Free Christmas!

by Lucy AitkenRead

Liberating our festivities from the
chains of consumerism

Yesterday I picked up a newspaper and out slipped the typical bundle of flyers. Amongst the adverts for double glazing and sponsor children, a Christmas appeal for a homeless charity caught my eye. It featured a young man’s story of how he experiences the festive season. He described the feeling of catching a glimpse through a window into a warm and snug home, a family gathered to feast, while standing in a cold and dark street on his own.

His experience of Christmas was almost the exact opposite of the experience of many others. Christmas has long been a season filled with great contrasts. Dickens explored these in A Christmas Carol through interactions between the miserly Scrooge and the warm hearted Cratchits, the jovial Ghost of Christmas present and the grim Ghost of Christmas future.  More recently, Dr. Seuss did the same in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, putting the Grinch with his heart ‘two sizes too small’ up against the Christmas-loving village of Whoville.

One contrast I personally become fixated on every Christmas is the one between the original, simple, quiet birth of Jesus and the extravagant, product-based celebrations we have now. The department store opposite our church has filled its windows with luxurious scenes of presents, food, alcohol and banners urging “The more the merrier!” - a world away from the stark and stinking stable that Jesus was born in and the three presents that lay at the manger.

Now, here is where I am in danger of seeming like Scrooge or the Grinch. So I must state: I love Christmas! I love parties! I love giving gifts! I am just convinced that there is a better way to show love than by buying into the consumer frenzy that happens every year. Indeed, I simply agree with the Grinch’s ultimate conclusion: “‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more!’” Perhaps we need to explore better ways to do gifts; to buy gifts that have a restorative story, such as Fair Trade ones; or to attempt to make our own gifts with recycled materials.

Of course there is another contrast at work, the one between our extravagant festivities and consequences of them on the planet and the world’s poor people. While we shop and feast and celebrate, we are accelerating climate change and the effects on vulnerable people in developing countries. I only point it out because I know there are alternatives - we don’t have to clog the landfills with Christmas cards, wrapping paper and packaging, and we don’t have to waste energy on decorative lights and travelling around. There are more sustainable and ethical ways to do Christmas. With Christmas traditionally being “our” celebration, surely Christians should be forging the way in more conscientious festivities? Perhaps we have a responsibility to liberate Christmas from what it has become and to inspire others with the alternative.

There is a growing movement of people who are determined to do Christmas better - in fact, one survey from 2007 suggested that 1 in 3 shoppers were planning to buy ethical Christmas gifts. Some of us have launched a Free Christmas! website, that aspires to be a source of inspiration and support for people who also want to have an ethical Christmas. Here are Ten Top Tips that might help your Christmas to be low-impact on the environment but high-impact on love!

1. Do gifts better! People in the United Kingdom are expected to spend £53 billion over the Christmas period. Considering that it is estimated that only £13 billion is needed to provide health and sanitation to the whole world, this is just a bit crazy. Buy ethically or make your own!
2. Change the way you do Christmas cards. One billion Christmas cards (17 each for every man, woman and child) could end up in bins across the UK this year. Considering one tree is needed to make about 3,000 cards it is about time we get thinking of better ways! Send an E card to your friends, family and colleagues.
3. Plant a Christmas tree! We will use about eight million Christmas trees, most of which will be thrown away in January, generating over 12,000 tonnes of rubbish. Delight in watching your own Christmas tree bloom and grow or wait until your local schools breaks up and go down and recycle their one!
4. Make a Fair Trade Christmas pudding! Fair trade has been changing the world over the last few years. Take it one step further and get baking with Fair Trade goodies.
5. Rejig last years Christmas outfit. Get involved with a Swapping Party and find an extra accessory to bring your outfit into 2008 or sew on a bit of ribbon or a few sequins!
6. Recycle stuff to make your own decorations. Turn jars into lanterns, last years wrapping paper into Christmas bunting!
7. Eco your party! Before throwing the spangliest, funkiest Christmas party ever, put in place some recycling bags and boxes. We will use an extra 500 million aluminium drinks cans and an extra 750 million glass bottles and jars over Christmas and the New Year. In all, enough rubbish to fill 400,000 double-decker buses will be produced. Make sure your party waste only fills a glove box! For amazingly eco party supplies check out Eco My Party.
8. Don’t be plastic fantastic! Around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be thrown away over Christmas. Make sure you choose food, wrapping paper, gifts and cards that don’t use excess plastic. The plastic you do have to use make sure it is recyclable.
9. Spend time not money. Throw your mind back over Christmases past. Memories tend to be filled with the showing of love not simply what presents you got. Back in April this year, more than four million people in the UK were still paying off their debts from last Christmas. Individuals plan to spend, on average, £385 on gifts and £178 on food and drink this year. Don’t put yourself under pressure this year. Get creative and give presence not presents!
10. Spread festive cheer outside of your car! Use public transport to go to your parties and family visits and smile at people on the bus! Put reindeer antlers on your bike handles and when you walk get your Santa hat on. Car use is causing way too much damage to the planet so this Christmas bring joy to the world and get out of it!

Why not browse the Free Christmas! website, make a pledge and join the movement that hopes to change the world this Christmas?

Writer: Lucy AitkenRead lives in London, England where she is studying and working on the activist team of a development agency. Lucy enjoys ranting and raving and marching about various global issues. Lucy monitors, expands and writes the regular Match Factory listing on theRubicon. Visit her blog which she updates periodically.

For another take on how to engage differently with Christmas there’s always the “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake American Humanist Association Godless Holiday Campaign. Or read the Mother Jones report on the attack of the atheists.

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