Ho, ho, uh-oh: Trying a mindful Christmas

Planning a scaled-down Christmas isn't as hard as you might think. But it does require deliberate thought.

Every year, I survey the colored paper and ribbons lying limp and ravaged on the floor, our new acquisitions heaped on top. I feel the beginnings of a headache that has only a little to do with my sister-in-law's vodka slushies.

And the misgivings start: Where will we put it all? How much did we spend? Did they really need it? Why aren't they playing with it? Are we really doing the kids any favors by showering them with things? What does this have to do with the "real" meaning of Christmas?

This year, I'm piling even more on -- thinking about that environmental footprint looming ever larger over our consciences: How much did this cost the Earth, and impact the global and local economy?

My re-imagining of Christmas came in three phases.

First, it was Local Christmas. I'd buy everything in my zip code. That shouldn't be too hard, since I share my zip with Uptown Minneapolis and a busy retail swath of West Lake Street. But then it occurred to me that even walking to Kmart to buy a made-in-China Transformer action figure wouldn't do my kid or the Earth a lot of good. It's still part of that fossil fuel-based global TV-toy-consumerism complex.

Then I attempted a Green Christmas, weighing each gift's country of origin and the amount of fuel it would take to get here. That was exhausting. It's easy to find wonderful locally made gifts for adults and toddlers, but for a Pokemon-mad 8-year-old, it's nigh to impossible. I felt like the Grinch, with my son, Joe, tagging behind me in Target, pleading, "Mom, tell me again why I can't have toys from China."

The truth is, a lot of manufacturers are evasive about listing the location of their manufacturing plants on their packaging. A Fisher-Price pull toy, for example, has the company's New York headquarters emblazoned on the front, while a "Made in China" tag skulked on the bottom. Then you have to distinguish between "Made in U.S.A." and "Assembled in U.S.A."

There came that headache again. Roberta Bonoff, president of the local toy-store chain Creative Kidstuff, thinks this kind of headache could go away if we let go of our obsession with getting more for less.

"We as Americans consciously chose to make price our focus; manufacturing kept being moved out of the United States," she said. "We as a country have to be responsible for creating that."

Bonoff said we can avoid excess by buying only what our children really need and want. If you pay attention to their interests and abilities, the toys you choose are more likely to be something that will grab their attention and hold it. Sometimes that might mean suspending the gift-giving ego and offering a gift card, or shopping in a smaller specialty toy store where you can get help from staff who may have actually played with the toy themselves. The smaller stores can't discount the way the big boxes can, but they often have really unique and interesting gifts that can appeal to a range of budgets. Frankly, it's been my experience that these toys often last longer.

In the end, I've decided on a Mindful Christmas, which includes themes from the first two evolutions and also some leeway. As much as I don't want to encourage a Merry Consumption, I also don't want to drive myself or my family crazy. So I'll do what I can. And if the toy my kids pick as the coolest, most fun, most exciting one under the tree was made in China, that's OK.