Buy Nothing Day

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Sparkysgrrrl

War Child
Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Messages
754
Location
under the table and screaming
It's getting to be that time of the year again.
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/

bnd.gif



Since its launch in the Pacific Northwest eleven years ago, Buy Nothing Day has grown into a worldwide celebration of consumer awareness and simple living. Observed on the day after US Thanksgiving ? America's busiest shopping day of the year ? the campaign has sparked debate, radio talk shows, TV news items and newspaper headlines around the world.

People in more than thirty countries have made a pact with themselves and, as a personal experiment and public statement, stepped out of the consumer stream for 24 hours. The ways in which people have marked the event worldwide have been as diverse as the participants themselves.

In America, Buy Nothing Day played out in some of the nation's last remaining public spaces - its malls. Costumed groups of revelers managed to slip in and stay long enough to set up tables and suggest alternatives to heavy holiday spending such as giving to charity. Spend time with family and friends, rather than money on them, was the message. Yes it's cliche, but, the things most worth pursuing, and exchanging - love, ritual, attention, sacrifice, freedom-are the things no-one can buy.
 
I am definitely going to try my best to do this-I did it last year.People are so brainwashed to go shopping that day. I know when I worked in retail it was an absolute nightmare!

I started my Christmas shopping early to avoid all of this hype. The world will not end and the economy will not collapse if people don't shop that day :rolleyes:
 
how much does "nothing" cost? if it's free, then I'm buying!

:laugh:
 
You couldn't pay me to get near a store the day after Thanksgiving. And I celebrate a buy-nothing Christmas as well. My family has had a decade to get used to the idea but I think they're still pissed.
 
Sparkysgrrrl said:

hahahaa!!

There's also a site for that:
http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

I guess I should've said I celebrate a DO nothing Christmas. That site has some interesting ideas for alternatives to shopping, but it all still seems too stressful to me (except for making a tape for people, which I do all the time). One year some friends and I wrapped up something we already owned and put it under the tree and everybody just picked something. I got a shower massage. :tongue: I forget what I gave, though...I remember originally it was my motorcycle jacket but I panicked at the last minute before everybody got there and took it back. :lol:
 
not really true

joyfulgirl said:
You couldn't pay me to get near a store the day after Thanksgiving. And I celebrate a buy-nothing Christmas as well. My family has had a decade to get used to the idea but I think they're still pissed.
335%3A%3B4%3B923232%7Ffp66%3Dot%3E2326%3D954%3D%3B%3A%3B%3Dxroqdf%3E2323353733%3A%3A%3Bot1lsi

This is the Christmas Card I mail to my 15 neices and nephews to explain why they got nothing from me.
 
I dunno...for years now I've spent Black Friday with my stepmother and a few of my cousins, rising at the crack of dawn armed with coffee and department store circulars, and spending the day shopping, talking, and eating together. I've always found it to be a very fun day and a great bonding experience for the women of my family.

I'm no friend of conspicuous consumption, but I see no harm in Christmas shopping. It's possible to go overboard, of course. I'm not saying I buy huge, expensive presents for ANYONE, and I certainly don't expect to receive any. But you're hard-pressed to find better sales at any other time of year than on Black Friday, and for cash-strapped college kids, six a.m. on Black Friday is in the fact the *best* time to go shopping.
 
Some of us try our best to remember the original purpose of Christmas.

The birth of Christ.

And the beginning of college bowl week.

I know Bama will agree with me on both counts.
 
I must of been ahead of my time....I never went shopping on Black Friday...I hate crowds....and when I was little I saw two women get into a fist fight over a Cabbage Patch Doll....it scarred me for life. I get all my shopping done before thanksgiving.
 
paxetaurora said:
I dunno...for years now I've spent Black Friday with my stepmother and a few of my cousins, rising at the crack of dawn armed with coffee and department store circulars, and spending the day shopping, talking, and eating together. I've always found it to be a very fun day and a great bonding experience for the women of my family.

I'm no friend of conspicuous consumption, but I see no harm in Christmas shopping. It's possible to go overboard, of course. I'm not saying I buy huge, expensive presents for ANYONE, and I certainly don't expect to receive any. But you're hard-pressed to find better sales at any other time of year than on Black Friday, and for cash-strapped college kids, six a.m. on Black Friday is in the fact the *best* time to go shopping.


I used to go with my mom, and it was great. :up:


But yeah, people seriously do go nuts. :eek:
 
speedracer said:
Some of us try our best to remember the original purpose of Christmas.

The birth of Christ.


agreed completely. i still believe in exchanging presents as long as that point is front and center of the holiday season compared to the awful commercialization (santa-ization) it recieves.
 
a lot of things have impressed me here:

*people who can avoid consumerism

*people who can get their holiday shopping done before thanksgiving

*people who can stand to shop on the day after thanksgiving

I like the idea. I think I'll join buy-nothing day! I'm on board!

I personally like doing my shopping on line.
 
Oh yeah - I forgot to include a link to this thing called Heifer or something.

Instead of giving people gifts this year, you can donate animals to poor families, they can use them for food, clothing, etc.

http://www.heifer.org/

I got the catalog. It looks cool!

So, I thought this post might be appropriate in this thread.
 
elizabeth said:
Oh yeah - I forgot to include a link to this thing called Heifer or something.

Instead of giving people gifts this year, you can donate animals to poor families, they can use them for food, clothing, etc.

http://www.heifer.org/

I got the catalog. It looks cool!

So, I thought this post might be appropriate in this thread.

I'll second elizabeth's recommendation for this organization. OUr high school pastor has taken groups of students to Heifer International's camp in Arkansas. Quite an eye-opening experience for the kids as well.
 
I'm relieved someone else has heard of this. I felt worried after I posted, because I don't know much about it. What if it was a waste of time, or a front or something? But they quoted Susan Sarandon...so shouldn't I trust everything i read?

They "sell" these presents like knitting baskets, (sheep and llamas) and dairy farms (cows, water buffalos, goats) and honey bees and stuff. They provide training programs so people know how to care for the animals they receive. the only disappointing thing i read was that your donations just get sent to a general fund. I always feel better when my donations actually do what i want them to do. Earmarking, you know?
 
speedracer said:
Some of us try our best to remember the original purpose of Christmas.

The birth of Christ.

And the beginning of college bowl week.

I know Bama will agree with me on both counts.

Yes.

But my faux college bowl season begins and ends this Saturday night in Hawaii, since we are on probation.

And I will probably go to Best Buy Friday morning if they have a real good deal on a scanner.

~U2Alabama
 
I'm about to run out of toilet paper
:censored:
Mabey I can have Steal Something Day and take some from a public loo

If anyone is going shopping today, don't foget your full body armour, it can be a battle out there today just to walk down the street.

I like to pretend I'm British because they have words like "loo"
 
OK, I totally agree that Christmas has become too commercial, is not about Christ anymore, etc. etc.

I went shopping today. I bought stuff for me today. And I don't feel guilty. Say what you want about greed and materialism at Christmas. Right now, this country is trying to pull itself out of a recession and one way to do this is to increase spending. More spending leads to more people who have to fill the demand, more people who have to sell the product. It creates jobs and gives stores the ability to earn money. There are stores that work in a deficit all year and then end up making a profit for the year strictly on their Christmas sales. Again, profit gives you the power to hire more people which creates more jobs, more money into the economy and therefore more money to spend.

You can't spend time with your family if you're spending your time worrying about bills or can't afford a plane ticket to go home.
 
Back
Top Bottom