No sooner have we finished our
Thanksgiving dinner than the invasion of the Christmas shopping
season begins. This year as we are painfully aware many stores moved
their opening times back into Thursday evening to capture still more
sales. This blatant consumerism offended myself and many others, but
apparently didn't stop many people from rushing to the stores to get
that great deal. I shouldn't be surprised really, because consumerism
is one of our American idols, although it receives precious little
attention from the pulpits of our churches. It does strike me as
extremely sad that a country which so warmly embraces and affirms a
celebration of Thanksgiving follows it immediately with an orgy of
buying more stuff.
In some years past I have adopted a
quite negative attitude toward gift-giving. I would argue that it
detracts from the “true meaning” of Christmas, that it promotes
greed and consumption and really runs counter to the very message of
the Gospel. In many ways it does. But I now look at it differently
and recognize that this season of gift-giving can be a time of
blessing, a time when by promoting giving we do emphasize a very
positive quality. By refusing to give or receive gifts, I may very
well rob myself and others of the joy that can come from giving. By
adopting an anti-gift mentality, do I become like Scrooge?
This year I want to be more open and
free in giving and receiving gifts. This does not mean I should go
into debt to buy gifts or that I need to buy multiple gifts for
everyone—including my family. But it can be a time to express my
appreciation and love for others by giving a significant item or two.
I want to recapture the joy of giving that I have lost in my
tight-fistedness over the years.
Because Christmas does include
gift-giving, it presents a great opportunity to stop and think about
our purchasing habits. What are we buying? Where did it come from?
What does our quest to pay the lowest price mean for those who
produce the items we buy? What does it mean for the environment? We
should be conversing about these things as a society and certainly as
followers of Jesus Christ. We shouldn't engage in mindless
consumerism, mistakenly thinking that our shopping habits have
nothing to do with morality or justice. They do, very much so.
I doubt that any of us can completely
abstain from shopping. If nothing else we need food to live and
things do wear out and need replaced. But I greatly admire Danielle
at From Two to One for her goal of not buying anything new this year.
I also appreciate her desire to move beyond tokenism in buying goods
that are fair trade or support various ministries. We do well to
consciously think about how we can purchase gifts and everyday items
in ways that benefit the producers and promote sustainable economic
practices. We can look for vendors who sell meaningful items and not
just cute trinkets so that by our shopping we affirm the value and
dignity of those who produce the items. PerfectNumber628, on her blog
Tell Me Why The World is Weird, correctly reminds us that fair trade
shouldn't be about cute and adorable. It should be about changing the
way we shop and the way we produce so that the entire transaction
becomes one that affirms worth, affirms dignity, creating value for
both producer and consumer and at the same time respecting the world
in which we live. I really appreciate these two authors and many others
who are helping us to think more carefully about our shopping habits
and offering us alternatives that go beyond cute, adorable tokens
that we really don't need.
Of course shopping this way does take
more effort than simply looking for the greatest deal on Amazon.com
or at the local Walmart. It may mean at times choosing not to buy. It
also requires that we shop realistically and recognize that
unfortunately not everything can yet be found from fair-trade,
sustainable, dignity-affirming producers. Rather than judging others
for their purchases, we can encourage them to think about the
implications and impact of their purchase so that perhaps next time
they (or we!) will consider what they buy more carefully and make
changes where possible. We will not change the economic structure of
our culture or globally by our changing our shopping habits, but we
can each make a small but significant impact as we carefully spend
the money God has provided for us. We won't eliminate the consumerism
of Christmas in America, but in small ways we can transform it for
good.
I'd love to hear how you are
creatively transforming not only your Christmas shopping but your
overall buying habits. What creative ideas and dignity-affirming
vendors have you found?
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