Buy Presents That Make A Difference
Why not broaden the impact of your gift giving to include the producers, the environment and those in need more than we’ll ever be.
How about making the remit for your purchases cover some or all of the following:- Fairly Traded – buy from the wealth of catalogues and websites who promote equity in what they produce, especially supporting those in developing countries
- Recycled or secondhand – look for items that have been recycled, perhaps give something that you don’t use or need anymore or buy secondhand – charity shops can be a grotto of fantastic items at fantastic prices and your helping others at the same time. You could even make your own – dressing up clothes for kids or jam for example
- Sustainable – think about the source of your gift – did it come from a renewable source – or does it counter balance carbon emissions for example
- Organic – buy items not drowned in chemicals harmful to us or the planet
- Independent – buy handmade gifts from small or independent producers – know where your gifts have come from and support traditional methods of making things from art, to food to clothing
- Donations – Many charities offer the opportunity to give a donation as a gift (the recipient will receive a card detailing what they have bought). You can purchase all sorts of specifics including goats, chickens, education, water and so on. (More on this in Goat action below.)
- Time – Instead of disposable gifts, buy gift vouchers for the theatre, concerts or ‘experience days’ or take the person out for a meal or to see a film – spend time with them.
Christian Aid and Oxfam have more ideas.
Join the fray by signing in.
24 Aug 2005
I did the theatre ticket thing last year. People I gave them to appreciated them. But what do I do this year? Same again seems a bit dull …
taunton, GB , 30 Aug 2005
I’m going to see if i can be creative and get most pressies from charity shops this year. What i fail to get from there I’ll prob get from local craft fair or Traidcraft.
trying to spend less on pressies in general, not to be ‘tight’ (as we say in these parts) but because everyone I’m giving pressies to isn’t actually in need of anything, not when compared to 75% of rest of world!
not easy tho… so used to wandering around Woolies or spending hours with Argos catalogue on lap, etc!
GB , 01 Oct 2005
last year my nearest and dearest recived goats and fruit trees, as they are all city dwellers these things are donated to nice children in africa who will make sure they are well cared for….., try greatgifts.org , I’m doing the same again this year.
Milton Keynes, GB , 23 Oct 2005
I have put in my order from the traidcraft catalogue for everyone I normally give presents to at christmas – mostly children/siblings (huge large family) and close friends – this will be a first and even with a budget of about £5 for each person we’ve gone up to £140 – however I think this is less than I spent over Nov/dec last year on panic buying random /meaningless things from debenhams/marks/JL – and sitting down with a catalogue found I could match people up with their gift in a much more meaningful way – so hopefully they will get more out of it too.
We’ll see….
25 Oct 2005
We’re doing something radical this year…..the focus this year has been very much on the G8 & the Make Poverty History campaign, & we felt hypocritical supporting that & wearing MPH wristbands & then settling down for the usual presentfest at Christmas. Added to this, our 17-year-old daughter spent 2 weeks in Uganda this summer with her church youth group, & saw a lot of poverty at first hand. We decided to ask all the adults to whom we usually give presents, whether it would be OK with them if, instead, we donasted an equivalent sum of money to a school in Uganda which our daughter worked at in the summer( & at which she hopes to work again for a few weeks next summer).We explained that we obviously didn’t expect a present from them! To our delight, they all agreed, & several have even contacted us since to ask if we minded them giving us some money for Uganda on their behalf too.We’re delighted with their response-we have so much compared to people in developing countries, this seemed like a logical response to the year’s events.
30 Oct 2005
I have brought from the Leprossy Mission and Traidcraft catalogue and also brought presents and gifts from the Traidcraft shop in Truro. I have also brought present from producers in Cornwall. Shane and I will also be purchasing some substainable gifts too for each other from Christian Aid. We have tried to avoid shopping in large department store and instead concentrated on buying from small independant shops in our local area.
