Simple Suggestions #145 and #188 revisited... Observe Buy Nothing Day

Here it comes again! The day after American Thanksgiving and the consumption of all that turkey has been designated an anti-consumption holiday by many people who are concerned about the health and well being of our planet and its inhabitants -- a day to be grateful for what we already have in our lives rather than to go out and buy more (a.k.a. Christmas shopping). Unfortunately, in most circles, Buy Nothing Day is called Black Friday -- because many companies leave behind the red ink in their yearly ledgers and begin to make profits through holding insane, all out consumption-oriented events that have led to huge door-crashing, people injuring sales frenzies.

(While it's not this bad in Canada, thankfully,
there's increasing emphasis on Black Friday
as Canadian stores jump on the bandwagon
in attempts to boost their sales, too.)

I'd like to think that the world's people are waking up to the understanding that our planet has only so many resources to go around, and that human beings are becoming aware that we need to use less of those resources so that our environment and its endangered species (us included if we keep going at our present rate) stand a chance in the future. I'm doing my part by living as simply as I can, generally avoiding shopping malls, giving necessary or experiential gifts instead of stuff, and encouraging others to do the same (if you're looking for more ideas when it comes to avoiding consumerism, click here, or check out the Simple Christmas Ideas tab under the Simple Moodlings heading).

Really, Buy Nothing Day (November 28th in the U.S. and November 29th everywhere else) is good practice for every other day of the year. If we all gave our purchasing habits serious consideration every day, buying only what we need and gifting people with our presence and perhaps some homemade goodies, our world would be a much healthier place for all living things. Don't you think?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Something to think about... Buy Nothing Day, November 25th/26th

No matter what you believe, here's something worth considering:



Good question, no?

From Hallowe'en onward, 'tis the season when the malls do everything in their power to invite us in, suck us in, and try to part us from our money by convincing us that we CAN buy happiness for our loved ones. But they can't fool us. We know that, in most cases,

STUFF ≠ HAPPINESS.

And we realize that running to the stores and grabbing something off the shelves isn't as deeply appreciated as the time, attention, and creativity that we can gift our loved ones with instead of stuff. We also know that if we find creative ways to show that we love and value the special people in our lives -- whether it be by giving experiential or edible gifts, offering our talents and abilities, supporting a charity in someone's name, or recycling old things into new presents -- we're being kinder to everyone who depends upon the earth's resources for life... basically, all living beings.

I won't be having a Buy Nothing Christmas, because I like to bake goodies, pass along good books, and there's our family's Christmas pajamas tradition to uphold (because last year's pjs have been outgrown or worn out)... but I will buy as little as possible, and I will definitely participate in Buy Nothing Day this Friday -- November 25th in the United States, and November 26th everywhere else. Actually, I'll probably make it a Buy Nothing Weekend. It's not hard to do. Just don't go shopping! Kind of like the Occupy Movement, except we're showing the big retailers and ad companies that we're smarter than they think we are, and that we as consumers have the power to resist their sales campaigns by not buying into all their empty promises.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Buy Nothing Day, which began as a counter cultural reaction to Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. Retailers there have successfully linked Thanksgiving with heading to the malls to start the annual Christmas consumerism spree. Black Friday got its name not because people have died in rush stampedes at American big box stores on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but because for many retail outlets, it's the first day in the year that their financial bottom lines turn from red to black ink in store ledgers.

Our family does its best to support the "buy nothing" movement most of the year because we know that with seven billion people on the planet, we all need to curb our appetites and live with just enough. Our planet is finite in its abilities to provide for us and other living things, and extinctions, climate instabilities, pollution and decimation of certain ecosystems caused by human consumption are already doing more damage than we realize to the quality of our existence on earth. So it's high time that we stop using Jesus' birthday as an excuse to make things worse. Maybe we should do more of this:

For more information, posters, and great ideas to de-consumerize Christmas, check out www.buynothingchristmas.org. For more on Buy Nothing Day, see www.adbusters.org/bnd.

A stuffless Christmas?

Here's a little musical medley/commercial about how to have a counter-cultural, stuffless Christmas. It carries a few really good ideas that have worked for us. Hubby and daughters helped me to put it together at our kitchen table a couple of years ago.

