Strollerderby : anti-consumerism

10 Ways to Celebrate Christmas—Not Commerce

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:00:00 GMT

So here’s my family’s seasonal dilemma: We love the holiday season, and particularly Christmas. Call it what you will: nostalgia, a fondness for tradition, an excuse to be part of a communal experience . . . but we, and now our daughter, delight in the decorating, the tree, the music, the lights. As far as my agnostic soul is concerned, December is one great big interfaith solstice celebration.

The only problem is that looking through the eyes of our two-year-old, we’ve realized that much of what we love about the season comes with a implicit anticipation of the Big Day, especially our beloved advent calendar. This means that if all that happens on the Big Day is presents, then no matter how restrained we’ve been in our purchases/creations or how studiously we’ve avoided the malls, we’ve nonetheless just taught our kid that the Christmas gift exchange is itself worth a month’s worth of ramp up. Ick.

We’re not going to ditch the gifts, but we figured we ought to add something else to the 25th to make it more of a day apart. Here are some ideas we’ve considered or others have done. What do you do?

1. Get up to watch sunrise. Face it: until it came north to the land of dark winters, Christmas (like Hanukkah) was a minor holiday. What better way to acknowledge the holiday’s pagan roots, celebrate the returning light, and set a mystical atmosphere over the whole day than to get up for sunrise? (Besides, your kids will get up early for their stockings anyway; might as well make the best of it.)

2. Caroling. Before it was tamed into nuclear-family Santa-worship, Christmas was a holiday of heavy partying and class-role reversal. Wassailing, which involved going door to door demanding food and booze from the rich folks in exchange for songs and plays whether welcome or not, would probably not be an advisable family tradition, but if you’re a singer and know a few others nearby, wassailing’s more decorous cousin caroling can be a delightful way to spread the Christmas spirit after the wrapping paper has come off. In the colder climes, bring a thermos of hot tea or cocoa.

3. Feed the birds. Another common Yule activity among neo-pagans involves decorating outside trees with strings of popcorn and pine cones covered in peanut butter and bird seed. To add an element of impishness and old wassailing spirit, decorate your whole neighborhood.

4. Remember the poor. Among the meaning-minded who aren’t headed to church, volunteering on Christmas is becoming something of a tradition. There are many options: special dinners, gift programs for poor kids, soup kitchens. On the other hand, beware: It’s become popular enough that slots can fill up fast. In LA you have to pay $100 for the privilege of distributing food, sleeping bags, and bus tokens that afternoon. And you may also incur the reasonable wrath (or just cold shoulder) of overworked nonprofit leaders who don’t want to bother to train volunteers who will only be there one day a year for the symbolic value.

5. Feast. Am I the only one who feels like Thanksgiving wasn’t that long ago, and having a pale imitation of it on Christmas isn’t that exciting? One way to make Christmas feasting special is pick one or two traditional foods that you wouldn’t have any other time of year—for example, mincemeat pies, chestnuts, plum pudding, roast goose, mulled wine, or from-scratch eggnog (or, apparently, if you’re Finnish, reindeer)—and serve 'em up. Chestnuts roast fine in the oven, by the way, not just on an open fire. For Harry Potter flair, find a British import store selling crackers to place on each plate.

6. Make gift exchange about means, not just ends. Emphasize that the process of giving and reciving is more important than the quantity of loot by livening up the process with treasure hunts (good for things too big to wrap), deceptive wrapping competitions, guessing games, or other elaborate/goofy presentations.

7. Quality time. So here you are on Christmas afternoon, hopefully all together and with some time on your hands. You could all disappear into your new books/video games, but you could also make it special by picking something to do together that you only do on Christmas. The ritual recitation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas? The whole family watching your favorite Christmas movie together? Time to actually play a complete game of Monopoly? The options are legion.

8. Call relatives and friends. This is already part of many families' Christmas days, and rightly so. Throw in a surprise call to someone who wasn’t expecting it.

9. Take a look back. Write down memories of the year together in a blank book and read over last year’s memories, take a yearly picture in a ritual place, or write a New Year’s letter together as a family (because, after all, it’s awfully hard to find time before Christmas to sit down and compose one of those).

10. Go see the lights. Some people don’t get their lights up until late; others take ‘em down early. So on the day itself you’re likely to get the maximum effect. As the effects of the feasting wear off, head off around the block, to that neighborhood with the crazy utility bills, or to the formal display in the park (but check first—as stupid as it may be, many formal displays are closed on the 25th).

Remember that for kids, the important thing about holidays is often more that there is a ritual than what that ritual is. Pick your poison, but as soon as the kids have come to expect something, you better be prepared to stick to it.

Photo by Fredo Alvarez, via Flickr.

