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.
