Norwegian children usually receive up to 6 kilos of toys for Christmas, this is in addition to the 600 toys an average 7-year already have.

Giving used toys for Christmas was not social accepted in Norway. But we found out that children don’t necessarily wish for new “box fresh” toys, they only wanted toys that are new to them.

In December when the toy industry sells the most toys during the year, we opened a new kind of toyshop. What was so different? Well, the shop was completely empty. The day of the opening on the 1st of December there was nothing to by in the shop, but still the line outside with excited children where long. In their hands they were carrying their old toys they no longer played with. The children filled up the empty shop in no time and at the same time got excited about “new” used toys other children had left behind.

Children don’t wish for “box fresh” toys for Christmas, they only want something new to play with. And it is us adults that again and again by new toys. By showing adults that the children don’t really care if a toy is new or not, we wanted to start the change in making it more acceptable to give and buy used toys. The strategy was to give parents the opportunity to buy “new” used toys to their children, at the same time teach them about the environment, reuse and the joy of giving.

We invited children to donate toys they no longer played with. Within the first day the shop was filled up with used toys. Children gave away all kinds of toys from teddy-bears, books, toy cars and games. All unique and one of the kind. The shop was open throughout December, and every day children came to donate. At the same time parents and grandparents started to buy used “new” toys for Christmas. Because they realized that children don’t care if the toys are new or not, as long as they were new to them.

After the December event, this campaign has lived on in Fretex stores around the country.

The stunt attracted national and local media, and we managed to change the attitude for buying and giving used toys. The number of people that wanted to buy used toys increased from 44% to 67%.