I hereby pledge to get crafty and go shopping!

Every month, each of the CMP contributors pick our favorite pick of the month and write a quick blurb on it for our monthly newsletter. Out of dozens of amazing posts in September, four of us nearly had a cage match over who got to squeal about Cubebot, the handmade wooden robot from Japan.

Clearly, we all have a thing for handmade toys here.

In honor of American Craft Week this week, our friends at the Handmade Toy Alliance are rallying moms like you and me to take the Handmade Pledge and promise to buy at least one handmade gift for the holidays-- not that it's hard to buy even more.

 

The pledge is really simple but powerful: buy handmade, buy local. Buy things because they are beautiful and lasting, not because they are cheap.

It's something we've always supported here. Even if it means you buy fewer things.

You can find hundreds of great finds from wooden toys to clothes to jewelry just by searching our toy archives or searching for keywords like Etsy or handmade. You'll find faves like Little Alouette, a CMP Pick of the Year whose wooden teethers (above) are flat-out gorgeous.

Or browse through the 500 members of the Alliance on their Members page. (It's not just toys, either.) I loved discovering Fairy Finery, makers of the beautiful dress-up clothes shown here, and a huge cut above anything you'll find in your average chain store.

We hope you'll join us in taking the Handmade Pledge--and then settling in with a laptop and a cup of coffee to leisurely shop for really beautiful creations. Beats the stuffing out of a frantic, screech-filled, December 24 trip to the superstore for leftover plastic junk, right?~Delilah

Visit the Handmade Toy Alliance to take the Handmade Pledge, and be sure to celebrate American Craft Week by buying something fabulous for yourself. Or your kids. Or both.

Find More: Causes and General Do-Gooding, Toys and Other Playthings