If you're reading this, you probably already know how to be kind to the planet AND have a holly, jolly, stuffless Christmas! But you might consider spreading some of these ideas to people who have yet to realize that Christmas consumerism is helping to mess up the earth beyond its ability to repair itself. The best Christmas gift we can give future generations is a healthy place to live, and the knowledge that it's relationship, not stuff, that makes us truly happy.  

Whose birthday is it, anyway?

This poster comes from the Buy Nothing Christmas people (see link on sidebar). The first time I saw it, I chuckled. They certainly picked a serious Jesus icon to get their message across. But they've got a point. Imagine the impoverished Galilean's reaction to West Edmonton Mall! Would he try to throw the money changers out of that temple of opulence?

The title of this moodling is borrowed from a publication that I've picked up for the past few years from http://www.simpleliving.org/.  When I received my first copy, it made me want to do something more than just read it, so I called up an Anglican pastor friend and asked if he would consider hosting an ecumenical "Rethinking Christmas" workshop. Helping people to simplify the most commercialized season of the year holds a lot of appeal, especially when a lot of the talk around Christmas these days is about "surviving." What about enjoying?

Too many North Americans try to pack too much into the month of December, and we end up as stressed out as our credit cards are maxed out. Whose Birthday is it, Anyway? offers a lot of helpful antidotes to the consumer craziness that threatens to engulf us starting at the end of October (or earlier -- some stores had their Christmas ornaments out with back to school stuff this year!)

Over the next few days, I hope to share a few simple Christmas ideas that have worked well at our house. Yesterday's moodling about http://www.kiva.org/ is just one example -- there are so many more. And if you have ideas that you want to share, please leave a comment. There's so much we can learn from each other.

Buy Nothing!

Today is Buy Nothing Day.

And that's all I have to say.

Only one week to Buy Nothing Day!

What on earth am I talking about?

Statistically speaking, the Friday after American Thanksgiving is one of America's biggest shopping days of the year. With Thanksgiving feasting behind them, I guess our Southern Neighbours push away from the turkey table and head for the malls to get on with Christmas shopping. The day after Thanksgiving in the States has been dubbed "Black Friday" because for some retailers, it is the day that they leave the red ink in their yearly ledgers behind. It is also a black day in that, in recent years, people have been trampled to death in their attempts to be first to get to the bargains offered by some big box stores.

In 1992, a Vancouver artist named Ted Dave decided to see what he could do to subvert consumerism. He made up posters and organized the first Buy Nothing Day to offer society a chance to examine the issue of over-consumption. Since then, it has become something of an event in many places, and has been adopted by Adbusters, a not-for-profit, anti-consumerist foundation that engages in consciouness raising efforts. Their website posts information about Buy Nothing Day meet ups, where members creatively disrupt shopping activities in an effort to get people to think about their consumer habits (for example, Whirl-Mart: Participants silently steer their shopping carts around a shopping mall or store in a long, baffling conga line without putting anything in the carts or actually making any purchases.)

I've never attended a Buy Nothing Day event, but we are avid Buy Nothing Day people for as many days of the week as we can be because we disagree with the "over-the-top" consumerism that has become the chief focus of the Advent/Christmas seasons and the rest of North American life. I've done more than a little research for my "Rethinking Christmas: Moving Toward Sustainable Simplicity" workshop, and was shocked to learn from Stats Can that

Canadian Christmas shoppers spent

$28.7 billion

in December 2006.

They gave just over

$8 billion

to charity that same year.

In December 2006,

Canadians spent an average of

$874

per person in retail big box stores.

Care to guess how much the average Albertan spent?

$1,113      

It's only November 19th, but last night I went for a walk around our lovely, snow-covered neighbourhood and saw a Christmas tree in someone's front window... so I guess it's not too early to talk about Christmas excess and different things that we can do to combat it. Buy Nothing Day is just one. See if, on November 26th (in North America) and 27th (in Europe and everywhere else), you can avoid running on the treadmill of consumerism. And watch this space for ideas about celebrating Christmas without shopping till you're dropping. Or better yet, check out:

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

And, just for fun, here's a little medley my family helped me with a few years ago. Amateur production values, but an important message: