christmas tree by wolfsavard
Despite the growing green awareness, there are still plenty of wasteful and just plain unnecessary things on sale this holiday season, gifts which will sadly soon be discarded into the landfill. I’m left wondering what the true cost of gifts like these is for our Earth. Would people still buy them if there were mandatory Earth Cost labeling on the packaging?
There is something strangely tempting though; to quell the temptation, when I was at Costco the other day, just for fun, I made a list of ten Christmas surprises you won’t find in my shopping basket. My family helped me to put these in reverse order, with #1 being the worst (we were all agreed on that one).
#10 – Crayola 3 Piece Computer Kit – a QWERTY keyboard with large clunky, colored keys. To attract kids?
#9 – Dippin Dots Frozen Dots Maker – plastic kitchen equipment for the one purpose of making Dippin Dots.
#8 – 60 Handmade Gift Tags – a giant box housing small hand-made gift tags. Why not make your own?
#7 – Barbie Learning Laptop – pink, of course.
#6 – 10 Musical Christmas Cards – need I say more? Would you welcome one of these?
#5 – Fashion Design Projector – plastic and electronics. What’s wrong with paper?
#4 – GeoSafari Talking Microscope – speaks random biology facts.
#3 – Wheel of Fortune Electronic Game
#2 – Giant Christmas Stocking – big enough to put a kid or a singing telegram in!
#1 - Discovery Kids Text Messenger – and I thought Discovery Kids was about science and nature…
Who buys this stuff? I daresay Costco is no worse than many other stores – that’s not the point. We are not doing ourselves or our kids any favors with any of the above gifts.
What have you seen that you’d never buy? Have you been tempted?
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When Dippin Dots first came out, I tried them and they made me so sick to my stomach. Everytime I see one of those vending machines at the movie theatres I have this wave of nausea come over me. So I agree with you, #9 won’t be on my machine. I giggled at the pink Barbie laptop as I have a bright pink case on my Macbook…I love pink. LOL
Must…proofread….comments. #9 won’t be on my LIST, not on my machine.
Melissa, you gave me a laugh. I’m sure glad somebody likes pink – doesn’t do anything for me.
Pink doesn’t do it for me, either, but a Macbook in any color would, LOL. The one that gets me is the talking microscope. What’s the point? I gave my 4 year old neighbor a handheld magnifying glass and she spends hours every day getting close-up views of everything she finds. She really loves the bugs. Much more fun than a talking plastic thing.