Since today is international Buy Nothing Day, I thought I'd start a thread about Buy Nothing Christmas or having a Sustainable Christmas and similar activities. Who else is interested in this? How do you take action against the rampant consumerism of this time of year? What are your gift giving alternatives?

Here's the website for more info: www.buynothingchristmas.org. For those of you unfamiliar with the initiative, the idea is to challenge the consumerist nature of the holiday season. As I understand it, it's not necessarily about buying *nothing* - although it could be. It's more about examining your spending habits, resisting the urge to be mindless consumers, making a conscious decision to consume less, and finding creative ways to give people gifts or show that you care about them without necessarily relying on newly manufactured goods. That's what it is for me right now, anyway.

Here's some ways that my family and I are participating in a "buy less" / sustainable Christmas:

- For the past year and a half I've been using recycled, old, and some new fabric, scraps and offcuts to make reusable fabric gift bags. If the fabric doesn't have a pattern I decorate them with collected buttons, fabric paint, embroidery, etc. They're fun to make and people really like them. I can buy new fabric and scraps from the craft section of a second-hand store if I need to.

- for some years my in-laws have made calendars for family members with photos they have taken. They buy the calendars from a photo-developing place but you could print your own. It's a more personal touch.

-last year my husband Geoff and I gave each other gifts made by local artists: a watercolour painting and a lovely ceramic dish.

- I love to make gifts for people when I have the time, and I try to start as early as possible. I sew, make photo albums, do scrapbooking, make ornaments, etc. whenever I can. I've sewn some personalized cooking aprons for friends that were pretty quick to whip up.

- last year we "regifted" where appropriate. There's a lot of stigma against regifting, I see, but I don't think it's necessarily warranted. Just make sure the regifted thing is something the person will like and use, and that they're ok with it if it is "obviously" regifted or second-hand. Second hand stores and yardsales do have cool stuff.

- I had some books on my own wish list but I said second-hand copies were fine rather than new ones

- fair-trade and organic consumables are great gifts too! A tin of FT Cocoa Camino hot chocolate makes a great stocking stuffer. Same with locally made jam, FT coffees & teas, the list goes on.

- We gave a selection of homemade cookies as gifts last year; we started baking in mid-November and gave them in fancy tins we bought at a second hand store.

- We like to shop from Unicef or Ten Thousand Villages, as proceeds go to a good cause. Ten Thousand Villages always has neat handmade Christmas ornaments made by cooperatives around the world.

- We've gotten, and given, some "living gifts" : olive trees, chickens, a pig, etc. that go to people who need them around the world. There are a few organizations that do this, Ten Thousand Villages being one, Unicef is another...

So those are my ideas so far. I'm not as "hardcore" as some people about Buy Nothing Christmas but I do try to think about what I'm buying and giving and why. I'd like to hear other people's thoughts and ideas! Also any activities you've done.