With the number of shopping days till Christmas counting down, I still haven’t developed my Buy Little-to-Nothing Christmas strategy. This week found my house (and life) moving into high gear for the holidays, but I’m still lagging behind. If anything, I should have starting thinking about Christmas earlier than the average consumer, but instead I’ve put it off and am now about to fly into a panic!
So far my attempts to subvert overconsumption this holiday season haven’t been all that successful.
First hurdle: Tree. My roommate really wanted a tree. I also love having a tree. I’ve always had a real tree. I couldn’t decide whether having a real tree was in any way justifiable under the Guidelines for Subverting Overconsumption. I tried to find a Freecycled tree (posting once myself and responding to two posts) and failed. My roommate finally bought a brand new artificial Christmas tree from Wal-Mart or Liquidation World (I can’t remember which). Shit.
Second hurdle: Gifts.
(Warning: if you are a relative or close friend, you may wish to stop reading this posting now (unless you’re more interested in the process of Subverting Overconsumption than you are in being surprised by what present you get from me).)
I seem to have several gifting options, which I could also mix and match. But so far I’m not feeling overly inspired, and the clock is ticking. I made crabapple jelly in the summer (but at the moment it’s several hundred kilometres away). I could probably find some good used books online. My roommate found a recipe for homemade bath salts in Martha Stewart Living. In the past I’ve made mix CDs, but this year I’m not sure what to do about buying (or rather, not buying) CD-Rs. I thought of personalized storybooks, but that’d be a frick of a lot of work. I won a door prize I could re-gift.
I’m sure I’ll figure something out, but how about some help! Cast your vote on the Subverting Overconsumption Holiday Poll (top left of this page) for a chance to win a subversively underconsumptive gift from yours truly (well, not really, since voting is anonymous…but if you leave a really great comment we can talk!).
xo n
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December 6, 2006 at 5:57 am
Moonwaves
There is always the home-made present that doesn’t take too long of your time now but will later. Time vouchers. These won’t be suitable for some people but for some could work out really well. You could tailor each one to suit the recipient. For example you might offer an evening/afternoon of babysitting to someone with kids, a couple of hours cleaning windows to someone who hates cleaning windows, a promise of an afternoon of home-baking (if you bake) for someone who hates baking but loves eating the results and has loads of ingredients at home because she always means to start. The possibilities are endless really and depend on what you can do, what you’ll have time to do (but I think it’s nice to have lots of stuff planned for January and February that gets you out but doesn’t cost much) and how close people are to you. Not always very practical to offer someone an hour’s housework if they live on the other side of the country.
Or, you could send everyone a nice little note explaining what you are doing and that although you love them very much you will not be doing presents this year.
December 6, 2006 at 6:17 am
Moonwaves
Well, great minds think alike or something. I had only finished posting the above when I decided to catch up on some other blogs and found the same idea here: http://downshiftingpath.blogspot.com/
It’s a post about three down called Time=Money and there’s a link to vouchers you can print out there.
December 6, 2006 at 7:51 am
Michael
This is an idea that I think a parent would love to get from a son or daughter, or perhaps anyone who has a close relationship with another.
*select a parent’s favourite literary work, or if unknown do your best to guess at something the parent would like
*make a audio recording of son or daughter reading said text
*edit and give: an audio keepsake
The gift is basically the sound of one’s own voice. You’d need some resources like a microphone and some knowledge of of editing software (or someone who does) but the burnable CD is the same as you’ve already mentioned.
Is that lame?
Also, I know canadian granola is making a bunch of gifts this year…
December 6, 2006 at 9:41 am
goodgirlculture
Michael: So not lame! That totally reminds me that I thought (and then obviously forgot) of doing that very thing for my grandfather. He’s blind and has limited mobility, and one of his greatest pleasures in sitting in his LazyBoy listening to audio books. I’ve bought him books on tape for most of the past several holiday seasons, but last year it occurred to me that he might appreciate me reading something. Now I’m inspired to do it! Thanks for helping to remember. Now I just have to figure out the logistics. Damn CD-Rs…what an incredibly wasteful product…who was the big jerk that thought of making single use recordable devices?
Moonwaves: I do like the idea of vouchers, though being in a new city means most of my close friends and family are not with me in my day-to-day life. But I definitely like that idea and have used it before…giving gift certificates good for a movie date or a dinner out.
Thank you both for your comments!
December 6, 2006 at 3:25 pm
elitrope
I’m curious, you mentioned you have a roommate. Does the roommate think you’ve gone mad or are they on the same page? Love the ideas and the survey. I also waited a bit late to get started on making gifts. Those who are close will get foodstuffs, those far will get cards with a hope to somehow be able bring my family together next spring. The kiddo and S.O. will each get one gift of their choosing, which will probably be books or clothes. It seems to have taken a lot of pressure off everyone, so hopefully we can just enjoy each others company, some holliday lights and good eats.
December 6, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Michael
Just one more thing about the CD-Rs. There are re-burnable discs too. I bought a 10 pack last year, so as long as you can keep track of them, theoretically you don’t need to throw them away or buy new ones. You just have to re-format them when you want to burn new stuff on them.
December 6, 2006 at 8:42 pm
goodgirlculture
Elitrope: I don’t think my roommates think I’m nuts as much as really cheap. They don’t necessarily get it, but they seem to be tolerating me. They’re not really on the same page, but I also haven’t really talked about the project that much with them. It actually took me a while to feel ready to start talking about it at all. That seems to be changing gradually, probably as I feel more confident about it myself.
Thanks for the comment, and happy gift making!
December 6, 2006 at 8:50 pm
goodgirlculture
Michael: Yeah, it’s too bad CD-RWs are more expensive. Maybe I can get some off Freecycle (by the way, I picked up my first Freecycle item – an electric typewriter – tonight…the first place I ever heard of Freecycle was your blog, thank you very much).
December 7, 2006 at 7:35 am
Moonwaves
Sharing a house with people is hard sometimes. My new housemate seemed very enthusiastic when she saw the composter I’d built and the way I have a tidy system for recyclables set up in the kitchen. We’ve spoken a bit about sustainable living and that kind of thing and she seems to be in agreement about a lot of things. But it just doesn’t follow through to actions with her. The amount of waste has definitely increased since she moved in, recyclable as well as what has to go to landfill. She thinks nothing of going out and living three or four lights on in the house. I may sometimes go upstairs and leave a light on downstairs (usually intending to go straight back down and just forgetting) but I’d never leave the house without switching off the lights. And she uses tons of chemical cleaners, which I’ve really more or less stopped using in the last few months. Oh well. It’s all part of what I have to put up with since I can’t afford a place on my own and I’ll just keep plugging away and maybe some of it will rub off on her.
December 29, 2006 at 1:00 am
Results of Subversive Holiday Poll « subverting overconsumption
[...] Thanks for taking part! For some other sweet suggestions, check out the reader comments on my pre-holiday post. [...]