Browsing: Festivals

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With only just over a month until Christmas, it’s time to be getting into the festive spirit. I’m never keen when Christmas lights start to go up in October, but with a mere 5 weeks to go, my thoughts are turning to what I love about the Festive Season with my Christmas Top 5…

1. I love Christmas Trees. I moved into a new flat with my other half last Winter, and we adorned the place with a bigger tree than you would have thought possible. This year I’m sure we’ll be doing the same. Perhaps there is an ethical argument for synthetic trees rather than ‘real’ trees as the former can be reused year after year. However I don’t think I’ll ever be converted to this more modern incarnation of the Christmas tree. Should I be ashamed? I don’t think so (although do correct me if you think I’m wrong!) Choose your tree sustainably, and make sure you dispose of it responsibly after you’ve enjoyed it fully, and you can feel happier in the knowledge that you’ve enjoyed Christmas and done your bit.

2. Christmas Cards – Perhaps it seems a little un-eco-friendly to be sending Christmas cards, and I’m definitely in support of big companies sending e-cards rather than hundreds of paper cards that will probably just languish in an office over Christmas. However…if I didn’t have cards from my friends and family around my house over Christmas it just wouldn’t feel right! The answer to this dilemma is undoubtedly to buy FSC certified or charity Christmas cards, and to recycle them afterwards. In fact my family has a habit of making their favourite cards from one year into gift tags for the next year, reusing as well as recycling.

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Is anything ever worth the wait?

We live in a society of individuals who do not like to wait. You only have to look at advertising to know that. We want it and we want it now. We want to buy now and pay later. We don’t want to wait until Christmas to have it .We might as well start using it now if we’ve got it. Let’s face it. Delayed gratification is a lost art.

There is a theory that delaying gratification increases the intensity of pleasure on receiving it. Having just started work in customer service, I like to assure people that it will be worth the wait. And I believe it. Take Luxury Gift Wrap for example. I usually buy bargain wrapping paper to wrap the enormous boxes that little children love to rip open at Christmas. But as the children get bigger, the parcels get smaller and this year, I was seduced by the Luxury Gift Wrap. Along with a significant proportion of the nation, so it seems. I couldn’t wait to see it and touch it, but now I know it’s in great demand, I want it even more. This must-have Christmas item for ethical shoppers has people all over the country waiting in eager anticipation. Wrapping Christmas presents has never felt so desirable.

That’s why internet shopping is like

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As the autumn gloom begins to seep into my mood and my aquafit instructor informs me there’s only 63 days until Christmas and my teenage son comments on how hard it is to get out of bed on the darker mornings, my thoughts turn to Christmas shopping.
 
“Don’t mention the C word!” some of you may be shouting at the screen. “It’s too early. Are you mad?”
Quite possibly, yes. But I can see why our ancestors thought it was a good idea to put a festival bang in the middle of winter. Something to look forward to, something to celebrate – colour, music, family, food, gifts…what better way to lift the gloom of dark mornings and even darker evenings? Unfortunately, the great expectations put on us by the media and people around us often cause huge financial, physical and emotional stresses transforming Christmas into an event to anticipate with dread rather than excitement.
 
In response to the numerous people who have told me to think positively over the last 24 hours, here are my perceived benefits for starting my Christmas shopping now.
 
Pretty things are good for me.
Looking at pretty jewellery, pretty accessories and pretty bags definitely lifts my spirits. Original design, vibrant colour, attractive texture…. I know what I like and what I like lightens my mood. Call me superficial, but is it so very different to appreciating fine art? Taking pleasure in what someone has made is to my mind celebrating the act of Creation itself. So deciding on the Fair Trade Double Heart Bracelet and Necklace for my sister-in-law’s birthday restored some light to my soul. Something within me responds to the recycled silver designs from La Jewellery. Whatever your taste, there are such beautiful pieces out there and the appreciation of beauty can be good for you.
 
Thinking of others is good for me
My relatives can correct me if I’m wrong, but I have quite a reputation for buying good presents. I’ve obviously made some terrible mistakes – who hasn’t? – but I rarely resort to cash or gift tokens and prefer to buy something that reflects the thought that I have put into the choice. Over the years, this has got harder as we all see each other less and less often and live further and further apart (Facebook may help me this year as some of us have kept in touch a little better). Anyway, at a time when I’m tempted to retreat further into my shell, it is good for me to spare a thought or two for my friends and family. As I choose gifts and wrap them and write gift tags, I like to think about the person and fill the package with prayers and best wishes and hopes for the future. The whole experience takes me out of myself and my little world. I’m so excited about the Fair Trade Ari Sitara Handbags that I’ve chosen for two of my nieces, which look great on the page and even more fabulous in reality. I love them and think they’re beautiful and I hope the girls will know that I think the same about them.
 
