By Terry Jaurena
We launched our first Alternative Gift Fair in 2006. Not everyone on the Mission Team at the time was all that enthusiastic about doing it. But I could see that with just a little effort it could accomplish so much. I knew it was moving in the right direction. That same year 5 pastors imagined a better Christmas practice for their own communities and the Advent Conspiracy was born.
I am inspired by AC’s questions. “Can Christmas still change the world? The Christmas story is a story of love, hope, redemption and relationship. So, what happened? How did it turn into stuff, stress and debt? Somehow, we’ve traded the best story in the world for the story of what’s on sale."
I’ve got enough stuff, enough stress and enough debt. My family members for the most part have enough stuff, stress and debt as well. So I give them Alternative Gifts. It’s my small way to resist the “cultural Christmas narrative of consumption” and move closer to the AC’s four tenets of “Worshipping Fully, Spending Less, Giving More and Loving All.”
In my office is a gift my friend Nancy Donat made for me a few Christmases ago. In torn paper she created the symbols of those 4 tenets and put them in a 4 part frame. I love that she made it and that it reminds me I have co-conspirator friends.
The adults in my family get Alternative Gifts. The kids? Well, Aunt Terry still buys them books. Most of them are good with that. When my older nieces and nephews started having children, I loved giving them diapers & wipes for the orphanage in Ecuador, or shoes for homeless children in Brazil, or pajamas for orphans in Africa. When my nephew did a mission trip to Morocco, I loved giving him the gift of support for the family of imprisoned Christian Worker.
Gifting differently is, for me, a way to be more fully who I am and who God is shaping me to be within my family. I’ve been to places the gifts are going, know some of the people they are helping. It’s one way to share those experiences and to invite my family into them.
And then there are the cards. This former preschool teacher has a soft spot for children’s art. So collecting, selecting and creating cards from the art they submit each year is a joy. I love the giving Alternative Gifts in these cards.
What about you? Do you love gifting differently? I’d love to hear why. Or is this an FPC tradition that has yet to touch your life? Well, if you’re new here, we invite you to come conspire with us! And if you’ve avoided it annually, that’s okay. But I do invite you to explore the AdventConspiracy.org website. There are many different ways to join the conspiracy. I love our Alternative Gifts. Perhaps you’ll find something more meaningful to you there.
Because Christmas can and does still change the world.
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