This season, give a different kind of gift
This Christmas, consider gifts that support the creators and artists in our midst
The gift-giving season is full upon us, but with the Canada Post job action that’s been in place since October, people are thinking twice about the ease of online shopping. I think this is a good time to pause before you buy.
Of course, we’ve long had environmentalists pointing out that the mountains of stuff we consume and throw out are endangering the planet, and we’ve an even longer tradition of bemoaning the commercialism of the holiday season, but I’m not going to tell you to not give presents. I enjoy shopping and giving gifts to people I love. I look forward to it all year, and see it as a time of joy and abundance. I grew up poor, and the Christmas presents under the tree were a big deal. That badly wrapped family computer (Commodore 64 anyone?) was an incredible splurge in my house and those treats tucked into our stockings showed up once a year. My mother had even less as a child, growing up as she did on a hard scrabble farm in Northern Alberta, where I know there were times when food was pretty scarce. Christmas was, and is, a big deal to her, and it is to me.
If you find the season too consumer oriented, I understand. If you see it as environmentally destructive, I understand that as well. But we can flip this story. The longer I work in the arts the more I think we should be giving different kinds of gifts. We’ve wrapped this time of year in layers of story, told in our books, our songs, plays, movies, dance. But we don’t seem to want to pay living artists for creating today’s stories. You can chart a good course of the western world, I think, by looking at the festive songs that have been introduced in different years and ended up folded into our ongoing holiday soundtrack. But many musicians are looking at hanging up their instruments because they can’t make a living.
So let’s see the holidays as a time to find those new artists and stories, in whatever artistic form you love. This is when many arts groups fill up the coffers to let them program more widely during the year. It’s easy to give the favourites to people. The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra is putting on a “Home of the Holidays” evening, filled with classics that never get old.
Not your cup of tea? Then maybe Elf at Theatre Aquarius. These organizations employ many artists, some young, some established. Who knows what bright young talent might be starting out there. But there’s a wealth of theatre, of live music, of dance to choose from.
Go support some living, performing artists. And bring home a physical piece of it, if you can. Merch helps artists keep afloat, helps you to remember the experience.
Go to the craft fairs that are popping up. Find smart, sassy gifts or gorgeous art and pay the people who actually created it. I am so saddened when I hear of artists who find their work pirated, splashed all over T-shirts and dresses online at multiple clothing stores, and they’ll never see a penny. It can be hard to find the artists who created the designs you love, to know you’re buying from an ethical company. But right now, they’re everywhere, whether it’s the Maker’s Market at the December Art Crawl, or any of the wonderful vendors who will be on James North that night, or Handmade Hamilton on Dec. 8 and 9 or many others. Do these pieces cost more? Probably, but during the holidays there’s a greater range in prices and choices. If we’re buying, let’s support creators as much as we can.
Let’s end with books. In my mind, books are the cheapest, most plentiful and best option for buying from new artists. I may be biased here, since I work in books. There’s a book for everyone, brilliant local stories, thoughtful critiques of culture, gorgeous poetry, novels you can’t put down. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at the shortlisted authors for the Hamilton Arts Council’s Literary Awards.
Find some new voices, slip them into the hands of someone who needs to escape, to see themselves in a story, to consider a new point of view. And nothing is better than browsing in a good bookstore, talking to people who love books, flipping over covers, finding something that you know will captivate a child, a friend, a family member. Let’s find the new stories and share them around.