Christmas Guide
Backpacking over Christmas presents a unique selection of problems. First being miles away from friends and family during one of the biggest holidays of the year. Second because as a rule – you’re broke. You can scrape together the coin for your next beer or for a roof over your head tonight. But overall, you haven’t a penny to your name. And so in comes the most commercialize consumer ridden day of the year and you’re feeling guilty not being able to send home goodies for all your loved ones. It’s double difficult when you add on the postage and packaging costs to the price of the gift. So here we are making it easy on you, by setting you up with a guilt-free guide to a Buy Nothing Christmas.
Following the plan I’m about to lay out some money will exchange hands. But what you can avoid is fighting your way through overcrowded stores and manic markets queuing for ages waiting to buy a gift.
As traveler’s we have all been to wild and wonderfully exotic places. And while there we went crazy trying to capture all the memories we could on film or on a memory card. Somewhere in all this you’ve got the makings of a professional photographer. Or at least a reasonable facsimile. What you need now are some blank cards or some cardboard. Print out your favorite pics from your favorite places and make your own greeting cards. Send these home - appreciated for the snap of your life while abroad and for the personal care and attention you’ve put into the gift.
If you’re not handy with crafts, another option is to log onto www.oxfamunwrapped.com where there’s nothing to gift wrap but a lot to give. Gifts start at £5 and you can buy anything from fresh water, school textbooks, a goat, counseling sessions or school dinners for 100 children for people in developing countries. The gifts will be made in the name of your favorite recipient and they will in turn receive a card to let them know of the donation made in their name. It’s enough to make anyone feel all warm and fuzzy.
If you’ve got a food addict on your list another good idea is to compile all the tastiest recipes from the countries you’ve visited. Or if it’s a if it’s an animal lover you’re aiming to please, adopt a polar bear, snow leopard or giant panda from the World Wildlife Foundation www.wwf.org. Or if you’ve got a communication-phobic friend you could decorate some writing paper and send it along with some self-addressed envelopes (this of course only works if you’re going to be in one place for a while). For the elderly person in your life you can research magazine and newspaper articles from their youth and present it in creative fashion. For the activist on your Christmas list you can purchase a Peace Bond from the Nonviolent Peaceforce at www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org. A donation here will help to fund a peace team in Sri Lanka and other places throughout the world.
For your backpacking buds that you have met on the road you can have a swap. Trade your summer shorts for their winter warmth or swap books, magazine, travel guides that you’re no longer using but will help them out immensely.
Christmas, and the December holiday season in general, is a time to let your loved ones know that you’re thinking of them. It’s not about who spent more or who has the biggest box under the tree. And in the spirit of the broke backpacker, this is the perfect opportunity to test out your best Buy Nothing Christmas tactics. Happy Holidays everyone.
