It seems every week now someone’s discovering an imported toy that will shred little Johnny into pieces, cause Susie to spontaneously combust or slowly poison entire classrooms of kindergarteners with lead paint. This has left the overwhelmed and under funded US Consumer Product Safety Commission and toymakers scrambling to solve what increasingly appears to be a very broken system. And it’s left allot of parents scratching their heads wondering where to turn this holiday season.

I’m a regular visitor at Cool Mom Picks knowing that Liz and Kristen dedicate allot of time and energy to tracking down some of the best handcrafted, locally made, organic, fair trade, or simply safer alternatives to mass produced and imported toys. They’ve just compiled a Safer Toy Guide which is a must read for all of us who will being shopping for the short set during the next couple of months. What’s special about this particular list is Cool Mom Picks understanding that, “safer doesn’t mean boring, and handmade doesn’t mean rustic.” Three cheers.

I was also excited to find that the lovely Natalie Zee Drieu, Senior Editor over at Craftzine - the online presence of Craft Magazine has pulled together a feature on ‘Safe Toys That You Can Make.’ For those of you who might be craftily inclined this could be a great option for gift-giving, albeit one that will require advance planning on your part. And while it’s included in the write up I want to make special mention of three recent crafty toy ‘how-to’ books, which happen to be recent releases by three pals of mine!
Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty
Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals by Therese Laskey
Plush You! Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff by Kristen Rask

If you know of other safer toy gift guides or additional such resources I invite you to post a comment.