Ending Holiday Consumerism
By Karina | September 29, 2008
I don’t want to be accused of talking holidays too early - you know how some stores manage to bump up the Christmas Carols a little bit each year, until we’re hearing them sometime shortly after Halloween? What better way, though, for our retailers to sneakily remind us that there are ONLY A FEW (tens of few) SHOPPING DAYS LEFT until GIFTMAS? The holidays have become increasingly more and more commercial over time, and now it’s an orgy of shopping that seems to last from before Thanksgiving through the infamous Black Friday and straight up to right as your driving to your friends house to gift them.
But that whole shop-’till-you drop thing has never been my cup of tea, and much less in these uncertain times. While it is very comforting to have the luxury of lots of new things, this isn’t the best economy to break the bank stocking up on things we don’t really have - even if the economy will probably fluxuate on how many people are buying things for the holidays, that’s not the best way to shore it up, either. How about instead trying to only gift your friends and loved ones with things they will truly use, and asking them to do the same for you this year?
Jenn and I covered this concept a few different ways last year - from talking about how to simply the holidays after the fact, to listing charities as alternative gift idea, to using a secret santa or elfster to make sure you’re giving your recipient exactly what they want, to the quote “tangible gifts are so 20th Century.”
And we are coming this a little earlier this year - but if you plan on making handmade gifts, this is the time to start. Every year I end up giving someone I love dearly an unfinished gift. If they’re lucky, I’ll take it back and have time to finish it before I leave for home. It’s a little embarrassing, but it’s because I NEVER start my gifts soon enough.
A friend of mine reminded me of this recently on her journal - she posted recently to a local discussion board and copied a few of her suggestions for simple but unusual handmade gifts - including preserved lemons, spiced nuts, vanilla sugar or vanilla splenda, infused vodka, fiber crafts, and etched glasses. (I’ve made spiced nuts before as a host/hostess gift during the holidays, and they were darn hard not to eat entirely myself!) All of these things are unusual, exciting, and are designed to be USED - so they won’t sit on a shelf gathering dust. They’ll enter the giftee’s life, be loved by them, and pass on as they are used up. I love that concept!
Here’s a few more resources with simplification in mind:
- New American Dream has a page up on how to simplify your holidays, which includes a great alternative gift registry. The problem with this, however, is that gift registries are really kind of awkward when it comes to etiquette. You can’t just assume that granny and your third-cousin-twice-removed will be giving you a gift, and should only share a registry with someone if they ask.
- Consious Choice has a post up that is quite long and full of food for thought. It asks you to reexamine why you’re gifting what you do, and what kind of holiday you really want to participate in.
- The Dollar Stretcher has a list of ways to simplify your holidays too - from choosing holiday cards to the best times to shop, if that’s really what you need to do.
- And how about this - try regifting this year, to get rid of a few things around your house.
What are your favorite easy homemade holiday gifts? Share them in the comments!
[[Photo from flickr user D’Arcy Norman via creative commons license.]]
Related posts:
- Easy Peasy Tip: Plan Your Holiday Gifts!
- Holiday Gifting
- Simply your Holidays
- Easy Peasy Tip: Waste-free Wrapping!
- DIY: Holiday Crafting Ideas?
- Holiday Light Displays
- Holiday Recycling
Things can really get away from you when you are holiday shopping - I keep an excel spreadsheet so that I make sure I don’t spend too much and I set limits. I try to follow Bill McKibben’s idea of the Hundred Dollar Holiday and usually get pretty darn close (in fact, last year I gave my mother-in-law a copy of Hundred Dollar Holiday as her Christmas gift!)
thanks so much for the links, the article was great and i’m sure the book is, too!
oooh, i hope all you crafty people out there share some homemade thoughts!
as a family, this year we have decided to put a limit on giftmas (finally!) … under $25 AND either homemade or at least artisan-made. we didn’t tell mom yet, but we’re sure she can figure it out. ;)
This year it will be applesauce. We went to the orchard and picked the apples as a family, then we all had a hand in making the applesauce and canning it. We made some that was plain-no sugar, some that were cinnamon and sugar, and one batch that is our apple pie batch, with cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, and sugar. Yummy!
Last year, I knit mittens for all the girls in the family and my daughter made pine cone bird feeders (peanut butter and bird seed). By the way, she was 2 last year, so it was perfectly age appropriate.
Another favorite of mine is shopping at Etsy. Because everything there is handmade and I love supporting artisans from around the country. You can also search for local people in order to shop local AND handmade. Pretty cool.
It may not sound like the greatest idea but I like to give gift cards to people. Some may think I’m being lazy but in fact I actually feel that many people would rather decide for themselves what they need and WHEN they need it. There is no hurry to purchase anything and you can spare them having to look at you and pretend to LOVE what you gave them when in fact they are not happy.
Just my two cents.
Last year we all drew names and just gave a gift to one person in the family. It was wonderful — so much less stressful, less expensive, and less wasteful.
This year, I’m baking most of my presents. And anyway, we are a large family and to avoid overspending and such we put all of our names and draw one, just like Allie explained. We’ve been doing this for ages, and it’s wonderful. The children of the family still get one present from granma and one from each uncle or aunt, and we all put together some money to buy something for our grandparents, be it a new TV or a new robe or whatever they may want/need.
