After Christmas last year I decided to stock up on some "favors" for my kids' to give away to classmates at school during the holidays. Even if there's no official Christmas party (and there wasn't, which is terribly sad in my opinion) the boys still like to give a little something to each of their friends, and I'm cool with that.
So the favors I bought on sale last year were boxes of miniature wooden sled ornaments, half painted red and the other half green. We dug them out of the "stash" of gifts I keep handy and decided to write each classmate's name and the year in permanent marker. The boys agreed they would be appropriate to hand out to everyone, so we cleared it with their teachers first and then set about to personalize the ornaments.
Just as I wrote the last kid's name on a sled, I happened to turn the ornament over and notice the "Made in China" sticker on the back. Uh-oh! It dawned on me that over the past few months there had been multiple recalls on items made in China due to the use of lead paint. I started to rethink this whole gift-giving deal. I mean, think about it... It's tough enough being a kid these days, but give a gift that makes someone else sick and you might be shunned for life. I can hear it now... "Yeah, that's the kid who gave away ornaments laced with lead paint."
I was reminded of the "Seinfeld" episode where George's fiancee` died from licking toxic envelopes as she addressed their wedding invitations. Yeah, not exactly the kind of thing you'd want to be remembered for causing, not that any of the recipients of these ornaments were going to be licking them, but they're kids - YOU NEVER KNOW!
I decided not to panic though, contacting the company from which I'd ordered these ornaments, and they promised me there had been no recall on this item. Whew! Crisis averted. But next year (NOTE TO SELF) I'm buying "Made in the USA" items, just in case.
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