My intention is to periodically send you some articles, links, and resources that you may find stimulating and suggestive --
articles that promote more simple, more faithful, more perceptive celebrations for the holidays and events we and our culture deem appropriate.
This is the time to plan for a congregational event to enable your members to explore new ways to celebrate Christmas this year.
It is not too late.
This edition of New Celebrations Newsletter explores the benefits of holding an Alternative Gift Market for your church and community. Read through some of the suggestions, check out some of the resources, and use these words to stimulate your thinking about what you can do in your situation.
Perhaps some of these suggestions will prod your thinking.
You are urged to explore some of the resources in this edition of NewCelebrations Newsletter. My wish is that, this year, you and your church will have the most meaningful Christmas celebration ever: that many will come to see, to know, and to celebrate Emmanuel in their lives as never before.
I would hope that you feel free to copy some of these resources
and circulate them among your church friends and other
acquaintances.
Clyde Griffith
On the world wide web at www.LiveAbundantly.com
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An increasingly popular idea that is being done at hundreds of churches throughout the USA is the hosting of an Alternative Gift Market. Typically, the market is hosted by a local church -- or group of churches -- and involves local, national and international mission and relief agencies.
The traditional Market takes place in a special location, like a church patio, fellowship hall, or a neighborhood community center. Colorful booths are set up representing the various
Alternative Gift projects. Gifts are purchased by persons attracted to the Market for projects in the U.S. and developing countries that are working to save lives and preserve our planet.
An Alternative Gift Market is a different kind of shopping experience. Gifts are purchased in honor of family members and friends in a market setting. Instead of buying a box of candy for Aunt Mary, a shopper at this market might purchase health care for children in Kenya or purchase a solar powered computer for a classroom in the Dominican Republic. Then Aunt Mary gets an attractive card telling her about the life giving present given in her honor.
An alternative to the Tradional Market is an Online Market whereby a church can pick a project to fund and set up an online campaign. The church then promotes an online link to their Alternative Gift Online Campaign. Check it out.
Alternative Gifts International helps you think through the process and offers a bevy of materials to help you.
Check out their web site: https://alternativegifts.org/
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Alternative Christmas Community Festival
An Alternative Christmas Community Festival is a concrete, exciting way to offer ideas and support for those who want to have more meaningful Christmas celebrations. It is also a positive way to introduce the need for change to people unaware of the problems connected with the way we celebrate Christmas.
Many churches organize alternative Christmas events in the fall to encourage alternative giving and to help members simplify their celebration. The four basic plans are:
1. Sell crafts and clothing from the Third World.
This encourages Fair Trade and the second pillar of Voluntary Simplicity: Learn from the World Community.
Family and friends get beautiful gifts at reasonable prices.
Third World artisans get a better price for their work through these volunteer fairs and shops than through similar commercial importers.
2. Encourage people to give funds to worthwhile organizations in someone else's name instead of a purchased gift.
The gift is doubled - for the recipient of the funds and the recipient of the honor. Usually a gift card goes to the honoree telling something about the recipient organization.
3. Hold a workshop on alternative ways of celebrating Christmas.
Such a workshop goes beyond gifts, to the "why's" and "how's" of celebrating Christmas. Use the classic "Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season" ($10) and "Leader's Guide to 'Unplug the Christmas Machine' Workshop". The Leader's Guide is available as a free download here.
4. Set up an alternative gift site on your web page and promote it to church members and friends.
Several alternative programs have made this easier. Check out my favorites:
Presbyterian Gift Catalog https://presbyteriangifts.org/
Heifer Project International https://www.heifer.org/
Koinonia Farm Store https://koinoniafarmstore.com/
SERRV International https://www.serrv.org/
Ten Thousand Villages https://www.tenthousandvillages.com
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Featured Book Review
Simplify Your Christmas: 100 Ways to Reduce the Stress and Recapture the Joy of
By Elaine St.James
Simplify Your Christmas was published in 1999, but is still available at amazon for basically the cost of postage. In it Elaine St. James shares-in brief, easy-to-read essays-a variety of tips that will help readers deal with the seasonal overload. For example, Just Say No to Elmo, Eliminate Turkey Torpor, and Slay the Secret Santa.
A reader from Ohio writes:
"This book is chock-full of great tips for reducing the stress we all feel at holiday time.
How much should we spend on our tree?
Did I get the kids enough presents?
What do I get for Aunt Sue THIS year?
How can I get out of the office party without riling the boss?"
One of my favorite section begins on Page 29 with "Take a Poll". Here, you're encouraged to ask your family members how they really feel about your holiday traditions. What traditions do they like enough to keep doing? Which are painful, boring or ridiculous enough to dump?
Another home run is found on page 87: Rethink your Christmas Card Tradition. St. James gives good advice on how to give your holiday mailing list (why not apply this advice to your Christmas gift list, too?) a liposuction treatment. And, all without guilt!
This book is intelligent and certainly seems to have a wide audience. Frankly, anyone with financial concerns (do you still want to be paying Christmas credit card bills next July?), time
restraints (wouldn't you rather spend the time taking your kids to the movies?) or emotional issues (if the hoidays are supposed to be peaceful, gracious and dignified, then why am I so
depressed?) should find St. James' advice helpful. Try just 10 of her tips and your life this December will improve.
I liked this book so much that I'm going to give IT for Christmas!
For more information, and/or to purchase this book, click here:
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Invitation to Share
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, pass New Celebrations on.
New Celebrations is meant to be a clearing house, a resource, of practical information folks can use. The idea is that we could all use some help in overcoming the mass-merchandising influences of how we celebrate the holidays and events in our lives.
New Celebrations Newsletter is intended to be shareware.
As Arlo Guthrie pines: When one person does something, it is pretty much ignored.
When two people join in doing something, people raise their eyebrows.
When three people get together to do something, it becomes a movement...
Our celebrations CAN be more faith-full and less stress-full.
Help spread the word. Forward this message to everyone you can think of.
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Check out our Web Site: NewCelebrations.com .
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