Ethical choice is good for me
I’m often tempted to despair about the state of the world and how small my individual contribution to change actually is, but my consumer choices for Christmas do help me to feel that I am doing my bit. Over the years, I have always battled with a slight embarrassment that the recipients of my gifts may be sick of ethical presents. However, this year, I have overcome that. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. The quality and choice of ethical gifts out there are fantastic. I am not compromising when I buy the Fair Trade stainless steel salad servers or serving spoons, which I love the design of and think look very stylish – just like my relatives for whom they are intended!
 
Being prepared is good for me
However much I have fought it and denied it over the years, I now accept that I do not function in the same way in the winter as in the summer. Call it SAD, seasonal depression., whatever you want – this year is the first year that I am going to factor in this change in my mood and behaviour. Being prepared and getting my Christmas shopping done early will hopefully reduce the emotional and physical drain that Christmas often becomes. Making choices about gifts while it is still a pleasure and not a burden makes perfect sense to me. Choosing the Vinylux Vinatge Vinyl bowl because I think it’s really cool and unusual for my cool and unusual nephew far outweighs a last minute desperate stab in the dark. Hopefully this will conserve what little energy I have in December for the things that really matter. 
 
Spreading the cost is good for me
Contrary to what my husband may think, I actually do not like spending money. It panics me inside and whilst I enjoy choosing gifts, I detest paying for them. One of my greatest anxieties about Christmas is how much it costs and how we will afford to pay for it. I do not want to appear stingy, nor can I afford to be extravagant – how hard it is to find the middle way. Like most people, I am planning to cut back on spending this year. So imagine my joy when through forethought and careful searching, I discover perfect items at reasonable prices, like the Fair Trade HOT pot stand at only £6.95. Hopefully, it really is the thought and not the cost that matters. And spreading the cost relieves the pressure on the bank account too.
 
 
So sorry if I have offended you by mentioning Christmas too soon. Sorry if this is all a foreign language to you. Sorry for those of you who have no idea what I am going on about. But to those of you who do, maybe these words will be of some comfort to you. Maybe these ideas will help you to have a very, very happy Christmas.

To celebrate Chocolate Week 2009 we’ve teamed up with Divine Chocolate to give away 5000 packs of delicious Fairtrade Chocolate worth over £10,000! All you have to do is place your order at EthicalSuperstore.com between the 12th and the 18th October and we’ll pop the chocolate in your parcel*! *while stocks last

It’s Chocolate Week from 12-18 October and the Academy of Chocolate is giving us even more of an excuse than we already have to celebrate all things chocolate. I’ll be pledging my support in defiance of my nutritionist who has held my sweet tooth captive to an extreme elimination (of everything tasty) diet to combat an irksome illness I’ve had for most of the summer. You know you’ve been on the wagon for a while when the food flashbacks kick in, like remembering one of my childhood dreams which was to be Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – how cool it would be to have my own chocolate factory complete with chocolate rivers, everlasting gobstoppers and glass elevators to fly about in…

As an all American boy, I grew up on Hershey chocolate and M&Ms and I can remember their brainwashing slogan “they melt in your mouth not in your hands” that had my brothers and I testing bag after bag to prove one way or the other. The chocolate I grew up on most Brits can’t stand the taste of, and 7 years after immigrating to England I can now understand why – you guys have been keeping all the yummy chocolate to yourselves!

The history of chocolate starts sometime in the negative calendar years i.e., BC with the early Cocoa, or Cacao crops which were native to Mexico, Central and South America, and originally used both as a beverage and as an ingredient in foods. Over the years, more than 80% of the world’s cocoa production moved to West Africa and along with it the unfortunate development of the slave trade and unfair trade and working conditions imposed on growers. To help combat this problem, in 1994 the world’s first Fairtrade certified product was born as Green & Black’s Maya Gold Chocolate made with cocoa from Belize guaranteeing a fair price to growers.

Then in 1998, Divine Chocolate became the first Fairtrade chocolate brand to have its cocoa growers, Kuapa Kokoo a co-operative of cocoa famers in Ghana, own shares in the company making the chocolate bar. How great is that, the Divine Chocolate farmers get to own the chocolate factory! When I went home to visit my family last Spring, I was pleased to see Divine Chocolate in shops providing Americans a taste of Pa Pa Paa or “the best of the best” as the Kupua Kokoo famers say.

So if you’re going to do one thing in support of Chocolate Week, bite into a Divine Chocolate bar knowing that each one is wrapped in a golden ticket in which you win a heavenly bar of chocolate and Kupua Kokoo famers win a better life for themselves and their families.

So Easter gets ever closer – just 10 days left in the Ethical Superstore diet (regular readers will recall I have been challenged to only eat food and drink that can be purchased from ESS for the whole of lent).

