More on the Holiday Hoop-La

Posted on November 24, 2005 | Leave a comment

Earlier I wrote on Holidays, Consumerism and Stress.
As we head into the frenzy of the season, consider the following:

  • Americans spend APPROX. $1,042 on holiday gifts
    (Annual per capita income of a Vietnamese citizen: $280)

  • Average number of months it takes a credit-card user to
    pay off holiday bills: 4
    (57% of consumers plan to pay for holiday purchases with
    credit)

  • Total U.S. credit-card debt: OVER $600 BILLION
  • Rate at which consumer debt is growing in the United
    States: TWICE THE RATE OF WAGES

  • Number of extra tons of trash produced in the U.S. each
    year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day: 5 MILLION

  • Almost 52 percent of women, ages 35 to 54, said their stress levels go up during the holidays. By contrast, 40 percent of surveyed men in the same age bracket said their stress levels increase with the holidays.
  • Folks 55 and over expereince the least increases in stress at the holidays.
  • Forty-seven percent making $15,000 to $30,000 said stress levels increase for them during the holidays.
  • Forty-nine percent of working women with children experience elevated stress levels during the holidays. Forty-eight percent of working women without children expereience higher stress in the holidays. Homemakers, follow at 44 percent.
  • 46 percent from the West experience holiday stress-more than in the Midwest at 43 percent.

    Given the above stats, sit back, relax and read a few of these suggesitons for
    Alternative Gift Giving
    (Find more on Adbusters or Buy Nothing Christmas)

    -Just hang out with your friends and/or family. Make improvised arts and crafts. Bake. Sing. Have a cuddle puddle.
    -Purchase gifts from locally owned businesses
    -Create your own gifts
    -Donate money to a socially worthy cause in the name of a loved one.
    -Make a hand-made recipe book
    -Books on tape
    -Adopt a polar bear, snow leopard or giant panda in the name of all my friends and family members from World Wildlife Fund.
    -Gift basket of organic teas and fair trade coffees
    -Give Linux for Christmas! It’s free and it works like a charm!
    -Write a song or poem. Perform it. Frame it.
    -Make a family calendar
    – Avoid commercial wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and tape, which are not recyclable, and opt for gift bags, tea towels or nice boxes, which are eco-friendly.
    – Give something you don’t use any more.
    -Give herb plants
    – Make hand-made soap or candles
    – For the elderly people in your life, research newspaper and magazine articles from their youth and present in a creative fashion.
    – Write and illustrate a book for the young people in your life

    • This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

    Leave a comment