A reader of this fine site posted the other day an excellent alternative for Piñatas. Here is her suggestion…

A candy run

I too have found that pinatas are just a problem waiting to happen. I am hispanic, and have never really understood the importance of having them at parties. Last year I made a move to do something different. I created a “Candy Run” for the kids to a) eliminate a child with a weapon b) eliminate the trampling of small children by the bigger ones c) prevent the tears from the kids that don’t get anything d) create a friendlier experience. I spread candies, toys, prizes over a giant grass area in the park, roped it off, and when it was time, I had all the kids circle the area (80+ kids) and make a run for it. The idea is the same with Easter egg hunts. It was a success, and now my family members all do the same thing at their parties. I hate pinatas.  

Treasure Balls (Hey, I didn't name them...)

A friend just sent me this delightful article on piñata alternatives. I love the creative thinking that went into it. 

The Treasure Ball – “A Non-Violent Parenting” Piñata

This is just one more example of American ingenuity when it comes to addressing issues like social violence. Every time someone sends me a link like this one I know in my soul that I’m doing God’s work by spreading the word about the dangers of piñata related violence.

Every 4th of July, my extended family gets together to celebrate. We live all across the western states, so this is the only time of year we all see each other. It is also my 8 year old nephew’s birthday.

Most of my family have seen the site. Some of them think I take it too seriously, but understand. This year, to prove I’m not all doom and gloom, my wife and I brought a pinata to the celebration.

We hung it form a tree without telling anyone, covered it with a pillow case so people couldn’t see what it was, then rounded them up. We also placed a baseball bat at the trunk of the tree. 

Of course people realized it was a pinata hanging from the tree and were stunned we would put one up. They were even more stunned when we removed the pillow case and revealed the pinata…It had a picture of my face on it! Then I went into a long spiel about anyone who ever got tired of listening to my pinata story had a chance to get back at me, we bought a bat, yada yada yada. 

My family was flabbergasted. 

Then I called up the birthday boy nephew and had him stand under it. Everyone was very quiet. 

I asked him if was ready to get the candy out. He enthusiastically said “Yes!”

I blindfolded him. Spun him around. Picked up the bat. Instead of handing it to him, I used it to pry loose a pull string that I’d taped out of view. I quickly handed the pull string to my nephew who pulled it with a “come and get it!”

Of course it was a pull string pinata. Joke was on my family, but they liked the candy.

My family attended a Memorial day bbq block party we have every year. All people we know who are familiar with my story. There was one new family on the block, and they were attending their first block bbq. 

Things were going great, everyone was eating and having fun. But the father in this new family unit, who I will call “The Smiths,” brought out a piñata that had been following them from house to house as they moved, and thought it would be fun for us all to bash it in.

When my daughter saw it, she turned pale and threw up her hotdog and beans. My wife took her home and I explained to Mr. Smith why it had such a profound affect on my daughter. 

He laughed it off and said, I quote, “Well, she’s gone now so let the rest of us have some fun.”

At that point, I would simply have left the gathering, but but over a half dozen of my neighbors stepped in and told Mr. Smith where to shove his piñata. Several of the wives went to our house to coax out my daughter (they succeeded with promises of chocolate egg creams.) 

More than one of my neighbors apologized to me for the behavior of Mr. Smith and told me they wanted me to know that my family (and our bbq chops) are always more welcome than a piñata. I have never felt so welcomed by a group of people in my life. The entire block stepped in and supported my quest to educate everyone to the dangers of piñatas.  

And Mr. Smith? Well, he’s a bit of a pariah for now. But my neighbors are good Christian people, and we’ll forgive him before the next block party.

Leave it to network television to turn pain and suffering into reality tv laughs. I recently came across this video from one of those stupid home video shows. It is a montage of piñata related violence with the audience laughing uproariously. I understand the concept of schadenfreude, but is someone getting a bat to the genitals really all that funny? Watch for yourself. I’m sure you’ll laugh, but in the back of your mind, remember that you are witnessing real pain.

