Dec 27 2024 - Buy Nothing Time

 

Now that we've spent money buying Christmas presents, we can start a new chapter and join the Buy Nothing Project.  Started by Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller,  it sponsors communities everywhere and anywhere.  There are 7.5 million community members, 13,000 community builders, 128,000 communities around the world, and 850,000 BuyNothing app downloads.  That's quite a bit going on.  Local group members offer things for free and  look for things for free.  It is called a gift economy - no money is exchanged and no trades are required.   There is a lot of press about the "Buy nothing movement" - there are rules and administrator roles that people complain about.   There are guides for beginners, advice on how to take part and lots of gratitude and generosity talk. Of course, there are the Reddit posts on the "best thing you've scored in a buy nothing group. " Someone was so happy to receive - school uniforms before the age of 5?  And lots of baby and children items and toys. Especially squishmallows.  Remember the squishmallow tree at the Fantasy of Trees.   And there are the Reddit posts of complaints and rants, of which there are plenty.   I've joined the Grimsby group so will keep you posted on what develops. Let me know if you belong to a group. Here's a pretty sight - Longwood Garden's Christmas display.

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Is there a Buy Nothing Christmas?

Is there a 'buy nothing at Christmas' movement?  Yes. There has to be.  It seems obvious, doesn't it.  Wikipedia has an entry for buy nothing Christmas -    "Buy Nothing Christmas is an ongoing protest and reaction to the commercialization of the North American Christmas and holiday season. It started unofficially in 1968, when Ellie Clark and her family decided to publicly disregard the commercial aspects of the Christmas holiday. Contemporarily a movement was created to extend Adbusters' Buy Nothing Day into the entire Christmas season. Buy Nothing Christmas first became official in 2001 when a small group of Canadian Mennonites created a website and gave the movement a name". Here is their website: www.buynothingchristmas.org Here is an excerpt from the buy nothing catalogue.  You can submit entries to it.  On the downside, it looks like this website is mostly dormant, and the facebook page's last post is from a few years ago.   There is a wider buy nothing movement with groups located around the world.  As I was checking them out, a little ad popped up - it is the gift of nothing - available on Amazon for $19.95.   Here it is. Today is a train day - a panorama from the convention in Minneapolis.