21 November 2011

Givinig Up Shopping

Thanks for visiting Green Means Go(od) this week! And Happy Thanksgiving week - my favorite holiday of the year! Don't be misled by the title, I'm not giving up shopping for good. However, I am using the upcoming holiday that has become increasingly consumeristic (eh-hem, Christmas I'm looking at you) to think more about what I consume and how I can decrease that while still showing my family and friends plenty of love and holiday cheer.

Black Friday is upon us. Just as soon as turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes leftovers are stored in the fridge, many people will commence with the Christmas shopping. Personally, I've never been much for the post-Thanksgiving sales. I can't say that I've ever been much of a shopper in general.

So, it won't be difficult for me to participate the in the alternate post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday: Buy Nothing Day. Buy Nothing Day is a protest against consumerism generally and the consumerism associated with Christmas more specifically. The magazine Adbusters is also sponsoring a Buy Nothing Christmas event and as much as I'd like to participate in that non-shopping event, I don't think it's feasible this year.

Nate and I have discussed our options for Christmas gifts this year. We are giving our parents different experience gifts, which I think they will appreciate more than an actual gift anyway. We're following our experience gifting trend with Benny as well. Santa will still visit, but his gift from us will be something he'd really like to do with us. The other day he asked if he could go downtown at night. I think we'll take the bus downtown some night and have dinner with him. Lila will get to come along for the ride.

The blog (Never Home)Maker has some great suggestions on how to avoid giving and getting more stuff this holiday season.

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