Counter-Currents
Holiday Special
It’s Time to STOP Shopping for Christmas
Greg Johnson
1,025 words
Danish translation here
Author’s Note:
Since some US retailers are now actually starting “Black Friday” sales on Thanksgiving Thursday, I am running this today.
Even though I am an unbeliever, the Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. Christmas, like dogs, brings out the best in people. It awakens a desire to beautify one’s world and adorn one’s soul with good deeds.
The worst kind of evil is not merely harming people, but harming people by exploiting their goodness. A pickpocket merely steals your money. A con artist who steals your money by saying that he is collecting donations for a good cause also penalizes virtue and undermines the trust that is the foundation of civilized society.
That is why I despise the commercialization of Christmas. There is a whole economy of “fourth quarter” industries that depend on Christmas giving. Advertisers whip us into materialistic frenzies, so we rack up huge credit card debts. Traditionally, Christmas shopping begins after Thanksgiving. But recently, it has been creeping back toward Halloween. If capitalists had their way, of course, we would be listening to Christmas muzak and pushing shopping carts in midsummer.
But there is a limit to when Christmas shopping can begin. If religion had anything to do with it, the absolute limit would be Easter. But economics is the deciding factor here. And in economic terms, Christmas shopping cannot begin until consumers have paid off their credit card debts from the previous Christmas.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is now called “Black Friday.” Traditionally, a Black Friday marks a massacre or disaster, and for consumers, I suppose it is. Merchants may be in the black, but consumers end up in the red.
It is too soon for White Nationalist politics in the United States. But racially conscious people still want to “do something.” The best thing we can do is make ourselves strong as a community. And the best way to do that is to become as independent as possible from the existing political and economic system. The Christmas season is the best time to begin that process, because it is the time when we spend the most money on the dumbest things in the dumbest way in the least amount of time.
So it is time to STOP shopping for Christmas.
Take a holiday from holiday shopping.
Stop running yourself ragged running up debts.
1. Don’t go into debt. Freeze your credit cards. Literally. Go to the kitchen, fill a container with water, put your credit cards in it, and stick it in the freezer. Don’t even think about thawing them out until January. And when January comes, resist the temptation and see just how long you can go without them.
2. Give the gift of freedom. Make a list of the people with whom you exchange gifts. If you have enough ties, enough sweaters, enough useless “novelty” items and your friends do as well, call them up and propose that you let one another off the hook.
3. Regift. Admit it, the thought has crossed your mind. I have done it countless times, usually with sweaters. A lot of people buy gifts just to buy gifts. What are the chances that they know you well enough and have the time and the taste to find you the perfect gift? This means that the first time around, many gifts do not reach the right recipient and end up unappreciated. Regifting is a way of helping them find the right home, at no additional cost and with the added benefit of reducing clutter. I start thinking about regifting well in advance (on the previous Christmas day, truth be told), whereas many people choose gifts at the last minute.
4. Create, Reuse, Refurbish. Can you make your own Christmas cards, wreaths, and ornaments? Do it. Were your garden and fruit trees unusually productive? Consider giving preserves or pies for Christmas. If you have a particular talent for making bread or brewing beer or bottling wine, give those for Christmas. Old furniture is usually better made than new stuff. Learn to refinish and reupholster. Do you bind books? Offer to rebind a friend’s favorite book. Do you sew, knit, crochet? Make something. Between now and Christmas, you have plenty of time to do any of these things. You even have time to pick up new skills.
5. Teach, Encourage, Empower. Do you have talents and skills you can teach your friends? Give them “gift certificates” (hand-made, of course) entitling them to lessons. Do you play the piano? Offer the children of your friends some introductory lessons. Do you know how to maintain and repair your car, your air conditioner, your bicycle, your appliances, your plumbing, your lawn mower? Well most of your friends don’t. They spend hundreds of dollars every year repairing or replacing items that they have not maintained properly. Give them lessons, and you will help them save money and become more independent. Are you a great cook? Give your friends cooking lessons. People spend enormous amounts of money eating out. When they can make better food cheaper at home, they will not need or want to.
If you still have gifts to give after running through the above list and you are compelled to go shopping, consider the following rules of thumb.
6. Buy from local, small businesses, not big chains.
7. Buy goods made by white people around the world, not non-whites.
8. Patronize artists and craftsmen, not mass producers of plastic junk.
9. Keep your money in the racially conscious community. Buy from racially conscious publishers, booksellers, and other merchandisers. Readers, please post links to racially-conscious or simply nice, white businesses, artisans, etc. in the comments to this article.
No, I am not Scrooge. I am not the Grinch. I am not trying to steal your Christmas. I am merely suggesting that we celebrate Christmas intelligently and creatively, in ways that enrich us as a community rather than impoverish us, in ways that empower rather than weaken us. Decommercializing Christmas and reconnecting it with family and community will actually make it more meaningful and fun than ever.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas from everyone at Counter-Currents/North American New Right!
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8 comments
Good points which I try to follow all year, every day I do a little economic warfare.
A Good Yule to you and all your readers.
Our hacked, now decadent & materialistic set of holidays are certainly part of the problem, particularly Christmas. So for the last few years, I simply have not celebrated them at all.
I feel a little grinchy for so doing, but no grinchier than for holding our heretical views. These holidays are part of a culture that is killing our families & our people – we should not celebrate that or be OK with that. I have given my reasons; it is a silent protest which speaks louder than disregarded words. In practical terms, not observing the endless litany of “Hallmark holidays” has put a couple good weeks back into my life each year, & spared me the agonies of participating in what seems to me a cruel farce.
