Comments on: Why You Should Never Take Me Christmas Shopping

By: unadilla

unadilla — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:02:54 +0000

above should’ve read-
“Not that I’m arguing that most people today COULDN’T be in for a catastrophic change to their lives…….”

By: unadilla

unadilla — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:01:13 +0000

While I am as curmudgeonly as the next guy when it comes to shopping of any kind (but particularly “X-mas” shopping), I have to be equally curmudgeonly about references to the fall of Rome. The ‘fall of Rome’ was not a hitting-the-wall type collapse with people going about obliviously shopping for baubles one day and starving the next. It was a long, relatively slow decline, and most people didn’t suffer a catastrophic change to their lives. Not that I am arguing that most people today could be in for a catastrophic change to their lives, just that the fall of Rome might not be the best or most accurate example.

But on to Christmas commercialism…. Every year I tell people (friends, family….) that I DO NOT WANT ANY GIFTS and that I WILL NOT BE GIVING ANY GIFTS. Within our extended family we always agree there will be no gifts, just plenty of food and drink and social time. But someone always cheats, and usually lets it be known that they are going to cheat well before Christmas, thus toppling dominoes of guilt whereby (most) everyone ends up buying some (thankfully small) gift for everyone else because no one wants to be the person who got a gift and didn’t give one. Its maddening.

By: Greenpa

Greenpa — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:54:38 +0000

Rob, your anthropologist will appreciate these song lyrics, from Native American bard Jack Gladstone. Jack has degrees in Philosophy and Anthro, besides being a great singer. One of his takes on the demise of the Native Americans- they were killed by shopping.

http://www.jackgladstone.com/Pages/noble_heart_lyrics.htm#hudson%20bay%20blues

By: Jan Steinman

Jan Steinman — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:16:44 +0000

Josef, won’t be anywhere near London on Valentine’s Day, but will be listening for those vibes…

If you’re ever in south west British Columbia, arrange for a visit. We can’t promise anything as spectacular as what you’re planning, but we do hold hands and express gratitude before meals.

By: Josef Davies-Coates

Josef Davies-Coates — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:59:11 +0000

I agree with Jan and personally never buy anyone any presents (ok so sometimes my girlfriend and young nieces get something small).

Jan: if you’re around in London on Feb 14th you (and anyone ready this, actually) should head down to Reclaim Love in Piccadilly Circus where we gather to remind people that you don’t have to buy stuff for people to show them you love them, you just have to love them!

We do a hippy holdy-handy send love out to the world ritual thing, then have a street party. Its always really great fun, come along!

Watch the videos (which I helped to film) and you’ll get a sense of what it is like

By: d.vm

d.vm — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:21:28 +0000

Avoid giving any material “stuff” that doesn’t help prepare the people you care about for our slide down the peak oil curve (and the myriad other feedback reality checks our dear earth needs to pay us in response to how we’ve treated it). Give a garden shovel, organic seeds, how-to books, a solar panel (system) that can power a laptop or recharge batteries, a solar cooker, a bicycle or bike trailer, a (used) copy of Catton’s “Overshoot” or Diamond’s “Collapse”, or fifty dollars to spend at the local farmer’s market. I suspect one reason why people with affluenza balk at ecological “alternatives” (ecology is not alter to nature) is that they have little to no experience with a farmer’s market, for instance, or never tried to do something they regularly do using solar energy instead. So if one feels a need to buy something material, I’d say go this route. But if “it’s the thought that counts,” then put your money away and give thought (in the form of spending time with others or, as Jan shows, volunteering to DO something for them). Oh, and please, extend the same ethic to other so-called “celebrations” that have been coopted by corporate industrial commerce, such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. (It would be nice to have a webpage that lists various ways, other than feeling apologetic, to respond to the “Don’t be such a Scrooge (or Grinch)” indictments one receives as a result of wanting to actively do something about the diabolical side of what would otherwise be an altogether special occasion.

By: Jan Steinman

Jan Steinman — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:11:12 +0000

Why buy at all? I gave my spouse one full day of my time, for whatever purpose whatsoever. I was her “slave for a day;” it was a pure “honey do” day. She made a list of many of the things she’d been bugging me about for months, and I went down the list and did them. She said it was the best Christmas ever!

