christmas alternatives

i have been doing some thinking lately about christmas. i guess it has come up a lot in family conversations and due to the "failing" economy (there are so many people at the mall i haven't noticed this fail at all but oh well).

there are a number of alternative ideas out there about christmas, a few examples of less consumer driven celebrations include "Buy Nothing Christmas" and "Buy Handmade".

These sound like good ideas and they do appeal to me in some sense, but in my experience, these things only work for some people. i am a huge advocate of making gifts and or giving more personal gifts (ie. time, skills) to people, but not very many people actually appreciate the effort put into these gifts. there's nothing worse then spending 2 weeks knitting a scarf for someone (and spending $40 on wool) and having them toss it aside and never wear it. one year i tried to come up with very specific gift certificates for each of my friends detailing things that we would do together as part of my gift. i lovingly crafted small scrolls of paper with gold calligraphy. and not one person redeemed the gift certifcate. well, maybe no one wants to spend time with me!

this christmas some people in my extended family have opted for a secret santa using Elfster. we will still be buying gifts, but as we are buying for only one person, we are certainly reducing some of the consumerism. honestly, i love christmas and i have no problems with christmas shopping, but i do have problems coming up with gifts ideas just for the sake of giving a gift. sometimes i have great ideas for something that i know someone will love and i like to act on that, but buying yet another book that won't be read or dvd that collects dust on a shelf seems rather pointless.

one idea that i read about was a gift swap, in which people have a party and bring things that they have received that they don't need but may be appropriate for other people(basically regifts). for example, last year i got 2 copies of a cd (that i love) but i wasn't able to return the extra copy. so i have a great cd, still in plastic wrap, that i can do nothing with. it would be great to barter/trade some of these things with other people for things that they might have that i could use as gifts. this would reduce consumption, as no money would change hands. at the end of the swap, anything left over could be donated to a charity. i was thinking it would also be fun to ask everyone to bring a food item that could be donated to the food bank. this would really be a party that would make me feel good about christmas. does anyone else have a box of "regifts" they want to swap????