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The Christmas "wish list" had arrived from New Delhi, India, and was a fervent request for "lots of toys." It came from my three grandchildren, ages 10, 7 and 5, who live in India where their father, my son, works. The children requested "American" toys not sold in India.

So with the kids' list in hand, I went Christmas shopping for girl toys, boy toys and toys with names I'd never heard of.

"What's a Wii?" I asked the young salesperson at Sears. She smiled politely and tried to explain. I suspect she thought I was somebody from the age of dinosaurs. After two foot-weary days of shopping, I've finally filled "the wish list."

George, my 7-year-old grandson, is a G.I. Joe fan, so I bought him a fierce-looking G.I. Joe carrying an AK-47 and dressed for "a jungle mission," according to the box.

Ah, G.I. Joe! What a perfect all-American gift. That ol' soldier has been around for countless decades. My own two sons, now fathers themselves, used to play with G.I. Joe soldiers when they were children.

But wait! As I began wrapping G.I. Joe, I noticed something shocking. He's become Chinese! His label said "Made in China." So G.I. Joe, formerly an American icon, is now given birth in some Chinese sweatshop where poor workers are paid $1 a day.

That made me wonder about American workers who used to make G.I. Joe in our country. Did they find other jobs when G.I. Joe left for China?

As I continued to wrap Christmas gifts, I grew increasingly curious about their origins. I carefully examined each label, hoping America, the world's only superpower, could stand tall.

Instead, I had another shock to my national pride. Olivia, my 10-year-old granddaughter, is a fan of American Girl dolls. So I bought her three books from the American Girl series. You guessed it. Each book jacket said "Printed in China." Good grief! The American Girl, so quintessentially American, is really Chinese.

Next on the list was Eddie's request. He is 5 years old and likes Star Wars stuff. So I bought him a small Star Wars robot. The box said -- you guessed it -- "Made in China."

Candy was also on the kids' list. They requested old-fashioned red and white candy canes, the kind we all loved as children at Christmastime. As I prepared to wrap the box of candy canes, I sighed with relief. Surely, the candy canes were not cooked in China. I was right. Instead, they were cooked in Mexico. Why "made in Mexico"? I suspect the American manufacturer closed his factory and moved across the border where labor is cheap. Just like Forsyth County's Dell computer factory.

Olivia's new Christmas pajamas were also made south of the border. The label said "Made in Guatemala." Years earlier, those pajamas might have been manufactured by a busy textile company in North Carolina.

As the afternoon wore on and my wrapping continued, I found only one item that was "Made in the U.S.A." A pair of socks. There's something so lowly about socks that it made me sad that they alone symbolized American manufacturing.

None of the above is a startlingly new discovery. We Americans have known for years that we're no longer a manufacturing economy but a so-called "service economy." Even so, it's depressing to realize that nearly every Christmas gift you'll wrap this season was made somewhere else in the world -- and probably at the expense of American jobs.

But wait! Buried beneath the mound of gifts was a forgotten item waiting to be wrapped. It was a joke gift for my son, a UNC graduate and devoted Tar Heel sports fan. It was a "Tar Heel Toothbrush" for "ages 9 to 99." Even the bristles of the toothbrush were appropriately Carolina blue and white.

And where was the Tar Heel Toothbrush manufactured? The label said "Made in Mexico." Nothing is sacred, not even a Tar Heel toothbrush.

So the Tar Heel Toothbrush that was made in Mexico, bought in North Carolina and mailed to India will be used by a North Carolinian working in New Delhi. Like it or not, that's called globalization.

Rosemary Roberts writes a column in the News & Record on alternate Fridays. E-mail: Rmroberts@triad.rr.com