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Old 12-28-2008, 07:15 PM   #397
Lorena
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Join Date: May 2004
Wish I knew about this before Xmas as this will probably not work next year (our oldest will be 9 and will surely know about Santa), but nonetheless, this is great.

Original - On Christmas Eve, let Santa take away the old toys, too | Parent Hacks

In the forever battle to keep declutter our house, Christmas inevitably causes stress, especially when it comes to toys and our 3-year-old. So in our house, we're not the only ones who recycle. Santa recycles, too.

About two weeks ago, when she started getting really excited about Christmas and Santa, we started talking about how we need to make room for new toys. I told her on Christmas Eve, when Santa comes to visit, that next to the cookies and milk she can leave a biiiiig box of toys by the fireplace (I do a lot of Christmas shopping via Amazon.com, so I've saved one of their larger boxes just for this purpose). When Santa stops by our house to leave *her* toys, he'll take the old toys with him back to the elves who will fix them up, recycle them, and send them to little boys and girls who may not get as much from their parents for Christmas as she does - so those kids have lots of toys, too!

Well, she has been *all* gung ho, even putting some of the toys that used to be her favorites and telling us that the little boys and girls who don't have as many toys will love them even more than she does. So on Christmas Eve, when my husband and I are sneaking around to play Santa, the box will go in grandma's trunk for a trip on Dec. 26 to the local women's shelter.
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