Holiday Shopping

I do not celebrate Black Friday. In fact, I try really hard not to set foot in a mall during the entire time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

For a few years now, my family has decided to donate to charity in lieu of gifts to each other. We have given to Unicef, Heifer, CharityWater, to name a few. Helping someone on the other side of the world to become self-reliant feels better to me than receiving a bunch of things I really don't need. (And it saves on standing in the exchange line on December 26th.) It's much more consistent with the Christmas spirit.

My theory on gift-giving is that it's reserved for children, preferably those who still believe in Santa. I remember a sharp decline in my level of gratitude once that particular bubble was burst. (If Santa took the time to bring me socks, I was impressed; Mom and Dad should know better.)

So my shopping list is pretty short. And I'm going to try to buy American. I don't advocate a boycott of foreign products, but I believe that if we all paid a bit more attention to where our money went, we could do a lot to fix the unemployment problem without waiting for politicians to do it for us.

It's harder to find American products than you'd think. I'm starting with this website: http://www.madeinusa.org and I'll keep you posted on what I find.