January 2010 Archives

            Mine include going through that stack of magazines on the desk and cleaning out my purse (down to the crumbs and gooey things I didn't know were in there.) I also make a list of New Year's resolutions that pertain to me (lose weight, be more cheerful, don't yell at kids) but these get sidetracked soon after the second encore presentation of the Rose Parade.

            Enter Robert Mahar, self-appointed grand poobah of the Junior Society, of which I am a proud member. The society is "dedicated to the proliferation and advancement of better than average kiddie culture and design," which means I get a weekly e-mail on everything from Halloween pumpkins to arts and crafts projects and sales on unique children's items. I love it. (www.juniorsociety.com)

            Mahar, of Los Angeles , is also proprietor of the online shop Mahar Drygoods which offers artisan-created goodies for children and grown-ups who like vintage stuff (count me in). Suffice to say, I'm a Mahar fan, so when he pointed the way recently to a unique campaign, I listened.

            He calls it "pay-it forward/random acts of kindness/secret Santa love."

            Last week marked the second annual World Wide Christmas Toy Drop organized by the Toy Society, am Australian-based group that makes handmade toys and leaves them in public places to be found and given homes by strangers. The project has attracted people from the Netherlands to Greece , Guatemala to Japan .

            Their blog is at www.thetoysociety.blogspot.com.

 "I've become a regular visitor, reading about the various 'toy drops' in places near and far and loving the accounts by those who have discovered and given homes to these toys," Mahar said. "It's such a simple act of kindness and some of the discovery stories are really moving."

Last year, more than 100 toys were made and dropped and the numbers for this year will be out next month. Mahar made his contribution by making a red and white sock elf featured in his shop.

"I left him hanging from the fencing that surrounds a child development center playground in my neighborhood," he said. "The Toy Society has downloadable labels that read simply, 'Take me home, I'm yours!'  and a letter that explains the project and encourage the finders to report back  and let them know the toy has been claimed."

Mahar said people are so ingenious and thoughtful, "not only in the creation of these handmade toys but in their drop locations - everywhere from the safety seat of a frozen shopping cart to the toy hanging out in the manger of a nativity diorama. I can't tell you how much I love this idea."

Me too.