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"Organicize Me": Michael Stusser Goes Organic For One Month

JasonAvant — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:15:00 GMT

Some of you may know Michael Stusser from his work over at ParentMap; he authored "The Accidental Parent", a column detailing his experience marrying the love of his life - who,as it turned out, had twin 10-year-old girls. His Sebastian Junger-esque courage firmly established, Stusser recently took up a challenge that many of us would shirk from. He spent the month of January eating and drinking only certified organic foods and beverages. Hilarity ensues, along with a thoughtful assessment of the benefits and challenges of eating au natural.

For those new to the world of organic foods, Stusser provides a primer on what makes a product "organic". He then points out that the definition is a bit nebulous - there's a big difference between "organic" and "natural", and to meet USDA standards, 95% of the ingredients need to be organic (the other 5% can, for instance, be De-Con RoachProof). Of course, there's a political aspect to organics, but Stusser points out that organic farms are not the Trotskyist Paradise that one might think - and, indeed, organic food may be a bit bourgeois, as Stusser sees a 58% increase in the cost of his family's monthly groceries.

Along with the serious stuff, Stusser points out the lighter side of his conversion ("Luckily, I discovered an organic vodka called Square One"). And even if you decide that those Jeno's Pizza Rolls are too goddamn tasty to give up, Stusser thinks that one can actually eat in a healthier and more environmentally responsible way. Now, speaking of organic vodka...

Is Wal-Mart Too Evil for Parents?

JasonAvant — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:34:00 GMT

Those who travel through the parenting territories of the Blog-O-Sphere know that there are a number of hot button topics, which when brought up tend to lead to discussions bearing an uncanny, almost eerie resemblance to the one depicted here. Absolutism, in case you haven't noticed, is the bread-and-butter of many a parenting blog, and Evil can be found everywhere, from parents who (gasp!) give their babies formula to a certain cadre of happy-go-lucky Australian entertainers who extoll the virtues of fruit salad and New York firefighters.

One big (big, as in "makes more money than most of the nations on Earth" big) target of derision is Wal-Mart. Full disclosure: I rarely shop there, for a number of reasons (chief among these - the greeters, with their empty smiles and lifeless eyes...black eyes, like a doll's eyes...when they come at you, they don't seem to be living...), and I don't really have an opinion of Wal-Mart (other than "the greeters, they ain't right") either way. But a lot of parents choose not to shop there, for reasons that are decent ones: the company has a reputation as a low-paying, small business-crushing behemoth that's made its fortune on the backs of sweatshop slaves. Thus we have the argument over Wal-Mart - whether or not it's morally right to shop there. So is Wal-Mart really evil?

Perhaps not, suggests Jeremy Siegel in this article. Siegel brings up some good points: Wal-Mart's average salary hovers at the $10 an hour level, higher than the Federal minimum wage and that of most states; the company is moving to offer a variety of health care plans; and (this is his weakest argument, and in no way excuses the often horrific conditions found in many overseas factories, but he does have a point) the inclusion of overseas manufacturing provides for jobs and growth in developing nations. But perhaps the most compelling reason why Wal-Mart isn't all bad: the fact that it enables a sizable percentage of people to buy products - stuff as basic as groceries to "luxury items" like PC's - that they might not otherwise be able to afford.

I'm pretty happy that I can pop on down to Whole Foods or Bristol Farms for a six pack of Saison Dupont and a pound of lox flown in from New York the night before. I'm also pretty goddamn lucky that, financially speaking, Wal-Mart's just one of my many shopping options. So does this mean that Sam Walton should be put on the fast track to beatification? Probably not - the monster he spawned still has a way to go before it becomes a model company - but it's interesting to consider the other side of the Wal-Mart argument. It is an argument. Yes it is. It is. Is!

The Compact - Anti-Consumerism For the Post-Millennium Era

Karen Murphy — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 14:30:00 GMT

A new wave of anti-consumerism is overtaking the land, and proponents call it The Compact. It began innocently enough, with a group of 10 middle-class San Francisco-area friends deciding a year ago to spend one year buying nothing new. No HDTVs, no digital cameras, no Tickle Me Elmos. Everything other than food, essential toiletries like toothpaste and shampoo, underwear and a few other things had to be purchased used or bartered or found.

Participants discovered old and new ways to obtain things they needed. Sites like Craigslist and Freecycle as well as the old thrift-store standby became their new shopping malls, and participants, after an initial period of retail withdrawal , found they had more money and a new appreciation for the “stuff” they had.

Like this idea? Think you can give up your Barnes & Noble and Baby Gap for a year? It’s not too late to join the wave for 2007. There’s a Yahoo Group devoted to it as well as many local groups around the country. Me? I'm always looking for new ways to stick it to Wal-Mart, and this one seems quite satisfying. Dare me? I will if you will. (Wait. Does that laptop I've been coveting count? Or...)