Ethical Christmas shopping ELENA CURTI


Buyer be fair T


here’s a rare satisfaction in seeing all the presents you’ve chosen, wrapped, decorated and labelled clustered under the tree on Christmas Eve.


Matching gifts to recipients requires careful thought with consideration given to a person’s taste and interests. Deciding to buy only “ethical” gifts adds to the challenge. Fortunately, the ethical-gift market has blossomed in recent years with the heightened awareness of climate change, the development of fair-trade goods and the growth of online shopping. So is it possible to compile an entirely ethical Christmas gift list while at the same time insisting on good quality and design at a reasonable price? To attempt to answer the question, I


invented a family and set out to find an appro- priate gift for each member. The fictitious Gibsons have parents Phil (40) and Alison (40); their children, Maisie (3), Clare (8) and Tom (14); Phil’s mother, Liz (74), and Alison’s father, Dick (79). Given these straitened times, I set a budget for the entire list of £100. I searched for gifts that could be considered


ethical in the broadest sense. I included items carrying the “Fairtrade” mark as well as other items whose provenance could be traced to workshops and cooperatives in the developing world. There is also the burgeoning market in eco-gifts. While these may be made by com- mercial enterprises, they are made of materials such as recycled wood or cardboard and so can legitimately be labelled ethical as well. Another rich source of gifts are items made by monks and nuns in monasteries around Europe. These include spirits, beers, soaps and other toiletries made using local ingre- dients to recipes that have been secret for centuries. So to our fictitious family. First off Phil, an outdoor type, who likes gardening and DIY. Oxfam has accessories made from recycled vending cups, which create a material that looks rather like slate. They include plant labels


Sustainable stocking filler: the Paper Potter (Nether Wallop Trading Co. Ltd)


for £7.99 and a sundial for £21.59 (oxfam.org.uk). I also liked the look of the Ladybird Tower marketed by a company called Wildlife World (wildlifeworld.co.uk). Essentially it is a birch log with a pitch roof that sits on a pole. The log has a hollow central chamber insulated with natural material that provides a safe habitat for beneficial insects such as ladybirds and lacewings. There are various stockists including ethicalsuperstore. com where it is priced at £11.95. What I went for in the end, however, was


something called the Paper Potter (£10) – a wooden device that enables the user to turn strips of old newspaper into biodegradable plant pots for seedlings. These can then be planted straight into the ground without dam- aging the plants’ roots. The Paper Potter is made by the Nether Wallop Trading Co. Ltd, a company that employs craftspeople in the UK and Europe and which says it sources all its wooden goods from managed wood- lands (netherwalloptrading.com). Next on the list is Phil’s wife, Alison.


Many people often suggest that ethical goods are more expensive. But is this true? The Tablet’s deputy editor attempted to find out when she was set the challenge to shop ethically on a budget for Christmas presents for a family of seven


Jewellery is a good bet, especially as the fash- ionable chunky variety is available from various fair-trade and charitable outlets. Traidcraft, a fair-trade organisation and charity with a catalogue of fair-trade gifts, for instance, has a big range made by workshops in northern India with colourful resin necklaces priced at £10-£12, bracelets for £8-£12. Traidcraft gives a lot of details about the proven ance of its goods (see traidcraftshop.co.uk). But even better is the huge range of jewellery sold in a chain of shops called Evolution. The company is owned by a Buddhist charity with all profits going to aid projects, not all of them Buddhist. Again, its website gives details and lists shops (evolutiongifts.co.uk). I chose a bright red necklace of big resin beads on leather string (£4.50), with matching bracelet (£2.50) and earrings (£2).


Finding a suitably appealing gift for the youngest member of the family, three-year- old Maisie, proved trickier. The ethical market for toddlers features things such as trains and cars in blond wood, or knitted or crocheted soft animals. There were more exciting options at Traidcraft, including the Animal Safari Jigsaw set featuring four brightly coloured large-piece jigsaws of an elephant, a giraffe, a camel and a zebra. I also liked a pull-along toy – the Brio Ant with egg offered by Unicef (unicef.org.uk) at £12.95. But at last a terrific find – a house made of sturdy recycled card- board with a handle big enough to carry around lots of toys. Produced in the Netherlands, the Kidsonroof Mobile Home has eight rooms, an attic and spyholes, and comes flat-packed. I found various stockists, the cheapest being ECOutlet (ecoutlet.co.uk) at £11.99. A gift for eight-year-old Clare has consid-


erably more scope. Children this age often enjoy making things, so I focused on craft kits. Oxfam has a good range, including a necklace kit at £7.99, a kit that makes two soft elephants (£9.99), and a book, Make It


14 | THE TABLET | 6 November 2010


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