Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Made in the USA Holiday-take 2
Naughty or nice, the holidays are upon us. And you may remember that last year, I tried to stem the flow of abject consumerism with my grand holiday experiment of buying only Made in the U.S.A. gifts.
So how did it go? According to my older son, last year’s holiday gifts weren’t “as bad” as expected. “But we don’t have to do it again next year, do we?” he asked from across a sea of crinkled wrapping paper.
Buying local made me realize how many terrific things there are that are made locally. Another unexpected boon was that the shopping was fun. I didn’t have to go to big stores and stand in line. I met artists and craftspeople at various markets and gift shops and had fascinating conversations about what I was buying and how it was made. We felt good about spending our money, (didn’t we, Gary?)
All was really going well until my sharp-eyed, sixteen-year-old cousin pointed out that the wrapping paper was not made in the U.S. I hadn’t given it a thought! This year, I found some terrific wrapping paper from Nashville. (Closet-saving sanity tip: Stick with solid color wrapping paper to use what you don’t finish for gifts throughout the year.) You might like the zero-waste, reusable gift bags, such as those from ReUsIt.com. Gift bags are perfect for wrapping funny shapes, such as Wilson footballs (Ada, Ohio) or Carrom board games (Ludington, Michigan).
Don’t overlook jewelry, a thoughtful, small-sized gift. I recently found a pair of beautiful earrings made of recycled materials (which, for me, is like winning the lottery!) from Lunessa, a jewel-box of a boutique on Thompson Street right down in So-Ho. Most of the jewelry is made on the premises. The designer and owner, Elise Perleman, is as charming as her creations.
Food is a terrific gift for the space-starved. Brooklyn’s Mast Brothers Chocolate make some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had, ready to gift in wrappers so fantastic you might hold off eating the stuff.
And to show you how local I go, I went to our neighborhood craft fair called “Om Grown.” Manor House Soaps has some of the most provocative soap I’ve ever come across. I love to try new things!
Shopping locally for the holidays isn’t meant to be too precious, nor too Portlandia, nor to make my children miserable. The point is to slow down and find meaning.
So, you ask, are we doing it again? Yes and no. I’m relenting, a bit, for the kids’ gifts, but for the other gifts I’m trying to stay close and buy things made in good ole New York City (and the boroughs, including Brooklyn). So someone may get his Chinese-made headphones and my daughter will get her “American” Girl doll- but for everything else, I’m sticking with NYC and USA.