Bradford, GB , 31 Oct 2005
My sister just got married and their wedding list was with oxfam unwrapped – I bought her 200 schoold dinners! I was so inspired by this, and raved about it to almost anyone who would listen. Me and Tom will be buying Christmas gifts from them and have enthused family members and friends to do the same…. why not take a peak yourself.. www.oxfamunwrapped.com :-)
New Malden, GB , 31 Oct 2005
I’m planning to buy Christmas presents from Traidcraft, charity shops, as well as do some “buy a goat” type presents. Also, I’m going to the Christmas markets in Germany and will focus on getting some handmade or organic presents from there.
03 Nov 2005
This Christmas my goal is to give everyone either something I’ve made myself or an alternative gift where a charity gets a donation. I’m a big knitter so I’ve got lots of hats and scarves underway which I am trying to knit mostly out of yarn I’ve already got so I don’t have to buy too much. I might also knuckle down and make some fudge and / or chutney as my dad is a big fan of both. Depends what there is a glut of in the garden!
In terms of alternative gifts I am rather biased as I am FD of War on Want, and we have just launched our own gift list so I will be giving those. As I say, I am biased but I do think we’ve got some good things on offer so here’s a link to our site if you want to take a look : www.waronwant.org
09 Nov 2005
This year I’m trying to buy all my Christmas gifts from Oxfam, Traidcraft etc, and getting adult friends and relatives donation gifts eg. goats, school equipment, latrines plus a small gift eg, fairtrade choccies/wine. Lots of my family and friends are going to do it too, as we’ve all agreed that Christmas present shopping has got out of hand in the last few years and we really don’t need any more stuff!
We’ve also agreed as a school staff that instead of sending each other Chistmas cards and doing ‘Secret Santa’, we’re all going to put the cash equivalent into a pot and buy 2000 school dinners for Africa from the Oxfam catalogue.
13 Nov 2005
Being committed to this forces me to think ahead. I do like to think about the individual I am getting or making a present for and look around for a few months to find a good alternative (making one, or Fairtrade or others). We even bought some from the merchants at Greenbelt this year!
Plaistow, GB , 30 Nov 2005
Carole’s family are happy to receive gifts for charity from Oxfam etc, especially as it means they don’t have to get us anything! Peter’s family still expect meaningless gifts, however.
06 Dec 2005
We’ve done ours from the World Vision catalogue. Its much the same as Oxfam, Christian Aid etc but has a greater choice. We’ve tried to match the gifts to the people concerned – i.e. a flock of sheep to my sis and a toilet for my dad….
06 Dec 2005
Living in London we’re lucky, every December there’s a big Christmas Fair Trade Fayre and we went along last weekend to sort quite a few gifts out.
20 Dec 2005
For the last couple of months my mum and I have been making recycled jewellery and shopping bags to sell in church. Promoting Living Generously, which I have spoken about in church, and all proceeds going towards training a midwife and buying a cow.
21 Dec 2005
We visited Lincoln’s alternative Christmas market at the beginning of December and bought some lovely gifts from Amensity, Friends of the Earth etc.
We have just been to the Oxfam unwrapped website and instead of sending Christmas cards this year and in memory of our daughter Emma … we have given a goat and 200 meals for school children.The 200 meals cost just £12 .. which completly blows my mind .. just £12 .. my goodness, how much does the average family spend on food over Christmas, on drink, on tins of chocolates .. really makes me think.
Godalming, GB , 28 Dec 2005
We gave a goat and some chickens last year, but didn’t think the recipients would want something similar again this year and didn’t think others we give presents to would appreciate them at all.
So this year we put them on our own Christmas list and duly received 200 school dinners (Oxfam unwrapped) from my sister, plus son has given me a voucher to spend on the Good Gifts catalogue.
I also purchased a Christmas card from World Vision, which involved schoolbooks being given to children in the developing world, to give to everyone at church, but although it is meant to have been sent out in good time (Mon 19th December) I didn’t receive it in time to take to church on Christmas Day and in fact still haven’t received it, which is a shame.
