Used Christmas gifts: Gross or good?
Christmas? more like Thriftmas.
Talking about overconsumption around the holidays is kind of a bummer, I know. I’m sure everyone feels it in their own way, whether it’s the amount of wrapping paper in the garbage, your credit card statement or the leftover ham (?) in the fridge. I came across a cool TikTok of a woman who decided to thrift/only shop second hand for her three-year-old son’s Christmas gifts this year, and found the whole thing absolutely delightful:
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Of course, not everyone has the capacity to pull this off, and that can be for a number of different reasons — as Natalie mentions in the end of her video. Still, I found her intentions around gift giving inspiring, and would love to take a page from her book.
Watching her break down her gifts and the process behind her selections gives even more meaning to the objects she chooses. (Also I was obsessed with Calico Critters as a kid and her sick find made my heart skip a beat.) Any person would be lucky to receive gifts picked out with this much care and attention, right?.
TLDR: I’m very into Thriftmas.
WBU?
Please sound off in the comments — eager to know what you think.
Some related reads for your holiday break perusing:
Hopeful: 40% of UK adults plan to gift at least one used item this Christmas [Circular Online]
An eye-opening deep dive into the world of online returns [The Atlantic]
While in the throes of my hunt for a nice, vintage wool sweater to ostensibly last me a lifetime and feed my virtuous sense of the sustainable self, this email subject line from Vox broke my self-righteous trance: “Wool is just as unsustainable as meat.”
Something I can get behind: AI is coming for food waste. This just makes sense and I love it I love it I love it [Retail Technology Review]
Happy holidays, you filthy animals!!
I was raised to reuse and to love thrift shopping. My aunt Marilyn owned a thrift store in Iowa called "The Second Time Around" and it brought all of us so much joy. I subscribe to this amazing dumpster diver on YouTube and it is so enraging to see what Goodwill and stores like Homegoods throw away, and how they police their dumpsters. https://www.youtube.com/@saltystella
And also she got the most amazing stuff including the wrapping paper -- wow!!