This Christmas was scary for both consumers and retailers thanks to a toy recall involving lead paint.

There I was, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, trying to figure out what to put on my 1-year-old daughter’s Christmas list because I knew family members would start asking me what to get her. The recalls affected my list, making me doubt the safety of the toys still on the shelves.

I imagine most parents were giving the new toys a second look and thinking exactly the same thoughts. I was. Are they safe? How many toys out there are painted with lead paint? Will that one make my child sick?

And these lead to even more questions.

Do we already own toys that have lead paint? As if parents don’t have enough to worry about when it comes to toys, such as small parts, magnets and how they will affect their child’s future and self-image. The fact that the lead paint was traced back to China also makes me wonder who dropped the ball.

Do we place the blame on China, or do we place the blame on our own manufacturers for not checking the companies out and allowing them to paint toys with lead paint?

I think the blame falls on both. The manufacturers here should have looked further into the companies they were in business with and made sure they were using safe, quality products. Those companies in China never should have used harmful products in the first place.

Retailers’ bottom line was affected, as well. If parents were afraid to buy then retailers wouldn’t make any money.

My mother and I went shopping the day before Christmas. She was trying to finish up her shopping and needed my recommendations and advice. I was alarmed at the amount of toys still on the shelves (and equally alarmed at the drastically empty Hannah Montana and High School Musical shelves, but that’s another story). This could only mean one of two things: either the stores were surprisingly well stocked, especially with it being the day before Christmas, or not many people were buying those cute and colorful toys, afraid they might be harmful. I’m going to assume it was the latter, which means that retailers lost money.

With all this, it makes me wonder. What next? Should we expect more recalls? I hope not. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see and hope that we’ve heard the last of them.