Re-thinking Christmas

Naomi & I have been trying for a number of years now to do something different within our Christmas celebrations within our extended families. Last year, we purchased all our gifts from a fairtrade shop for our families with a budget of $5 per person, our families rolled their eye's and said that they would expect nothing less from us, but I suspect that they appreciated the sentiment none the less.

We also limited gifts for our children and ourselves at one gift each worth no more than $20... surprisingly they did not seem to mind at all, however with all the extra gifts they got along the way from others I think the intent of that was somehow lost...

It is difficult to make a stand about consumerism at christmas time, when those around you earnestly want to show their love for you through buying gifts, and certainly, we would not want to take that option away from them...

The problem is how to show our love to them without looking like a tightass (excuse the french), there have to be creative ways out there, we have tried to make gifts for our loved ones with varying degrees of success over the years, but even they can often get quite pricey as we buy the supplies we need to make the gifts and as a result our aim of a consumerism free christmas was lost...

If you have any ideas for us this year, please let us know as I personally am running out of ideas.

Anyway, here are a few thoughts on consumerism and christmas...


This is a website dedicated to a "buy-nothing-christmas". Well worth checking out.

And here are some thoughts by one of my favourite writers and revolutionaries shane claibourne