Since Santa Claus outsourced elf toy production to China, you ever wonder what Chinese children play with amid all the product scares?
An Associated Press report buried on page 8 of a major metropolitan newspaper quotes a freelance writer for film magazines buying toys for her son, 5, as paying extra for Legos blocks from Denmark and Japanese train sets.
Foreign brands enjoy a reputation for higher quality, even among Chinese parents.
"We pay close attention to the news about toy and food safety," she said. "If I find a problem with a certain brand, I will just stop using it for sure."
How ironic.
When it comes to buying playthings for their own children, Chinese families who can afford it opt for foreign-made goods - even though they're made in China, too.
Quality and safety issues draw more attention as incomes rise and upwardly mobile Chinese grow more health conscious.
These Chinese parents assume that factories making foreign toy brands adhere to more rigorous standards to guard against lead paint and other harmful materials.
"I dare not buy cheap wooden toys or toys with paint," a professor at Shanghai International Studies University whose daughter, 7, tested for elevated levels of lead in her blood, told the AP. "I have a stupid standard: I buy her expensive toys in big department stores."
At the "gargantuan" New World Department Store in Shanghai, the AP said shelves are crowded with foreign brands, such as Mattel, which cost 40 to 50 percent more.
Chinese-brand toys are "crammed into a few shelves stacked with dolls and toddler toys made by StarMoon Toys," a manufacturer in Dongguan that also makes toys for some of the world's biggest brands.
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