So much for promises. It isn't that I am totally befuddled in my gift making & purchasing. It is more like I have forgotten how to enjoy the Christmas Magic. More importantly - I am dismissing the notion of Christmas magic altogether.
Don't get me wrong - I am not "BAA-hum-bugging" it. I am quite taken with the sounds of Christmas music and the sparkle of Christmas lights. It is the notion of commercialism that beats negatively in my heart.
This week, I went to a "mall". It might as well have been another 4 letter word ending in "double L's". Most of the stores offered inferior merchandise with hefty price tags. UGH - no wonder I have lost the magic ... could I have bought into the media's feeding frenzy that Christmas is nothing more than inappropriate gifts inside non-recycable boxes & bags - tied with landfill choking ribbons and bows? I mean - should I really concern myself with what Britney Spears is purchasing this Christmas??
NO! NO! NO! NO!
Dove Knits has blogged in the past about knitting toys! Look at these fun booklets I bought ... just because Miss Dove inspired me so! (Suffice to say - you are only seeing the 'Christmas editions' .....gggg!) These toys will be fun to make and even more fun to give!
In the next few weeks - do support your small shopkeeper, local baker, and fellow artist! Shop at a local winery, artisan cheese shop and butcher!! These people BASK in the glory of happy customers!
Christmas is magic ... It is all about discovering it by candlelight not under the BAAzillion fluorescents at the mall.
Remember .... Inspire Art! Create Art! Buy Art! Be ART!! Comments, please!
2 comments:
AMEN!
Wow, I'm famous!
You're gonna love these booklets. I have the 28-page special, the one with Santa on the cover, and I love it so. I'll probably end up making everything in it, in fact. Of course, the same goes for the other three JG booklets I own :)
As far as your Christmas assessment -- I agree wholeheartedly. I mean, what better way to celebrate the birth of Christ (or, if you're less religious, a time for families to reconcile and be together) than to shove each other out of the way, swearing, in search of the perfect, slave-labor produced, mass-manufactured gift that will lay forgotten on a shelf somewhere?
I'd also like to suggest The Hunger Site's store. There are tons of wonderful, fair-trade imported, artisan-made, unique gifts for everything you may ever want -- even yarn! The purchases support the artists, fostering independence and escape from poverty for many artists in many countries. Additionally, each purchase buys food for those who can't afford it :) And there are 6 sister sites there, too -- you can save shelter animals, protect the rainforest, buy kids books and provide them with medical care, or buy free mammograms.
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