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| Grub last Christmas |
Some of the presents don't sit well with me and my 'rules' of trying to minimise consumerism in my household or some are poorly made and I find myself recycling gifts or giving them to charity. Shhh... don't tell anyone! Although I'm not really throwing away items, I still feel a sense of unnecessary waste. Not to mention the wrapping, boxes, cards etc etc that have been used to present the presents.
So this year and onwards, Mike and I have decided that we'll be getting Grub one present for Christmas, that is until shes old enough to bring up Santa with us. Then Mike and I will have to have another discussion on what our views are about that situation.
As for gift giving to other family and friends, we're planning on creating homemade yummy treats and goodies wrapped in recycled packaging and card.
Do you and your family try to reduce the amount of consumerism during Christmas? What do you plan on giving this Christmas?
MamaKoo
What a great idea. I too am feeling overwhelmed by consumerism this year however I live giving and receiving gifts so it's an internal battle. I've decided, where I can to purchase people experiences. That way there is no waste but a beautiful memory.
ReplyDeleteI hear you Koo, Hawk's birthday is only a month before Xmas, so we have double trouble. For Birthdays I write "no presents" on the invites - he still gets some, but it saves on the plastic crap that was bought last minute by the "people who thought they'd better not show up empty handed."
ReplyDeleteWe also have wishlists for the three of us, so if anyone asks what we want, we show them the list (which has everything from a house (on all our lists) and Harley Davidson (hubby) to books (surprise: mostly mine).
As far as gifts for other people - I got organic, fair trade coffee for Mum (to try and convert her.)I made folders of inspirational quotes and nice pictures for female friends and there's always a few things from TEAR Australia (seeds for a poor family to plant and school supplies for a child in Africa.) Oxfam unwrapped is good as is the Fred Hollows Foundation. (I like TEAR because gifts start at $5.)
Maybe next year I'll try to go with more "homemade yummy treats" like you! And once we've used up the mountains of wrapping paper and cards we have left over from years past - it'll be newspaper or home made reusable cloth pressy bags!