Support local small businesses!

Yep! On Saturday! --d

It's beyond me and my brain functionality to understand why people will pull their butts outta bed before sun-up on Friday to go spend hours rubbing elbows w/ the great unwashed as it were, clogging the streets, clogging the aisles, getting PO'ed at one another over trifling matters, stressing themselves out to the max, all to save a few bucks. Don't make no sense.Me, I'll take the poke in the eye w/ the sharp stick.

They save no money... that is all a shame. Hah... sale prices. And, yet... they don't pay the true price for the good.

What a Country!

My first job off the farm was retail, and I absolutely loved the winter holiday time. People would come in and carefully pick out gifts, and they would be full of excitement and hope, anticipating the recipient's reaction. We got a lot of kids buying, often with coins, and other cashiers were sometimes mean to 'em, but it always seemed dumb to me. Coins are money, too, and the kids could be encouraged to chat a little, so as to open the door for giving acknowledgement for their thoughtfulness.

I still think little gifts, even the materials to make little gifts, are fun. I like shopping locally, and I'm always thrilled when I find something that says it's made in the US. Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, I will spend in the back of a diesel repair shop, minimally ventilated, crunching numbers for a project bid. I'd almost rather have that sharp stick! But in a week, I'll be back in retail, happily ringing up giftware and chatting briefly with those who have enthusiasm for the giving part of the season.

Sometimes I think it's the gatherer genes, and the thrill of The Find that is deeply embedded in the double helix of my DNA. A discovered nest of eggs or stream with fish to catch, nuts and berries on their respective boughs ... all treasures to take back to the den and share with family. Maybe I'm more recently tribal, given my Inuit ancestry. Whatever it is, the season makes me think of becoming a professional shopper to find The Find for others, and to go mingle primarily with the others like me who are out there. I'll have to look when I start my new job to see how many of us there are (and how many others who look like they've already had the sharp stick applied).

No matter the source, we do it wrong; we have been pushed into emphasizing the spending, not the giving, and most certainly not the sharing. Many of my gifts this season will be of time, and attention. What's amazing is that giving this way means I get a great deal back, myself. I will need to be especially generous, so that I'm actually giving more than taking! --d

Thanks for that more upbeat post, Diana.

... a little reminder of what the holiday season is all about. Roots.

A few years ago, I made gifts. I started in September. One wind chime made from old copper pipe and scrap wood looks just like something one would find in a kitchy shop in town (hanging in a seldom used shop of recipient). I carved soapstone sculptures for mother and mother-in-law--both displayed in open spaces of their homes. DW have received a few made gifts, though now we are spending on those little luxury items: winter bike booties and new rain-gear. The gift in these made items was the time. Hours spent hand sanding rocks was a meditation on the loved one to whom they would ultimately be given.

The ease of shopping turned into a massive spending holiday does seem bleak and that canker sort of seeps into everything else about the holiday... at times (Thanks alot Rabindranath Toagore!!!).

This Friday is easy to angst over cause it is just so grotesque. But... you are absolutely right Diana: we should reach in and find that little light of giving, that little light of the "true holiday spirit" and hold it out like a candal. Walk about with it stretched out before us in a silent, action-based carol harkening others to join us and SPEND TIME on/with others as this is so much more valuable than the money we spend on the gift.

I bet those kids are forever changed by the little gift of time you gave them. Thanks.

I have been observing Buy Nothing Day for the past 5 or 6 years (before that I merely did not go out to shop on Black Friday but had no name for the non event).

For x-mas my family and I get together and pool our money and give it to Heifer int'l and don't do a gift exchange (though this year I am giving my sister a subscription to Acres USA because she is moving to a small ranch in Montana in 2 years-she lives in seattle currently).

Last year did a gift exchange with my bro and sis in law and no one like any of the gifts they got so this year I believe we are all going to avoid each other and not gifts.

I confess that we bought a cut rate fresh local Org. Turkey on black friday...

<heavy sigh>

...and some artisan bread for stuffing.


No sale events though... and the grocery store was empty.