There’s also crafts, music and poetry, massages — you get the idea. The gift of oneself is beyond value, and costs nothing!

Starve the beast! Spend nothing on Christmas next year!

By: ROG

ROG — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:27:44 +0000

As Peter Kay says, “I wish it could be Christmas every year”. My bizarre Christmas shopping experience this year was at our local op-shop where they were having a half price sale. Two volunteers started arguing about whether to charge a dollar (40 pence) for a brand new dinosaur quiz game that was perfect for my eight year old son. “Why don’t we look at the price label?” one of them eventually suggested, triumphantly. It said 50 cents. The two agreed I should pay 25 cents (12 pence), it being half-price day and all. Total cost of all presents: $20 (actually it was $18 but I felt embarrassed asking for change). The moral of this story? Egalitarians in a culture of plenty have endless opportunities to freeload.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:05:30 +0000

I agree entirely with your sentiments. However I couldn’t help noticing the connection between “Now, I hate Waterstones, mostly for the fact that they are now pretty much the only bookshop you ever see” and “although I rarely buy anything, I use it in the same way one might use a library”!

By: Josef Davies-Coates

Josef Davies-Coates — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:07:54 +0000

Next year just go here http://extraethical.com

By: Deborah

Deborah — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:48:23 +0000

We celebrate the solstice and therefore avoid the Christmas thing on the whole…we had a yummy roast dinner, a bottle of port and a bottle of champagne…and a happy solstice card from our neighbour, my sister gave us an apple tree and I do my very best to make presents or buy useful things. Keeping bees gives us honey and candles as a s tarting point. No one is disappointed with those.

By: Jennifer Lauruol

Jennifer Lauruol — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:18:49 +0000

Hi Rob,
We buy all our Christmas gifts at Oxfam Books, or local charity shops.
This year (‘credit crunch’ bigtime for us) we even went through our own bookcases and gave away some books to friends and relatives we thought might enjoy them. They were all happy.

Our lovely neighbours, with whom we’re always chatting about gardening, made us a very pretty mini basket of veggies and flowers out of salt dough, painted by their kids. It’s now hanging on the kitchen wall, under the clock they painted for us last year!

Keep up your great work!

By: Steve Atkins

Steve Atkins — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:25:04 +0000

sorry, toaster video here!…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=exGtj4jjbco

By: Steve Atkins

Steve Atkins — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:23:08 +0000

Following a year of harking on to friends & relatives about transition related stuff – we received greener minded xmas presents, eg; a kitchen compost bin, book on natural cleaning for the home, book on 50 ways to be a greener shopper, organic gardening book. Following this I’m quite looking forwards to next xmas!

Something we have wanted for a while – our toaster caught on fire in the damp summer of 2008 and we’ve been hanging out for an eco toaster to come on the market. To our pleasant surprise Morphy Richards released their ‘Ecolectric’ toaster which claims to use 34% less energy. Naturally, I got a bit green consumer excited.

Posh looking video of the toaster here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exGtj4jjbco&eurl=http://crave.cnet.co.uk/greentech/0,250000598,10001649,00.htm&feature=player_embedded

hmmmm…and found a review:
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Energy-Efficient-Ecolectric-Toaster-Review.htm

I’m not sure why Morphy Richards think greenies like us are not capable of manually pressing a lever to lower the bread? ..and why the bleedin heck does a toaster have to use power on standby? !!
…so we wrote to Morphy Richards with lots of other carbon questions, and await an answer.

I’ve been sneezing, coughing, sinusitis, dizzy and feverish all through xmas and new year.
Lucky me got to stay at home and avoid the shops!

By: Chris Bird

Chris Bird — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:14:05 +0000

Hi Rob
Thought you might like to know that Oxfam Books is now the largest second hand book dealer in Europe and has a higher turnover than Waterstones!
So next time you need to escape the Christmas frenzy in Exeter – or hundrds of other towns – try an Oxfam Bookshop. Great examples of recycling, community involvement and in Totnes we now have a section of ‘Transition’ books. The money helps offset at least a little of the damage done by affluenza.
Best wishes for 2009