cool.
ReplyDelete:)
Hear, hear! It's about darn time! I've cut myself on one of those clam shell packages before and it hurt! I've also done the million twistie-tie thing on a few of Maren's dolls before. It's ridiculous!
ReplyDelete"Santa" spends a lot of time taking things out of the box over here the night before the big morning. It's ridiculous how long it takes, really.
ReplyDeleteI hate the packaging. I think it is because of theft which is another bad issue. But thanks on behalf of the doll holders and their mom for the "unwrapping!"
ReplyDeleteMelinda