Last year I gave a handmade gift along with a purchased gift, but the problem is that most of my family members are not that into the “handmade” thing so sometimes I feel my efforts are wasted. I spent so much time knitting my brother the alien scarf from the first Stitch and Bitch book, but he didn’t seem all that impressed.
C’est la vie. He would probably prefer a gift card to Best Buy, so that’s what he’ll get this year. I’m going to save my handmade gifts for folks who will really appreciate them.
Anyone else deal with recipients being unimpressed with handmade gifts? How do you handle it?
yes, I have made items that were unappreciated… and over appreciated… One SIL who loved the fleece tied blankets I made for each of her family members, asked for another because she was wearing hers out… but she keeps her quilt (and those baby quilts I made for her teenagers) folded so they are safe, never used… The quilt for MIL/FIL, is sometimes on the bed, her fleece tied blanket is still rolled and tied as she received it 2 or 3 Christmases ago and his I see all the time- in his car with his border collie on it….hmmm…he IS using it!! I made the teenagers scrappy quilts a couple of Christmases ago and told them to go right home and put them on their beds and they would never get another until it was worn out!!! Here’s hoping they are sleeping under them…
I was planning on knitting reusable bags for most of my relatives (pretty simple project, even for a beginning knitter) but the one I’m working on now is taking forever. I just found this site about flavored sugar and am now thinking about making lemon sugar and/or rose sugar instead. Since I use a lot of lemon, lemon sugar would be a great way to not waste the zest, and my mom’s roses have a really nice scent so they would make good sugar too…
I’m going to try to do several homemade things–some food, some sewn things. I’m also going to do second-hand things where appropriate, like books. I have a friend who has been up-to-there w/ the orgy of holiday spending, and she started www.xmasresistance.org to promote her anti-consumption agenda, which she’s been invested in for years now.
My biggest change this year is that I’m not going to fly halfway ‘cross the country for Xmas. I’m an adult, and although I love my family, the expense is serious, the carbon footprint is huge, and it’s an enormous hassle.
Aww, thanks for the link! Er, I just noticed all of my spelling and grammar mistakes, I should start proofreading.
Something I just made for myself this week that I’ve gifted before and may do so again: reusable produce bags. Just make small drawstring sacks out of net or a light weight cotton. I had an orphan flour sack towel that made one small and one large bag, with ties made out of Sugar n’ Cream yarn I had left over from something else. True, they may weigh a tiny bit more than plastic bags, but I’ll live with spending that tiny bit extra on my bulk foods and produce.
I think I may have to play around with some of those other flavored sugars. Ooo, maybe do one with mint!
Oooooh that’s a good idea, Amy. It just kills me to bring my Flip n Tumble (as ratty as it’s becoming) to Whole Foods, only to fill it up with plastic bags from the bulk aisle. I’ve got a ton of scrap fabric and yarn laying around my house that I could use for these…
I’m definitely interested in how to simplify. We are getting to be quite a large family, with partners of siblings, and a new nephew to me. I usually rotate who gets the awesome handknit present, but I have to come up with something for the others that they will use and like. Applesauce sounds like a great idea for my in-laws. I was thinking of making apple butter actually. I want to stay away from baked goods, even though I love them, because it really is too overwhelming to my healthy eating habits to face these holidays surrounded by sugary treats.
not sure if anyone will still check this because the post was quite a bit ago, but, a few holidays ago i made bar soap and body scrub for everyone using instructions from random Google searches. the way i saw it, the worst case scenario was that the items would not be used but were flushable/dissolvable. I was able to buy most of the items from the bulk bins, so on my end I wasn’t generating a ton of waste. i customized the items to the recipient, i.e. i put unused coffee grounds in one of my sister’s body scrubs because she loved that smell, while my dad has sensitive dry skin so i made him soap with shea butter in it. i didn’t use anything fancy as molds, just a bread pan and i got to use up spare plastic and glass containers that i had around. if they like it, they’ll rave about it for a bit and you’ll know that you can make some again the next year or for the next occasion; if they don’t rave about it, you know to try something else next time.
in lieu of birthday presents, a friend’s family has a dinner tradition. whomever’s birthday it is picks the restaurant and they all go out. i think that this certainly could work for a family in lieu of gifts…a family date. Based on price you can search menus and come up with a list of places that are in that range and draw from a hat or alternate who gets to pick each year.
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Consider giving a gift to a charitable organization in the name of your gift recipient. It’s an easy way to take care of those awkward $20 exchanges. Wanna know what you can get me? Give a gift to my alma mater in my name - help someone else out and show me that you care about what’s important to me.
For those of you who still believe Christmas is a Christian holiday (like me), consider supporting a person who is in the mission field as they give physical care and love to those who are most likely much less fortunate. It gives the missionary a connection to their “home” during the holidays and it also gives someone a chance to experience something unexpected during a season where we remember that embracing others’ concerns is important to the One who created those others. It’s nice to re-tool Christmas and actually be a blessing to folks rather than leveraging my gift to someone else as collateral for them getting me what I want.
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It gives the missionary a connection to their “home” during the holidays and it also gives someone a chance to experience something unexpected during a season where we remember that embracing others’ concerns is important to the One who created those others.Excellent site, keep up the good work. I read a lot of forums on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your forum. Thanks
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