revamping christmas

so now that Christmas shopping is coming to a bit of a close for me, i'm going to share some of my favorite spots to make purchases count.  and first, please know....

i am lazy, so researching things like crazy for Christmas has been just a bit painful.  i stumbled on a post from jen hatmaker last Christmas...and it kinda turned my approach to Christmas upside down.  if i'm going to be spending $ on gifts, i want to make the $ i spend count....and i truly want it to be used to help others...rather than harm them. 

this is hard for me, because.... i'm super cheap.  like....it needs to be 60-90% off retail price cheap.  and fair trade or ethical items are rarely cheap.  because that's what it's about -- the power of the dollar being used to help others out of poverty.  so how in the world can i choke out the $ to buy gifts with impact?

1. buy less.  (?!?!?)  i wish i could say this is easy, but it's not.  spend less where i can & limit the amount.  @ Christmas, we're doing the 5-gift plan for our kiddos:  a gift you wear, a gift you need, a gift you want, a gift you read & a gift to give.  easy.  kids get items they use, an item they really want, and something to give. (more on that later)  they loved it & liked opening their gifts. :)  they knew ahead of time it would be 5 & they were happy.  (though i'll admit i was scared to try this last yr!)  no kid looked up at us on Christmas morning in SHOCK that they didn't get enough.  they were happy & much less overwhelmed than they were on previous Christmases.  once the paper was shredded & laying everywhere, they didn't have to fight huge piles of gifts to figure out which one they would play with.  it was an easy choice to turn to the gift they really wanted & just play with it. 

2. wrap up the giving - the kids could choose ahead of time their gift to give.  this year we are concentrating our catalog-flipping time on catalogs filled with gifts the kids can choose to give the impoverished in other countries.  last year henry chose water, merian chose sheep, and emmett chose ducks.

3. buy intentionally  - this is a new one for me this Christmas..  i have taken a lot more time to try hard to make sure the new items the kids get can mostly be products whose production & sale improve the lives of those around them.  listen to me.  i was numb to this until last year...i thought this hocus pocus about fair trade, slave labor, trafficking, etc. was just kind of a conspiracy theory.  (ugh, so embarrassing to admit that.)  but this uneducated girl did not take time to learn that some of the products i was buying really were hurting others badly.  and though my purchase alone can't save everyone, it can make an impact in the lives of some.  and that is enough, because when we all use our purchasing power to do that together...hurtful cycles are stopped & lives are changed.  i am responsible for the ways my spending helps or hurts others, end of discussion.

try it out...check out your favorite brands at free2work.org & see where they stand.  you might be surprised!  they do a great job of updating the site as companies make changes for the better or worse, so it is a great resource.

4. fill Christmas with meaning - what happens when so much time is given back to us from the materialism of the holiday season?  we can get back to the meaning of Christmas again.  i'd love more ideas & am working each year on honing this.  we keep our traditions fairly simple, b/c our lives are busy ones.  but here are the couple we do each year no matter what:
* each night in december we take time as a family to read the advent book to the kiddos -- it's their favorite!  and we love spending time as a family learning again about God's great plan of redemption. 
* we pack shoeboxes for impoverished kids in the world & this year hope to do it as a community party
* our new goal is to be able to start finding creative ways to volunteer as a family, so the kids can see the joy it is to those who are hurting & lonely during the holidays.