A suburban greenmom goes on her annual Valentine's Day rant...
With Valentine’s Day approaching, I guess it’s
time for the annual questions and reminders about the scary labor conditions
surrounding the production of chocolate, flowers, and jewelry…this holiday has always kind of bugged me, but pretty much any holiday that's primarily about "showing how much you care by buying a lot of stuff" bugs me.
There have been a few posts on the Booth
surrounding these issues—I
did one two years ago on Valentine’s Day, and I just discovered Green Bean’s
wonderful
post about her antique store engagement ring. And last
year I crabbed about it again, this time about the crazy wasteful
valentines we’re all supposed to buy for our kids, so they can take them to
school, put them in everyone’s boxes, bring them home, let them sit around till
March, and then slip them into recycling when the kids aren’t looking.
So I don’t need to say a lot of new stuff:
just another plea to, if we can’t ignore the holiday all together (which would
be my preference, honestly!), to live it as lightly as we are able to live
through the rest of the year. Fair
Trade chocolate, recycled gold,
estate jewelry, organic
flowers (or better yet, live plants), conflict-free diamonds,
small personal Valentine greetings if they can’t be avoided all together.
So--once again, I'd love to throw it out to the comments: Do any of you have any great ideas or favorite vendors for how to enjoy this holiday in a light-living way?
--Jenn the Greenmom
Posts
11 comments:
Crunchy Betty has a lot of great ideas for homemade stuff, romantic and otherwise...I'll probably find something fun on there.
We are so on the same page...:)
Favor vendor...here's a shameless plug. We'd love to let you know about our Handmade Goat Milk Soaps and Lotions that are available in Green packaging. www.RoseOfSharonAcres.com
Love your posts!
I sooo agree - there will be Valentines Day ignorance in this house! It is such a ridiculous occassion - I don't need an arbitrary day (nevermind the buying of crappy 'stuff') to show my partner I appreciate him, plus it's so much more meaningful to show your appreciation *randomly* than on a day when all the shops are 'reminding' you to do so.
We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, but in my opinion if you're going to purchase something special for someone you love it should be something practical. When we give gifts at my house they're usually something needed, something green, or something from a thrift or antique store. We don't make a lot of purchases, but when we do we try to make it practical and from the heart.
Peace. ;)
Fair trade chocolate is a fantastic idea. We are British and my husband actually loves the stuff. Always buys a dark orange chocolate bar at Whole Foods. If I get him 10 of these, he'll be more than thrilled!
Jane
We don't really "do" Valentine's Day in our house, as it doesn't mean anything to us as a couple and my daughter's only three, so she doesn't have any sort of V-day school activities yet. She did say she wanted to make a special dessert, so we'll probably do something with the fabulous (organic, hydroponic) strawberries we're getting from a local farmer.
Ooh! Love Crunchy Betty, I've made (and we've enjoyed!) her love balm...plus it's a hysterically funny post: http://www.crunchybetty.com/bathroom-cleaning-psst-i-mean-make-your-own-love-balm
Helena, I'm so jealous of your hydroponic strawberries...that sounds awesome.
We are coming up on our 10th anniversary, and my husband want's to buy me a piece of nice jewelry (like several of y'all, I have very little, and I've never let him get me much in the past...so we're looking for recycled gold and conflict free diamonds...there will hopefully be a longer post on this later.)
My husband and I have an understanding -- we both ignore Valentine's Day. I also am not a huge fan of token holidays.
I would like to share that I bought some Fair Trade organic belgian dark chocolate at Trader Joe's (under the TJ label). I've been dragging my feet with chocolate -- I was so happy to see it there in the checkout line for a reasonable price. ($2 a bar)
Why does this saint's day need to be celebrated at all? My fiance and I are celebrating with cuddles, hugs and kisses -- just like every other day on the calendar.
... this is one of those days that just ticks me off.
We have not done a lot with V-day over the years. I much prefer him to remmeber our anniversary! :-)
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