Christmas crap and giving back to the world

I’ve spent a fair bit of time this week putting away what I lovingly refer to as “the Christmas crap” while listening to knitting podcasts. It’s been good.

I’m not a total Grinch, I just find that the over-commercialization of Christmas gets to me to the point where I’d really rather not go shopping in November or December. The push to buy is excessive, almost grotesque.

This afternoon I’ve also been reflecting on the muchness of our Christmas and the ridiculous amount of new toys and gadgets that have entered the house in only a few short days. I’ve watched lots of “Hoarders”, and we spent 6 months last year with the house on the market (and it’s going back up soon), so reducing the amount of stuff we have has been important to me for a while.

When the quake happened last year in Haiti, knitters and designers totally kicked butt, to the point that Knitters Without Borders has now given over 1 MILLION dollars to Médecins San Frontières/Doctors Without Borders  (MSF Canada, MSF US, MSF International).

Children can totally get this stuff. Last year, when Haiti began its disaster, my daughter’s school took action to help out. She was only in maternelle (junior kindergarten), but she was old enough to hear about it and understand. We talked about the tremblement de terre and I mentioned that many people were hurt. “And dead,” my daughter added. They had talked about this in her class, and she wanted to help out.

I want to continue to help out, and I know that MSF/DWB is an organization that helps in places that need help in ways that make sense to me, so I’m going to be making monthly donations to that organization based on my knitting income. I haven’t figured out the details yet, but it’ll be profit-based. I’ll get back to you on that.

Anyway, I’d like you to help out too. Go now and read through the Yarn Harlot’s KWB page and think about how what seems like just a little to you could mean a lot to others, particularly when we all join in.