What a month! From CBC Morning to CBC Sunday to CFRB to the A Channel to CTV’s Provincewide to The Good Life with Jesse Dylan (and a few I’m sure I’m forgetting), my thoughts on virtuous consumption during the holidays have been the belle of the Christmas ball. I confess it’s gratifying to have my views brought into the mainstream media. As I said on CBC, for some time I’ve felt like the lone voice in the wilderness. Or, as someone has suggested, a left-wing wacko who prays to the moon. I’ve also been called, in the kindest possible way (!!), a “dirty hippy” and an “eco-Nazi.” So forgive me for indulging in a wee bit of smugness that my views are being treated as the opinion of a thoughtful, intelligent, informed global citizen, instead of the ramblings of a lunatic.
Still, while I’m feeling decidedly less lonely these days, I’ll admit a healthy skepticism about whether all this talk will translate into action. I think we all WANT to do better. What remains to be seen is whether we will DO better.
It’s hard, I know. For many, many years now I’ve tried to put the brakes on the holiday consumption orgy. And I usually hold strong…up until the very last few days. Then the doubt sets in. Will my kids be disappointed? Will my in-laws be disappointed? Will I look cheap? Thoughtless? Am I cheap and thoughtless under the guise of being “green”?
This year, however, I feel differently. I feel more comfortable about my choices. Yes, I’m cheap (always have been — comes from growing up in a family that met every request I made for something frivolous with “if you want us to sell the cottage, we can afford those shoes/jeans/trip/Barbie doll…”). But thoughtless? No. Indeed, I no longer need to remind myself that caring for the future of the planet – and therefore the future of my children – is thoughtful. I’m all too aware that I’m not doing my kids any favors by mortgaging their future to alow them a whole heap of stuff today. And I know how many people out there feel the same way, but still get caught up in the holiday frenzy of creating a storybook Christmas.
Still, I’m heartened by what I see as a highly increased awareness. Issues that were fringe only a few years ago (voluntary simplicity, renewable energy, slow food…) have moved firmly into the collective conscious. Increasingly, we all know that our lifestyles don’t support our values. And that those values matter…
I was asked recently whether my kids feel shortchanged at Christmas. I hesitated to answer…because I don’t really know. I do know that their Christmas lists are still pages long. And that they won’t get anywhere close to everything they’re asking for. I also know that my eldest at nine years of age has more compassion than almost anyone I know. That the things she truly values in life is her family, her animals, her friends and her home.
Finally, I responded that we talk a lot in our family about “wants” vs. “needs”. That we talk a lot about gratitude and what bounty we enjoy, compared to so many in the world. About our impact on the planet and how we can make it as positive as possible.
Sure my kids want every toy on the shelves. They’d also happily give every toy on the shelves to every other kid on the planet. But, so far anyway, they, like I, have learned that life’s simple pleasures are the most enduring.

There’s an entire sub-category of gift-recipient that we hear about ad nauseum this time of year – the “person who has everything.” I used to wonder who that person was – the one who might delight in a diamond-encrusted bra, a crystal decanter of thousand-dollar Scotch, a pen that costs more than my children’s alt-school education. But in recent years I’ve noticed: I am that person. And, I’ll be honest, I don’t want diamond-encrusted anythings, Scotch or fancy-schmancy pens. I don’t even want much of the stuff I have.
But never was I more aware of this reality than two nights ago when I was out grocery shopping and came upon a display of Chia Homers.
I recognize this as indisuputable proof that we have, indeed, lost our minds. If there was any possible marketing opportunity that had not been explored (exploited?) by the folks behind The Simpsons merchandise, it has certainly been filled with the Chia Homer.
I imagine some factory in China cranking out these Homer heads, stuffed with the tiny plastic-wrapped package that will become Chias. Who pitched this idea? What WAS the pitch – “The consumer is hungry for a Chia pet in the shape of Homer Simpson’s head!” Did they trot out the sales figures of other Chia pets, indicating that a Chia anything was a surefire winner? Was it the Simpsons connection that sealed the deal? Did the execs nod their heads in approval. “Yes, yes…” slapping each other on the back and congratulating themselves at another brilliant idea.
However it transpired, I’m glad I wasn’t there. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from screaming about the inanity of it all, undoubtedly being escorted from the room, asked to clean out my desk and, perhaps, if the execs were benevolent types, being handed a “stress leave.”
This holiday season I want little more than a reprieve from consumer madness – an escape from a world which sees value of any kind in a Chia Homer. I’m not sure I’ll find it. It’s the one thing that just might elude this person who ostensibly has “everything”.