This holiday season, consumerism returns in full force, complete with hectic malls, wild customers and bargain hunting families in search of the perfect presents for everyone on their list.
However, this year it will be met with growing reserve to the crazed buying that is synonymous with Christmas.
According to 2006 Statistics Canada data, retail sales in December represented 11.2 per cent of the total money spent in that year.
Several initiatives and organizations aim to fight the consumerism. One such initiative is Buy Nothing Christmas, created by Vancouver Mennonite Aiden Enns. “After being continuously confronted with stats on the rich and poor, and our level of consumption, I had to do something,” wrote Enns in a personal letter to Buy Nothing Christmas supporters.
Enns takes a non-consumerist stance, saying consumerism leaves society with gaping inequalities.
“In some respects,” wrote Enns in the Buy Nothing Christmas information kit, “citizens as consumers have been reduced to the role of subjects in a feudal society, where corporate interests are king.”
Buy Nothing Christmas encourages people to spend less — or not at all — over the holiday season. Their website offers a list of alternative gifts that do not require spending money. Ideas include creating a recipe book or cooking a meal for the would-be gift recipient.
Adbusters, a not-for-profit magazine based out of Vancouver, has also taken up the cause. One of their recent issues focused on Buy Nothing Day, which took place Nov. 26.
Buy Nothing Day fell on the same day as Black Friday in the United States, a day dedicated to large stores such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy giving deals to customers.
These bargains have led to dedicated customers camping outside of store locations, or showing up at midnight in order to be first into the store.
In its Nov/Dec issue, Adbusters encouraged people across the globe to participate in rejecting Black Friday, and to refrain from buying anything.
Adbusters is now encouraging people to make the transition from Buy Nothing Day to Buy Nothing Christmas, asking readers to “gather together [their] loved ones and decide to do things differently,” according to its website.
Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir is another organization which promotes Buy Nothing Day. “Rev Billy” has songs, movies and books that can be ordered from his website, promoting grassroots capitalism and denouncing cheap, consumerist labour.
“Love is a gift economy,” wrote Reverend Billy, pushing people to invest in small businesses and return to a society where everyone knows the person they are buying their goods from.
This vision is a stark difference compared to today’s multinational corporations and overseas factories.
In the end, each organization shares a common goal. They hope for a world free of economic inequalities. Enns sees this initiative as an opportunity to encourage those around him.
“I think it’s a great way to challenge our own consumer mindset, to put our faith into action, to offer a prophetic ‘no’ to unfettered free-market consumer capitalism.”