Isn’t that the question on everyone’s mind right now? What are you giving people for Christmas*?
Fair Trade
Too many items in our stores are made in sweatshops, which is why we can purchase them for such insanely low prices. The reality is that many people work seven days a week, twelve or more hours a day, and earn pennies per hour. There’s no excuse for that. One option is to purchase items which were made under fair trade conditions. This basically means that those who made them were paid a decent wage. The only real problem with that is that the items often cost much more than we’re used to.
Mom Most Traveled has a post called Deck the Halls with Taraluna, in which she discusses some beautiful animal-themed tree ornaments made in India. They’re really quite gorgeous. While not inexpensive, they are certainly priced equivalently to handmade ornaments here in Canada.
Ethiquette.ca has a list of great fair trade products available for those of us who live in Canada, all of which would make wonderful Christmas gifts. I have purchased items from Ten Thousand Villages in the past, and I know they are well made and definitely worth the price.
Hand Made
Another great option is The Hand Made Pledge. I love this idea. “I pledge to buy hand made this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me.” There are so many great reasons to buy, give, and use hand made items. Check out the site. The products mentioned by Mom Most Traveled, and the products listed at Ethiquette.ca all count as hand made.
So what are you giving for Christmas this year?
* Yes, I say Christmas. I’m afraid I’m not terribly politically correct, but I can’t bring myself to say “holiday season” when I really do mean Christmas. Christmas is what I’ve grown up celebrating, it’s my favourite time of the year, and it’s what I think about when December rolls around. However, this is not my way of saying “The rest of you don’t count.” Other faiths have awesome festivals and holy days! With the exception of Yule, most of those calendars are moon-based and do not always land in December.
November 29, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I’m giving Kiva.org gift certificates to a lot of people. The recipient can choose an entrepreneur to loan the gc money to, and when it’s paid back, they can lend it out again, or withdraw the money. I suspect most people will continue lending the money to fund entrepreneurs around the world, so it’s the gift that keeps giving!
Honestly, though, I’m trying to get out of the going overboard at the holidays, and try to do smaller things for people throughout the year, as I think of them. Why wait for December?
December 2, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I too was facing the issue of how to stretch my gift giving dollars and discovered craft project kits by this company called Foldin’ Money on Amazon.com and the name implies exactly what it is, money folded into designs such as cake, a shirt and a star. The directions were clear and easy to follow. I spent about $45 dollars to purchase the three kits and spent about another $30 in creating the folded money designs. Using fabric and stickers I had around the house, I decorated them in holiday themes for the people on my list. Now my Christmas shopping’s done and I’m excited about giving homemade gifts this year. But the best part is, it’s MONEY that they can spend because the designs unfold and the decorations come off.
Hope that helps, Merry Christmas!
Wes