Gift making

I love the winter holidays. I'm not Christian so Christmas is not a spiritual holiday for me but, as a pagan, I find great meaning in the Winter Solstice. The whole season is exciting. I love the first snow (my city is now completely covered in about 4 feet of snow!!!), I love all the lights people put on their homes, I love the feasting. No matter what is celebrated December is a time to be with loved ones (which can mean created families, birth families, or both) and a time for renewal and rebirth.

I hate the consumerism of the holidays, though. Even though I do engage in it to a certain extent, I find that all the shopping takes away from the positive aspects of the holidays. The more I shop, the more depressed I start to feel. My kids don't get into the consumerism at all which astounds me because I was a kid who made my Christmas list in the summer and by December had memorized the Sears catalogue to such an extent that I knew how much had been spent on each gift (and got upset if my siblings got something more expensive - I had middle child issues). My kids just like the excitement of the season and they are pretty happy with whatever ends up in their stocking.

There are a few traditions that I have started with my kids to counter the consumerism. One is giving as much money to organizations of our choosing as we do (on average) to one of the members of our immediate family. We usually divide it between an organization that deals with environmental issues and one that works for social justice. We try to find organizations we feel good about which usually means small organizations that engage in grassroots advocacy. I try to make a big deal about this giving and my aim is to give as much as we spend on each person in our immediate family.

Another tradition is that we make a lot of our gifts for family and friends. To be honest, we don't engage in tons of gift-giving. The other day I listened to co-workers discuss what they give to family and realized I don't give a lot of gifts. But I love giving special gifts to people especially gifts that are homemade. The main gifts that we make are cookies and squares, lip balms and other "beauty" products, and art. I have collected some excellent lip balm recipes over the years and am always on the look out for great containers. In addition to lip balms I like to make salves (very similar recipes) for dry and damaged skin and this year I am also some facial sugar scrubs. All these things are exceptionally easy to make with kids. Earthboy has little interest in helping make the gifts which is ok but Earthgirl loves to help. She especially loves to decorate the containers afterwards with stickers and "jewels"     

I also buy blank canvases and have the kids paint pictures for family. This is something that Earthgirl also enjoys more than Earthboy but both kids take it very seriously. And we make cookies - lots and lots of cookies.

I sometimes have dreams of knitting lots of fancy sweaters and hats for family and sewing my own toys. Plus i would love to make even more more complicated health and beauty products. maybe in the future. I know some people get very serious about their gift-making. But, I think even making small and simple things are symbolically so important. It allows us to participate in the important ritual of gift giving without participating in the destructive practice of mass consumerism. It allows us to be creative and expressive. It gives us an opportunity to spend time together having fun while also putting a lot of time and effort into doing nice things for people we love and appreciate.

And it is a million times better than dragging my kids to the bus stop, pushing our way into a busy busy and shopping for products made in sweatshops at malls filled with people spending lots of money they don't have!

(I just want to add, though, that I do sometimes shop in yucky stores and malls. I'm not perfect, there are many things I can't make, some things I will not buy used, and a few things I can't find fair trade or in small shops. The world is not perfect. However, I do what I can and look for positive and creative ways to do more.  The point of this post is not to induce guilt but to give ideas and encouragement!)