Fairtrade, Second Hand, Handmade.

This year I've set myself the challenge that all our Christmas gifts must be fairtrade, second hand or handmade.

Unfortunately, I had failed even before I'd made the decision, having bought 3 particularly commercial gifts for certain members of the families.  But, since then, I've done amazingly well.

Normally our Christmas shop consists of a drive to Bluewater, 3-4 hours of traipsing round shops whilst Chris watches a movie (he's not a bad husband, trust me, it's better shopping without him!) then he comes and takes the bags to the car each time I feel like my arms are going to fall off.  This shopping trip is tiring, stressful and costly - and never covers everyone.  There's always the last minute Amazon order, paying £20 to have it delivered right now please.

So, part of the reason for choosing to shop differently is to save myself from Bluewater insanity.
There's also some fairly good ethical reasons, but you already know what they are.

Thus far, I haven't made anything else, apart from the hat (see previous post) - and even that is only almost done, 3 weeks later...

I haven't got anything fairtrade yet, but I'm waiting for our church to have its Fairtrade Fayre in a couple of weeks.  And since I organised all the stalls I can be fairly confident that they'll give me a very good choice of gifts to buy.  If you're in Lewes, find us on facebook (Fairtrade Fayre at Southover Church) and come along!

What has been brilliant so far is the second hand stuff.  I've made an effort to only shop when I'm relaxed and not in a hurry, to get as far away from the Bluewater experience as possible.  First charity shop was Oxfam.  The haul was immense.  Spent quite a bit of money but got so many beautiful things: notebooks made from old wrapping paper, fairtrade soaps shaped like hearts, little finger puppets, a gorgeous purse.... and the list goes on.

My great start didn't continue so well as I ventured around more Lewes charity shops; I think I really started at the top of the pile!  But I found a lovely vase in my mother-in-law's favourite colour, a book that I think my nephew will love, some hankies, and then a funny little book about ancient cathedrals - destined for the in-laws too.

Most exciting of all was Jamie's booksale.  Jamie sells books.  I don't actually know his job title, but he's the one that publishers send books to, and he shows books to shops, they decide, business is done etc.  Anyway, he gets sent these samples - so many that every so often he holds a booksale, just to get rid of them!  Books are 75% off the retail price...!  This time the sale was in aid of our lovely friends John & Fritha and their work with orphans in Ukraine.  Bonus :-)

So, all in all a great start to the fairtrade/secondhand/handmade Christmas.  It remains to be seen whether I'll actually be able to find something, say, for my Dad - typically hard to buy for as all dads are.  Amazon still might be called upon on 23 December.

And of course, if any of the family sees this, they'll now know that we're not as generous as we seem...  Although if I get round to enough baking, they might not mind ;-)