As you know, I don’t agree with the consumerism that characterizes the Christmas season, but the truth is that 2000 years ago we received the best gift we could have ever been given: the gift of God becoming man and so the Christmas season is about a gift and about joy. As human beings we are very creative as to how to express our love for others: we either sacrifice or dedicate our time, talents and, ultimately, our entire selves. If you think about it, how do you express your love for your spouse or a friend or family member? And a lot of times you will do something nice for them and where I’m going with this is that you may actually buy (or make) them a gift. From that standpoint, I think gift-giving during the Christmas season–with simplicity in mind–can be a good thing.
Handmade Gifts
That being said, if you want to give a gift this Christmas season and you don’t have time to finish those crocheted gifts you wanted to give to your loved ones (like me!), why not get them a handmade gift? I found a wonderful website yesterday where people sell handmade gifts called Etsy. They have beautiful gifts: anywhere from pottery, quilts, crochet and knit afghans and accessories, jewelry, stationery, candles, you name it! And everything is relatively cheap as well. Plus, you’re helping artists and artisans who do this for a living (or just for the sake of it!). Also check out BuyHandMade.org and take the “handmade pledge”!
Our wonderful readers from Vox Nova have also given me these websites as gift alternatives:
Monastic Communities
- Mystic Monk Coffee (Mugs, music, and coffee!)
- Clarisa’s Cookies (Order of Friars Minor Capuchin)
Fair Trade Websites
- Save the Children (UK)
- Great Gifts (UK)
- Useful Gifts
- Ten Thousand Villages (They may have a store near you, but you can also buy online)
- A Greater Gift (Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade)
Hi Katerina,
I noticed that you have a logo for Texas A&M on your other website. I am writing from College Station, where I am trying to put together a packet of information for Catholics with Celiac Disease. I have been looking for a photo of either Pope Benedict XVI or Pope John Paul II elevating the Eucharist. I hope you can tell me your source for the moving photo of Pope John Paul II elevating the host on your Why Am I Catholic Video.
In Christ,
Patsy
What I hate most about Christmas is the commercialism aspect. Also the Anti-Christian sentiment and yet it IS about the birth of Christ.
Yet the PC crowd would have us remove Christ from Christmas…What are we to celebrate? A fat man in a red suit? Beggars belief!
Good for you for making a stand:)
Peace & blessings to you:)
Marie
Thanks for the ideas. I was thinking along the same lines today! I’ve added one of your links to my post.
Patsy, send me an e-mail to voxnovablog@gmail.com and I’ll reply with the John Paul II picture attached from the video.
Thanks!
Katerina
Great idea..just with charities we need to be super vigilant as to who they actually support..
Good ideas – thanks! I got a gift catalog from The Heifer Project a while ago, and I’ll probably do some gift giving from that one too. We’re also fortunate to have a Ten Thousand Villages shop in town; they always have some nice things there.
[...] others seem to be on the same “buy homemade” wavelength. Feminine Genius linked to this post with more ideas. Preparing for Advent 2007 « Simply Catholic pinged back with Preparing [...]
[...] 1, 2007 by Katerina Ivanovna Remember what I told you about buying handmade gifts on Etsy.com for Christmas? Well, as I was browsing around for gifts, I decided to open my own [...]
[...] is also seems to be a tremendous revival in making Christmas gifts. Early in the season, Katerina Ivanova of Civilization of Love wrote about some great resources that have emerged for keeping Christmas handmade. Etsy allows anyone to [...]
Thanks for sharing these great ideas. I’m bookmarking this for future reference. Some of these I already do, so the point resonated most strongly with me. Keep feeding the creativity.
I am currently on holiday so, for this reason, I’ve nothing better to do than surf the web for shopping, lie around and update my blog. Well, more or less anyway.
Doug C
[...] for some good sites to visit for your Christmas shopping this year? Civilization of Love has some places to start for handmade gifts and a number of Fair Trade websites. Posted in [...]