The Power and Promise of Humane Education
Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs
So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help Animals
Gift-giving season is upon us. In my next few posts, I’m going to offer MOGO gift-giving tips. I’m hoping this sparks your creativity and turns this gift-giving season into a truly pleasurable experience!
My friend Patty loves when the Christmas tree has lots of presents under it, and I can totally relate. Somehow, a tree with just a few presents makes me sad, even though I reject the consumerist culture that surrounds us and pressures us into buying more unnecessary, unsustainable, inhumane, cruelly-produced stuff.
No matter how much I believe that less is more and that voluntary simplicity is wonderful, I love giving gifts, and when it’s time to fill my son’s and husband’s stockings, I feel horrified if the stocking is less than half full. But my husband really doesn’t want anything, and I know that he opens his gifts hoping that I haven’t bought more stuff. Despite my values, some inner child kicks in and demands that the holidays include the right amount of presents. What’s the MOGO answer?
Here’s my first idea, to be followed in the coming posts by more:
Think about who is on your list and ask yourself: “What does this person enjoy doing or want to learn?” Then consider giving a gift of your time to enable them to do what they love. For example, your son may like attending hockey games, so you can give him tickets for a game. Such gifts don’t have to cost money though. Would your best friend like a manicure? Offer to give one. Do you know how to make a craft and does your mother enjoy learning a new art? Provide a lesson. Does your partner enjoy back rubs? Make a coupon book for weekly massages. Does your neighbor admire your garden and want to learn how to grow vegetables? Offer to help him start one. Perhaps your spouse wants more time to pursue an interest. Could you offer to pick up a chore or two to enable her to have that time? Or maybe your partner wants to learn a new language or how to ballroom dance or practice Aikido. Sign both of you up for classes and learn together.
Stay tuned for more MOGO gift-giving tips.
~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and Claude and Medea
Image courtesy of wolfsavard via Creative Commons.
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Filed under: Inner Peace, MOGO (Most Good), consumerism, simple living | Tagged: Christmas, consumerism, creativity, gifts, holidays, MOGO choices, presents, time, voluntary simplicity
Hey Zoe,
I love this article and that so many people are talking about how they can be MOGO with the holiday season. Personally, I’ve decided that for the young people in my life, I am buying gift subscriptions to cool wildlife conservation magazines, and for the special adults in my life, I am giving them a night out (with me of course!). Though it seems terribly arrogant, I realized that the gifts people reflect on the most are the memories that they make when they get to spend quality time with each other. So rather than giving a tangible gift, I want to create a time when we can make some of those memories, and share a gift with each other that way.
Also, I’ve come up with a new thing for holiday cards…Everyone on my list is getting a large card, and a small card. The large one is addressed and mailed to them, and the small card is enclosed with only a stamp on the envelope. I’ve included a little note with each one that, encourages people to use this small card as a way to reach out to someone with whom they might have lost touch. My hope is that they can reconnect, and perhaps even lay a new bridge to heal their relationship. So perhaps not MOGO because its adding double to the stream of holiday cards, but nonetheless, I wanted to encourage people to practice this. Who knows, it could inspire someone to reconnect with all sorts of people!
Thanks again for writing about this, and though its still a little early, Happy Holidays!
Love these ideas! Thanks so much for sharing them!