A Craigslist Christmas

I got a major chunk of the baby's Christmas shopping done tonight. She will be a year and a half old this Christmas. On one hand I don't want to make it too much of a big deal, on the other hand I'm trying to get into the mindset of only buying toys for her twice a year - Christmas and birthday - so I feel like I need to make it count. So I made a list of the things that we most want to get for her: a tricycle, a doll cradle, any of the various Little People sets, and a set of farm animal figurines (action figures? dolls? not sure of the terminology there). I checked the two biggies in our area - Toys R Us and Target. Some of the things were cheaper at one place, some were cheaper at the other, but neither were more than a few dollars cheaper. Not good enough.

So I turned to the internet: Craigslist!!! I've both bought and sold things from Craigslist before and I've never had a bad experience. About fifteen minutes searching yesterday allowed me to locate an offer of various used toddler toys at about a twenty minute drive away. A few texts secured me an appointment at the seller's home. (Some people are concerned about showing up at a Craigslist seller's home and ending up in little bitty pieces in their basement. Anything is possible, I guess, but I've only met super nice people. You never know who will answer your ad. I've had hugely muscular guys covered in tattoos come by to pick up things I've sold, and they are not creepy at all, just happy to get some cheap used baby clothes for their own little girl.) Tonight everything worked out great. The trike was in great condition, and so was the Little People playground that she had. And, as usually happens, we fell into conversation and she realized that she had some other things that I might be interested in buying. So I also got a Little People house, an animal noises game, and a basic Leapfrog learning to read thing. All for $60! So now her Christmas shopping is pretty much done. I'm still going to get her the farm animal figurines since they are about $8 at Toys R Us, and may be able to get SO to build her an inexpensive doll cradle with cast off wood, but that will be it.