Of course, we need to replace this parasite-ridden, degenerate culture with something else – some culture that will help preserve us rather than destroy us – & my family, such as remains, are not yet ready to shift over to LARPy Odinism, dissociate via austere Mennonitism or adopt any other form of extant vitalism.
So instead of spending a couple weeks a year genuflecting to Big Jew’s consumer rhythms & acquiescing to our own demise, I will spend those days with family doing things I’d rather do – popping by on other weekends to rake leaves or sort through books, going to a kid’s hockey game, making time for walks with old fog(ert)ies, etc. And those things, at least, are appreciated. Kind of a mini-Golden Dawn community outreach program.
Death to Christmas, life to our families.
I love these practical “self help” pieces on Counter Currents. I’m going to do some of this. I’ve already started re-learning French with the help of Jean Marie Le Pen as recommended in a previous article.
I am a believer and that was a great piece that you wrote there Greg. I especially agree with No 1, Don’t go into Debt. There is something comically tragic about people going into debt and paying usury to honor He who was against it!!!!
Can’t recall where I saw it spoken recently that Christmas is the holiday where we borrow from Jews to buy cheap crap made by Chinese slaves.
I love Christmas but don’t celebrate it. In mind, in that of my fathers, Christianity is not ours. It is no less foreign to our people than Islam is today. But the turning of the wheel of the year–the light-mass of the sun, returning to the North…that’s worth celebrating. I like to go to some Christian festivals to see how the Old Religion is still there–the bird women, the magical talking animals, the guide-star.
I have rituals, including the Tree of Life with all kinds of animals and bugs and fishes on it. Our nature ancestors/family. I keep the very old holidays bequeathed to me from my fathers. Some of them don’t even have names. Just simple practices. A candle here, a walk there, a story told to strangers via the internet or over coffee.
But most of all, “Christmas” time is time spent with the love of my life, within the perimeter of the life we’ve made, hoping for the best, planning for the worst, giving thanks to our ancestors for the genetic gifts that made this civilization possible. And caring for our land. I, the first in my family in at least 150 years to “own” land.
Fathers, I thank you for having so much more than any of you ever had. I thank you for having worked so much harder than I ever have had to, even in my worst, poorest, loneliest, most desperate times. I thank you for bequeathing me the gift of survival and thriving. My rebirth each year out of the dark first sits with the dark, quietly, in the knowledge of dark things. So many of my, and our, ancestors lived such difficult lives. I know more difficult times are coming. I know I will stand with the faith of my fathers engraved in our very DNA.
Great article. I recently realized the absurdity of Xmas giving when everyone that I buy for wanted “Gift cards”, now I have a couple issues with this. A gift is a gift…NOT money. The other problem is everyone knows how “cheap” (or in my case unable) u are to spend on them, because it’s right there for all to see. The other issue is how RIDICULOUS I feel when I add up how much I spent on gift cards vs. what I received in gift cards. All we are really doing is exchanging money that none of us have. Crazy !!!!
Finally someone on the WN side gets it!
Greg,
Thank you for reminding me why I come to this site on a daily basis. I question sometimes whether or not I am siding with the right people and why I have focused all of my attention on fighting against this Bourgeois lifestyle – Liberal Capitalism.
I work in San Francisco and I am reminded every day why Liberalism simply doesn’t work for me. Christmas is fast approaching and all I see are people clamoring over the newest product line. It’s like watching firsthand a bunch of zombies walking around the city programmed to buy things they really don’t need. It’s like their lives are entirely dependent on a lifestyle that is plastic and meaningless. Simply revolting and totally materialistic. I wish I had the power to wake these people up to what life is all about but these people would rather squander like sheep hoping to fit into a society that is completely divorced from a meaningful existence.
So having said that, I would like to add to your list of what Whites should do during the holidays:
1. Boycott all Jewish controlled media and Hollywood. I am sure many folks here are already aware of the fact that nothing positive comes from this, but it is important that people are as far separated as humanly possible from the television set. Indeed, staying away from the tv will cure the decaying spirit of the White race.
2. Avoid Starbucks as much as possible. The CEO of Starbucks wants people to discuss racial inequality as though non-Whites have been the victims of White oppression. Even though this was attempted at many stores throughout the country, it failed because Whites have shown that this Marxist agenda simply cannot work, and it also indicates that the CEO of Starcucks certainly is not on our side and that he would rather empower non-Whites and further the agenda of #BlackLivesMatter.
3. Have some red wine and learn about White history. Read “The March of the Titans” by Arthur Kemp. If there is one thing I want our people to know, it’s that history, dating back thousands of years, is an indicator that Whites have been the creators of every civilization. Our ideas, innovations and aesthetics, have all contributed to the might of great empires.
4. Avoid social networking through Facebook and Twitter. Don’t let these social platforms destroy your lives by allowing them to snoop into your conversations. Remain as evasive as possible to the mainstream networks. I am sure that Mark Cuckerberg and his Jewish friends are determined to label any White resistance and dissonance as some sadistic plot. Stay away from these networks, nothing good will come of it!
5. Make love to your women and reproduce! The holidays is a time when Whites can get together and enjoy each others company. Treat this time as an opportunity to embrace each others common values and heritage, remind our women that we will make great husbands and fathers and that no matter how fucked up this world gets, we will comfort them through thick and thin! Women need our strength and compassion more than ever!
Great article.
A couple of excellent Identitarian clothing companies:
https://www.phalanx-europa.com/en/
http://www.atelierparigot.fr/
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