Christmas Gift Ideas

I’m long overdue for a post (as always,) but I have to admit, I think two sinus infections and a case of strep throat provide me with quite an excuse for my delay. In between the mess of tissue paper and orange juice, I spent the last month and half  working on a fair trade night as part of a series on justice that our church is going through.  I figure  I will give you a portion of the night’s events until it’s as if you had been there yourself. We’re going to work backwards seeing as how Christmas is only 20 days away and I don’t want to miss the chance to give you some awesome Christmas ideas. Before everyone left I handed out some nifty fliers (if I do say so myself) that list some typical Christmas presents you might find under your tree along with an alternative for each. Now I’d like to say that I’m not particularly a fan of the gift driven focus Christmas has attained but while Jordan and I are figuring out how we want to do Christmas in our family, I think there is still a bit of room for some giving of good cheer.   So before you rush out to Target or Wal-mart, check out this Christmas list.

P.S. You’ve got to check out better world books, they’ve got free shipping, give a book to charity for every book you buy, and they have the triple bottom line, people, plant, and proft. Love it.

P.P.S If you’ve got a soccer lover in your family and are considering getting a new soccer ball, I urge you to check out FairTradeSports, soccer balls have one of the worst reputations when it comes to human trafficking, lets not bring joy to one child by robbing it from another.

Here are some links to the above mentions gifts…

Sweet treats and baking goods

Jewelry, home decor, stationary… 

Books

Sports Balls

Trick or Treat?

The holidays are quickly approaching and this year I’m hoping to not be tricked into “treating” friends and family with gifts that don’t sing of justice and mercy. My head has already been bubbling with traditions my husband and I can put into action for our first Christmas together but in an effort to not encourage Jordan’s Christmas song singing, ( choir is already practicing) let’s start with Halloween.

I realize we are just a little over a week away from Halloween and I wish I had posted sooner with all the candy being purchased as we speak! But since I’m too old to trick or treat and no trick or treat-ers will be coming by our house (we live in a pool house behind a house) it sort of fell off my radar. Nonetheless if you haven’t bought your candy yet keep this in mind, and if you have, well keep this in mind.

• More candy is purchased for Halloween than any other holiday.
• An est. 600 million pounds of candy are bought for Halloween. That’s almost 1.9 billion dollars in candy sales! That’s a lot of money going into a pretty corrupt industry. 
• Non-chocolate candy can still pour money into many companies that rely on slave labor for their chocolates. For example M & M Mars makes skittles but they also make many tainted chocolate bars.

If you are in an area with a lot of Trick or Treating traffic and you are worried about the cost of buying more ethical chocolate consider handing out a single piece of candy rather than a handful and saying “I’m treating you to a piece of candy so that so that some other kids can be treated well” (obviously you will want to adjust your explanation based on age.)

Check out these tasty bite size alternatives:

Earth Chocolate Balls – $8.39 for half a pound

Milk Chocolate or Bittersweet Coins – $50 for 100 pieces or $25 for 50

Divine Chocolate gold coins – $2.79 for a bag of 13 coins, or 68.99

Dark Chocolate Orange Bites – $26 for 93 pieces (Probably more geared towards adults) for 30 bags

Organic Lollipops – $31.96 for 5 lbs (great deal and lots of fun flavors)

Endangered Species Chocolates – $23 for 2 lbs (82 pieces)