I guess the biggest change for me is that I have ended up cooking virtually all of my meals for the last few weeks. Helen (my long suffering wife and fellow blogger) has put up with cooking me a vegetarian option for years, but the idea of then having to cook my option separately using Ethical Superstore ingredients was a step too far! So most evenings I’ve come home and cooked a meal for myself. Previously, this would have been getting a veggie ready meal out of the freezer, popping in the microwave and 4 minutes later sitting down to a portion of vegetable (plus salt, sugar and fat) goodness. For the last five weeks I’ve been looking at a pile of ingredients and waiting for inspiration.

I suspect this will be the biggest change when this little project comes to an end. Ready meals just don’t do it for me having now cooked for myself for the last 5 weeks. Even with my cooking and slap-dash approach to quantities, the taste and the freshness is way better than the average pack of freezer fodder.

So what have been my highlights?

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I was thinking of enrolling my two youngest children on a Drama course in the Easter holidays until I checked the dates on the calendar – the course took place on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. There must be some mistake. I checked again. No, definitely those days. Would people really send their kids on a course on those days? Don’t they have better things to do as a family on Easter Sunday? Has it really become just like any other day?
It reminded me of last football season when I wrongly assumed there would be no game for my son’s team on Easter Sunday morning. I was made to feel a fool, but was I really the fool? Do we really believe that just buying all that is on offer will make for a proper celebration?

Easter, like all our annual festivals, has become a great marketing opportunity – Easter bonnets, bunnies, gifts and of course, chocolate eggs. Not that any of this is in itself  wrong, but it focuses our attention on what we buy and away from the actual significance of the event.

Whether as individuals we share in the Christian celebration of the Easter weekend or not, we can all participate in celebrating new life –

Read the rest of Celebrating Life At Easter »

So just 2 weeks to go until Easter and the “eat only stuff I can buy at EthicalSuperestore.com” has been going pretty well. I am now a total convert to having a vegetable box delivered every week. I love the serendipity of opening the box to see what we are going to be eating this week – healthy soups, stir frys and casseroles are now the order of the day.

However, my unblemished record has been a bit tarnished in the last 10 days. Ethical Superstore was nominated in the Emerging Retailer category at the Retail Week Awards. I had to go down for the plush event with 2000 guests in my bow tie and dress suit. Having paid £400 (how can that be justified???) I decided I’d better eat the food and as far as I know the Grosvenor House hotel doesn’t buy its food from us. The event was pretty good fun – Jimmy Carr was very entertaining . . .

Read the rest of Two Weeks to Go »

Mothers are great. They do so much for us every day, but sometimes we forget to say thank you quite as much as we ought to.

This is where Mother’s Day steps in – it’s a chance for us all to think about our Mums, and most importantly, it’s a chance to say a great big Thank You.

Here at EthicalSuperstore we’ve got loads to thank our Mum’s for…

But what is the best way to say thank you?

Our number one tip is to make sure you put thought into it – after all, whether you can be with your Mother on Mother’s Day or not, they definitely deserve recognition and some top notch looking after – they’ve certainly earned it.

We’ve got lots of Mother’s Day gifts here at EthicalSuperstore which might help you out on your quest for the perfect thank you. Flowers are lovely (especially fair trade flowers), organic pampering and natural beauty products are pure luxury, and ethical jewellery can’t fail to hit the spot, but I do feel like something a little more would be a good idea.

So we’ve racked our brains and come up with a masterplan…

…just click the promise voucher above, print it out, then fill it in as appropriate and deliver. Don’t limit yourself to Mother’s Day with this one – You could give a voucher any day of the year as it doesn’t actually need to cost you a penny – it’s definitely a case of ‘the thought that counts’, making it a perfect Credit Crunch busting Mother’s Day gift idea.

It’s the perfect way to treat your Mother, because you can tailor it perfectly – and even better for your Mum, she can cash in your gift whenever she fancies.

This is a gift that keeps on giving – it’s a surefire Mother’s Day winner!

So we are now in week 3 of Lent and still the Ethical Superstore diet is going pretty well (in summary, for six weeks I’m only going to eat what we sell in the Ethical Superstore range).

At first my biggest problem was giving up milk in tea and coffee. I really didn’t like the taste without milk and the various substitutes work well for most things apart from in tea and coffee. However, I think I’ve become acclimatised to no milk in my hot drinks now – in fact I accidentally put it in my tea on Tuesday morning and couldn’t understand why my tea tasted so horrible. Maybe black tea and coffee will be a change for life….

Bread making continues to be the high point using the Doves Farm bread kit. Experimented with adding a little sugar and vegetable fat (around a teaspoon of each) and ended up with a bigger loaf and a more even “rise”.  There is a chocolate cake in the range too – so I think I’ll make that my treat this weekend.

I guess that the biggest challenge of eating only from the Ethical Superstore range for anyone with a  busy life, is the lack of ready meals. The Just Wholefoods range comes close and has allowed me to make meals with cous cous and biriyani without too much effort. The veggie bangers are lovely too. Also at £1.35 for  a pack that serves two people – they are good value too.

However, the only reason why the challenge can work at all is the fantastic

Read the rest of A Change for Life? »