{"id":1654,"date":"2010-12-18T23:27:21","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T03:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/?p=1654"},"modified":"2011-06-03T12:20:47","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T16:20:47","slug":"happy-stress-free-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/2010\/12\/18\/happy-stress-free-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy (stress-free) holidays!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bigger<\/a>
Items from my present cupboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I just wrote a very serious blog post, but I decided to save it til after the holiday season. I can see that people are in a party mood, which is a good thing. Even though Christmas and New Year\u2019s come in well after Halloween and Valentine\u2019s in my own Holiday ratings, it is a good time to see family and friends.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not so good is the shopping Frenzy out there. With Canadian\u2019s personal indebtedness at an all-time high, do we need to spend a lot more money on a lot more stuff?<\/strong> And do we need the stress <\/strong>of near-impossible parking and shopping mall line-ups?<\/p>\n

In my Swedish family, present-giving has always been important. My mother, for one, always made beautiful packages for carefully chosen books or home-made textiles, a tradition now kept up by my sister Eva.<\/p>\n

I like giving presents too, but I can\u2019t stand Christmas shopping, and I have a system to avoid it.<\/strong> It\u2019s the Present Cupboard. (Comes in handy for birthdays too.) All year, as I travel – or even just walk around town – I keep my eyes open for good presents. Although I won\u2019t turn down a good sale with reduced prices, I have a big preference for buying things directly from people who make them, so I know where the money is going. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a>
Inexpensive presents: the wrecked-car key rings on the right are from ATSA - the subject of my film Art en Action. You can find other presents on their website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seems to me this is more important than ever these days when arts and crafts are under attack from governments. If you buy something from a local artist or artisan, you are helping them stay alive and keep doing what they do best. There are also the special stores which sell fair trade presents,<\/strong> a great way to support cooperatives in poor countries. Many NGOs also sell fair-trade presents<\/a> on-line.<\/p>\n

And then there are great ways to contribute to good causes around the world, and ear-marking your donation as a present for a friend. <\/strong>This is mostly what I’ll do this year, because this has been such a terrible year for the people of Haiti.<\/p>\n

So I will buy most of my \u2018presents\u2019 from Doctors Without Borders<\/a> \u2013 you can buy cholera medicine, or pay for a day\u2019s salary for a nurse or doctor. And I\u2019ll make a contribution to Democracy Now<\/a>!, for its great alternative news coverage totally independent of the multinational corporations who own most of the other media. ATSA<\/a> is another excellent (and local!) group of engaged artists and citizens.<\/p>\n

Boring, too \u2018politically correct,\u2019 moralistic? Some commentators in the mainstream media think so. If you asked the doctors on the frontlines in areas stricken by disaster, I think there perspective would be different.<\/p>\n

Joyeuses f\u00eates! <\/strong><\/p>\n

God Jul och Gott Nytt \u00c5r! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Feliz Navidad! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Happy holidays to all!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Thanks to Tobi Elliott<\/a> for her help with this blog. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just wrote a very serious blog post, but I decided to save it til after the holiday season. I can see that people are in a party mood, which is a good thing. Even though Christmas and New Year\u2019s come in well after Halloween and Valentine\u2019s in my own Holiday ratings, it is a … Continue reading Happy (stress-free) holidays!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,11],"tags":[822,366,363,356,351,360,352,353,357,358,364,350,193,359,354,355,365,362,361],"class_list":["post-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atsa","category-documentary-debates","category-english","tag-atsa","tag-atsaqcca","tag-buying-direct","tag-cholera-medicine","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-shopping","tag-democracy-now","tag-doctors-without-borders","tag-donation","tag-earmarked-contribution","tag-fair-trade-stores","tag-gift-giving","tag-haiti","tag-joyeuses-fetes","tag-medecins-sans-frontieres","tag-msf","tag-ngo","tag-personal-indebtedness","tag-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions\/1663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}