Stroud, GB , 02 Jan 2006
I persuaded my congregation to sign a giant Christmas card and donate to PresentAid…am waiting to see what the final total was, but hope we will have raised at least a couple of goats worth. Most of our family and friends received either Fair Trade or homemade presents (if you can count copies of an anthology of young writers’ work which includes several entries from our daughter)while we’ve been given some more chickens, seeds and training…I’ve just rediscoverd knitting, so maybe if I start now I could manage totally home made gifts for next year!
New Malden, GB , 10 Jan 2006
I did some oxfam unwrapped presents for various family members, got some things from markets and charity shops, and also a couple of carbon offset payments (giving the person a certificate to explain how much has been offset). See http://www.climatecare.org. My parents gave all of us charity presents – e.g. they paid for toilets, taps, and a special needs teacher in Africa; computer training and medical supplies for Bolivia, etc. It was great to see someone else doing this in a serious way. Best wishes, Emily
Gainsborough, GB , 20 Jan 2006
It might seem a bit odd to commit to presents that make a difference in January – ie just after the main present season, but I want to make token presents for my friends and then make a charitable donation when Christmas 2006 comes around. I’m currently thinking of personalised calendars which isn’t the sort of thing to decide to make in December!
03 Feb 2006
My mate Paul travels all over the place. For his birthday we bought him an Essential Hygeine kit for a third world family. Thought he may meet them on his travels one day. He was well excited with it!! Which was good, as I didn’t want him to think that we think HE needs an essential hygeine kit!!!
Welling, GB , 12 Mar 2006
We have now bought a few goats, sheet, bogs, etc. both from Oxfamunwrapped & Greatgifts. The trouble is that we feel our families still seem to expect other types of gifts, so we never feel able to buy these in isolation but rather as an extra gift! I also know that when I have asked for this type of gift, people often feel that they aren’t really buying me something – a good compromise sometimes is an adopted animal as a gift that can be repeated each year (unfortunately sponsored children tend to be a bit more expensive).
14 Mar 2006
We had World Vision gifts on our wedding list and lots of people gave us gifts that would remind us of them, which was lovely (a cousin who is a midwife bought a training course for midwives, a teacher bought school kits). Another friend bought us a piglet, and then sent us a little piglet figurine that she had made. We kept the cards in an album next to our wedding album. Since then, friends and family have carried on buying us World Vision gifts, and quite a few have asked for them in return too. The range is fantastic, so you can always find something to match the occasion or the person you’re buying for.
22 Mar 2006
This Christmas I only brought fairtrade presents and those funusual gifts from oxfam. There are plenty of fair trade mags to buy gifts from. Givinga a fair trade food hamper is a good present to give someone, just get a box or basket and fill it with FT food.
Arthog, GB , 29 Mar 2006
I got given a goat this Christmas. It was from Christian Aid, and the goat went to a family in Asia in more need of it than me! cool
12 Apr 2006
This Christmas, my parents, sister and I reduced what we’d normally spend on each other and pooled the ‘saved’ cash to buy toilets and clean water for someone via Oxfam Unwrapped: http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com
I aim to think more carefully about buying brand-new material goods as gifts – all the suggestions above are useful, and I’m good with me hands so some folk get knitted or sewn stuff (from wool or cloth bought in charity shops, if poss!)
My church homegroup have been saving up for a year now and buying items such as sewing machines, bicycles (for pastors or teachers) and livestock via Interational Needs: http://www.ineeds.org.uk/index.php?page=giftsofcompassion
25 May 2006
My Granddad has always included a gift that makes a difference. I’ve had cows, goats, apple trees, tools I think he mainly gets them through Send a Cow www.sendacow.org.uk TEL: 01225 874222
We bought gifts of acres of rain forest for our families this year. www.rainforestconcern.org
Also we adopted a turtle nest & had a turtle adopted for us. www.adoptaseaturtle.com
Levenshulme, Manchester, GB , 08 Oct 2006
for my 30th birthday i asked people to help to buy 30 fairly traded, handmade rag dolls made by the karen tribe in Thailand, these dolls went straight to nursery aged children living in refugee camps on the thailnad/burma border. It was the best birthday present ever. It was a link from www.thehungersite.com
Amersham, GB , 20 Oct 2006
My son is nine and over the last few years has been to more birthday parties than I care to remember. Instead of adding to the pile of yukky plastic toys that most children in this country are taught to expect, I make a point of buying beautiful, inspiring books, recycled stationery, and fair trade goodies from our local Toy Box charity shop.
