Anti-Capitalist Gift Giving

by Geez magazine | Published 14th November 2021

From branch to log to blank to spoon. Credit: Erinn Wylie-Fahey

Gift giving this Christmas can be a sign of love and can simultaneously be anti-capitalist. Here are a few ideas from our staff! Send us your ideas too.

1. Pull out scrap paper, glue, knitting needles, crayons, paint – and create!

2. Make some delicious gifts: fire cider, chocolate covered pretzels, hot sauce, ginger cookies. It’s not too late to can pickled beets!

3. Instead of a Secret Santa swap, host a re-gifting party that doesn’t involve any new item purchases.

4. Go dumpster diving with your significant other for a romantic find-what-you-can dinner!

5. Commit to buying nothing from big box stores and Amazon. See if you can get everything you need from local stores – especially those that are POC-owned, immigrant-owned, or currently resisting gentrification.

6. Buy beautiful artwork from movement artists and contemplatives. We know quite a few amazing ones who contribute to Geez!

7. Handwrite your loved one’s favourite poem and put it in a second hand frame.

8. Learn a new skill for gift giving: candlemaking, knitting, sewing, or baking.

9. Pay your loved one’s membership fee to an organization working for radical change (Resource Generation, Christians for Socialism, Democratic Socialists of America, etc.)

10. Buy your loved one a membership to a local cooperative business they love.

11.Pass along a family heirloom to the next generation along with ancestral stories or your own story of how it landed in your hands.

12. For every gift you do buy, set aside some time/money/resources to contribute to local mutual aid work.

13. Make a date to a used book store and buy whatever makes your loved one’s eyes light up.

14. Take a young one in your life to a second hand shop for the toy of their choice.

15. Organize a meal train for someone who could use some community support.

16. Love a gardener? Get them some exciting new seeds from a local or Indigenous-owned seed catalogue. The gift that keeps on giving!

17. Give an IOU for a shopping spree at your local second hand shop.

18. Design a scavenger hunt around town.

19. Record yourself singing a song with your chosen family and send it to a faraway friend.

20. Honour someone who has died by a donation to a rad organization in their name.

21. Write a handwritten love letter.

22. Treat your busy friend to an activity or an experience that offers rest or relaxation (massage, sauna, yoga class – even better if they’re with an independent or cooperative small business).

23. Create beautiful gifts from things you find outside. Make a bouquet of winter berries and pine. Weave a wreath for the door.

24. Make bird seed feeders with pinecones, peanut butter, and bird seed. Take a hike on Christmas to leave gifts for the birds and the chipmunks.

25. Make a photo book of your ancestors and write down stories about who they are and where they came from.

26. Gift a monthly letter with writing prompts.

27. Carol at someone’s house.

28. Deliver a hot meal.

29. Give gifts of time and labor: back massages, snow shoveling, meal cooking, dishes, guilt free house cleaning, babysitting.

30. Make sock puppets and perform a puppet show for your family.

31. And of course, we believe Geez is a wonderful gift that continues to spread anti-capitalist propaganda. You can buy a gift subscription, a box for your favorite Geez nerd, or some holiday cards.