This bit of news caught my eye. And gladdened my heart. Major Hollywood studios are finally cracking down on the illegal use of their intellectual property in the creation of unlicensed piñatas! Here’s the story from the LA Times…

Disney and the other companies, in what experts said was an understandable move to protect their popular cartoon and character properties, filed copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits against Santoyo and another nearby shop owner for allegedly selling the counterfeit pinatas.

Although Santoyo settled last month for an undisclosed sum, word of the legal action against these two small Los Angeles vendors — who peddle their wares in an informal pinata district centered along Olympic Boulevard and Central Avenue — has reverberated through the garages, backyards and warehouses of pinata makers as far away as Santa Ana, who worry that they too will be targeted. But will they stop making the images of Cinderella and Dora?

“Without that, we don’t have much of a business,” said South Los Angeles pinata maker Marta Garcia. “We need to be careful, but it’s hard because the demand is for the characters on television and in the theaters.”

While I can certainly sympathize the retailers who just want to earn a living, stealing is stealing. And if Disney isn’t being paid for the use of their characters, this is clear cut theft, that hurts a lot of people from the janitors at Disney’s offices to the creative people who come up with the entertainment we love.

I was informed today that the proper name for a store that primarily sells pinatas is a “pinataria.” Now I’ll be sure to describe it correctly when asking others to join me in picketing a pinataria. 

It is astonishing to me that so many people visit my site and respond with a knee jerk reaction when presented with an opinion they disagree with. Because I dislike pinatas, and feel that Mexico’s culture fosters violence, people choose to ignore my warning and accuse me of bigotry.

If I say America is a violent society, and it is, who am I stereotyping? White people in Texas who pack guns? Blacks in New Orleans who lost their homes? Or suburban white kids who shoot up their schools? Saying America is a violent society may be generalizing, but it isn’t racism.

Mexico is a nation of many races - indigenous populations, mixed race populations that combined the indigenous DNA with the European conqueror’s DNA, even nearly pure blooded European stock. Who am I being racist towards when saying that Mexican society, their culture, is violent? No one. I am not assigning violence to any DNA profile, I am assigning it to an environment that promotes violence through bloody bull fights and pinata bashing. There is a huge difference. The police in Mexico carry machine guns! Why would the police need machine guns if Mexico weren’t a violent society?

Unfortunately, my comments about Mexican culture seem to have taken the spotlight off of why I created this site - to educate people like you about the dangerous influence pinatas can have on our impressionable youth - so I wanted to take a moment to reinforce that I have nothing against Mexicans, my uncle is married to one and I have half Mexican cousins. I just don’t like their violent sports and festivities like pinata bashing.

Someone posted a comment on my site that he bets I think guns kill people.

Is anyone so naive as to think they don’t? Every statistic has shown that when access to guns, hand guns in particular, is constrained or eliminated, violent crime, and deaths by violence, go down. It is incontrovertible, despite what the NRA says.

So yes, I think guns kill people.

And giving kids a pinata is like giving them a loaded gun and hoping nobody gets hurt.

My campaign to educate America about the insipent danger of pinatas is an uphill battle. I know that. I routinely face derision for waging my battle, but if I can spare just one child, or one parent, the pain and suffering that is both physical and mentally, then it is worth it.

People will say, “so should we ban baseball too since your daughter used a bat?” No, of course not. The point of baseball isn’t to beat something into pieces and encourage violence. But that is the point of pinatas.

People say “should we try to protect the world from every conceivable form of suffering?” No. It isn’t possible. But when there are obvious hazards that serve no useful purpose other than “fun” which is derived primarily from acting in violence, then why should we encourage that kind of activity? We shouldn’t.

People say “what’s the big deal, it’s just a pinata.” But you know, people used to say, “what’s the big deal, it’s just a cigarette.” Or a cherry bomb. Or a switchblade. They’re all harmless, right? Pinatas are no different than a cigarette, a cherry bomb or a knife. Sure, they can all be used safely, but the potential for harm out weighs any other value. And so we regulate and/or ban these things.

There are now two studies that show direct links between pinatas and violent behavior. There are no free speech issues. So why should we tolerate the ongoing availability of pinatas? We shouldn’t. And I will continue my fight to stop pinata related violence.