To adult friends I have given vouchers for babysitting, singing lessons, & days out. All have been well received.
For Christmas presents we have made our own bath fizzers (fragranced with essential oils, massage oil blends, God’s Eyes (from leftover wool scraps) and salt dough celtic crosses. This Christmas we are making sloe gin and rosehip cordial, using fairtrade organic sugar, of course!
Caerphilly, GB , 05 Nov 2006
When I asked my eldest daughter (aged 14) what she wanted for Christmas, she said she wanted to go the the Wynet worship workshop and passion weekend over New Year. (This is the youth wing of Wycliffe Bible Translators). She’s been on a couple of their weekends/camps and has come back a changed person. So, this present will definitely make a difference to her, and hopefully to our church as well as she and her friend will feed back to the church what they have learned. Sometimes children really surprise you, don’t they?
Gloucester, GB , 16 Nov 2006
Presentaid is brilliant this year – ducks, worms and bees for starters. My family find it a bit bizzare and would prefer me to revert to a more ‘usual’ present (something a bit useless) but my daughter loves it and is convinced of the point of it all. As a trainee midwife it seemed normal to give her midwifery training for a woman elsewhere last year. The love of my life was given a loo – he’s gone off but I don’t think it was over the loo! http://shop.christianaid.org.uk/page/home
Manchester, GB , 28 Dec 2006
This year our immediate family have all given each other ‘alternative gifts’ from the Toybox charity to which we were introduced at Greenbelt years ago.
Somewhere over the rainbow, US , 30 Dec 2006
This year, I gave my boyfriend Tim and my good friend Nicole mixed tapes. They were homemade, and the CDs cost only a dollar each. Neither Tim nor Nicole have iPods or MP3 players, so I know that the mixed tapes will be put to good use for a long time. I also recieved a ticket to the theater from my mom, and she and I had a memorable day in the city at the show. Excellent way to bond, and let somebody know that you really care about them.
03 Jan 2007
We made up some hampers of fair trade and local produce inside baskets which needed no wrapping, and simply some shredded paper for packaging.
26 Apr 2007
We bought an acre of rainforest as a Christening present, sponsored a greyhound as a birthday present and various other ones too. Definitely going to carry on with more of these. It’s great when there are so many different ones out there, it’s possible to find something just right for most people.
Kingston upon Thames, GB , 03 Aug 2007
I do the Oxfam Unwrapped/World vision gift thing for those who I know will appreciate/understand it, but unfortunately I still have a few friends who expect “tangible” presents…I am going to keep trying to wean them onto the charity gift!
05 Oct 2007
Christian Aid also now does a version of unwrapped, along with the original “Good Gifts.” Worth looking round for these, as you can really personalise the gift. Also, you can support local business (e.g. ceramic painting shops, making personalised handprinted mugs / tiles for family if you have kids) and you could ask your local farm shop to ‘make up a hamper’ using the new hessian ‘eco bags’ that are so fashionable (I saw one in the Lakeland catalogue and the idea twigged).
nottingham, GB , 13 Oct 2007
For my birthday this year i asked for environmentally thoughtful pressies, my gifts included one goat, 25 trees, fertiliser, a ladybird house for my garden and an adoption of a brown bear for 12 months!
Luton, GB , 15 Jul 2008
Friends of mine who are getting married next month have opened a wedding list with Oxfam so we buy them such gifts. I was just disappointed the ‘Peace’ gift had been totally bought before I signed on!