Here's a great way to put the Spirit back into the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Solstice
Season this year, whether you're religious or otherwise.
Buy American. Help an American keep her or his job by buying what he or she earns a living producing.Buy local. Begin taking Main Street back from Wall $treet.Spend less. Make it. Bake it. Repair it. Repaint it.
With Thanksgiving coming up, it's a perfect time to tell family
members who gather to celebrate Turkey Day what you expect from them this
Christmas time, and what you do not prefer this year.
Here's a list to help jump start your imagination:
1) Tell them that this Holiday Season in your home things they make themselves will be more highly prized than anything they can purchase.
2) If you think you're not handy, or cannot make it, cook it or re-store and recycle it, then buy things which other Americans made, from local shops which are American owned and operated.3) For instance: buy your gifts from local artists, farmers markets, bakers, craftspeople and candy makers! Try gift certificates from barbers, hair dressers, restaurants, car detailers, gyms or local theater tickets. Once you put your mind to it, the list that bubbles forth is endless!4) Let everyone know, politely but firmly in no uncertain terms, that mass produced stuff from Bangladesh or Timbucktu is not acceptable this year.
5) This Holiday Season Share the Wealth (what little there is of it) with those closest to home, by NOT supporting Corporations who ship American Jobs overseas to increase profits for the 1%. If neither Scrooge Congress nor the President can create jobs in America, show them how you can pitch in to do your part.6) It's time we the 99% began taking care of ourselves, and the best way is to cut out the middle-men, the top-dogs, the fat-cats, and the foreign producers who run out-of-sight sweatshops using child labor.7) Spend where your money stays in America, circulates in America, and creates jobs in America.8) That goes down even to things like Christmas wrappings made wherever overseas. Start saving your Sunday comic sections to use for colorful wrapping paper at Christmas, made in America, and recycled in America.9) Stop shopping WallyWorld and other BIG BOX franchise importers who have for decades forced American companies to open plants outside the US, exporting jobs for more profit to the 1%. After they choke on the mass of imported stuff they ordered back last summer, you can pick up things at pennies on the dollar after New Year's to put aside for later gift giving, like birthdays. If they can manipulate markets, so can we: don't buy it.10) Boycott anything made or sold by right-wingnut tea party financiers like the billionaire KOCH Brothers and Art Pope (Roses, Maxway, Value Mart, Super 10 and Super Dollar (though not Dollar General), among others owned by Variety Wholesalers Inc.) Here's a good reference:
Boycott War Profiteers when you can:Links about Boycotts:11) Get to know your extended neighborhood, the folks right here at home who spend their lives making beautiful things: potters, weavers, musicians, glass blowers, book writers, organic farmers, fishermen, bakers, florists, woodworkers, orchardists, cheese makers, balloon twisters, and on and on: but only buy stuff made in America.12) Buying USED things sends NO profit back to the manufacturer, no matter where. Buying used Chinese from a thrift shop, yard sale or a friend, sends nothing back to communist China, and supports folks right here in the USA.13 During the other Great Depression which my parents and your grandparents lived through, they survived by doing exactly this, and more. When 'new' was not available, or not affordable, they repaired, fixed up, re-painted and made useable things out of discards.14) Re-gifting is IN. Closets and attics full of stuff that someone gave you that you never use are great to Re-gift. (It would be good if you can remember who gave it to you, so as not to re-gift the gifter!)15) And heirloom gifting is IN. This is a great year to pass on things memorable and meaningful to the next generation. And take time to write a story so your piece of history is preserved.16) While you're cleaning out storage areas to rediscover what's hiding there, make a pile of stuff you cannot re-gift or make into something else, and pass it on to local Thrift Shops who help your neighbors in need. Set a goal: reduce stuff in storage by a third.17) At the time of first publishing this on 11/11/11, there are 6 weeks until Winter Solstice Holiday Season, plenty of time to plan, discover, make, dream, explore, enjoy, and turn this Holiday into the best one you and your family may ever have together.
18) Use the internet to help you discover things you can make on your own. Try this:19) Surprise your family by how inventive and creative you can be! Six weeks is plenty of time to do things you always keep putting off, until Someday Isle, or when IgetaRoundTuit.20) You can do this for whatever reason you choose. Maybe buying American makes you feel patriotic. Maybe making things for others is a joy. Maybe doing your part to drain a little profit from the TransNational Corporations of Wall $treet helps you to feel like a more loyal American. Whatever motivates you, that's a Reason for the Season!
VIDEO: new from the Story of Stuff:
Corporations of Wall $treet's 1% have spent decades commercializing Christmas for profit of
their stockholders, conning you into believing that the more you spend, the
happier you will be.
The #Occupy
Movement that's sweeping across the US and around the Globe is
searching for new and effective ways to speak back to Wall $treet Greed.
This is a practical way to proudly say, "I am the 99%!"
This Christmas Season is a perfect opportunity to prove that
happiness is NOT a credit card loaded to the max! Think about what you spent
in past years. It's easier than you imagine to set a goal to spend half
that much, and have an even better Holiday, if you put your creative energies
to work.
Here are some additional financial goals that can be done
simultaneously.
Use what you save to pay down your personal debt ASAP. Becoming as debt free as possible is a great Goal.Make a shopping list, reduce it by a third, and stick to it. No impulse buying.Start with Credit Card debt. Get down to ONE card only. If you use the convenience of charging, make sure you pay it off every month, giving banks no interest. Throw a party, and invite your friends and neighbors to celebrate cutting up their retired Credit Cards.
Move your personal banking business
out of commercial banks and into a Credit Union as soon as possible.
Member owned Credit Unions will do whatever possible to assist their
members, while commercial banks will be looking for every way to increase their
falling profits. Commercial banks must increase profits
to satisfy stockholder expectations. In Credit Unions, YOU are the
shareholders.
Pay off and retire ALL in-store
credit cards. Charges, even when paid and the card cancelled, remain on
your credit history for 7 years, affecting your overall credit score. If
you are addicted to paying with a card, buy in-store Gift Cards. They
cost you no interest, help teach you to live within limits, and in
the long run may improve your credit score.
Get serious about conservation, the
best untried energy source around. Carpool. Walk. Bike.
If every car that has only one person in it had two
or three instead, there would be no energy crisis, slashing dependence
on foreign oil. Most Americans live near a public park
or recreation center. They're yours. Use them. Find out
what your Public Library has for you in books, CDs and DVDs, recycled
magazines. They're already paid for, and cost you nothing.
Begin thinking frugally about how to make
do with all the stuff you already have that requires spending as little
money as possible. Spend your time being creative, rather than worrying.
Make it. Bake it. Repair it. Repaint it. Use your
imagination, unleash your creativity! Need a jump start? Try this
supply of ideas:
Instead of letting the Holiday Season drive you nuts again this
year, turn it around and use this opportunity as a motivator to make your life,
and the lives of those close around you, so much better, and for less.
You can start by sharing [OCCUPY]
C H R I S T M A S!
With those you'll be sharing the Holidays
with, to plant the idea, and to open conversations about how to make this work
even better. When you shape a plan to fit your own personal situation, it
belongs to you.
Traditional Catholic Prayers: Culture: The meaning of Christmas
ReplyDeleteA blessed Christmas to you. It is absolutely and without exception only to be preferred to be a part of the remnant of the faithful,than to go to hell with the mob.