The Gift That Keeps From Giving

Yikes! Where has time gone? Christmas is 39 days away, and time grows short. Many people will still go another 38 days without shopping for Christmas. Why can't we just go without shopping for Christmas entirely?

That's the point of Buy Nothing Day. This event was started up by the consumer group adbusters. Happening every November 25th in Canada, the goal is to raise issues surrounding consumerism and the impact it has on our lives. We stress ourselves out to buy that perfect item for our loved ones, not really knowing what they like and knowing deep down in our hearts that whatever we buy them will likely make it into the dumpster within a few months. The rush of the season also has an impact on those who work in the retail outlets, who may not have much time to spend with their families over the holidays because of their work. By January, we've also come to realise that maybe we should get around to paying off that pesky credit-card, a debt which may have gone towards financing tropical vacations for retail executives.

There are alternatives to the shop-till-you-drop approach to celebrating Christmas with your loved ones. A group of Canadian Christians a while back started up something called Buy Nothing Christmas. Aside from discouraging the mad rush to the malls that accompanies the Christmas season, BNC provides alternatives for people to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. They include such things as crafts and recipie books, but also crucial is that they remind people about Christmas being the birth of Christ, and what that represents (which deserves its own topic and isn't something I plan to take on right now). This also raises the question about our values. Do we value collecting and distributing material items for the sake of collecting and distributing material items, or do we value simply spending time with and cherishing our firends and family?