It is a bit odd, isn’t it? We celebrate the birth of a peasant child born in a borrowed barn by trying to find the perfect gift for “the person who has everything.” We bombard our already over-STUFFed kids with even more stuff. And we often spend money we don’t have to do so. Now, I love Christmas – even in its goofy secular forms. I don’t want to be a Scrooge or a Grinch, and I won’t claim that I get through the season without several visits to Target, but here are some ways to make Christmas fairer (and less expensive.)
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I love Halloween. I loved dressing up when I was younger, and now I love watching my daughter Kate dress up. I love going trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, and I love greeting superheroes and princesses at my front door. I love seeing all the kids at my church in their costumes at our annual Fall Festival. And, I LOVE chocolate!

But there is something very unfair about Halloween – all this childhood fun comes at a terrible price, a price paid mainly by other children on the other side of the world.
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Carmen K. Iezzi, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Federation, says, "Since 1911, March has been set aside to celebrate the achievements of women. According to Fair Trade Federation research, 76% of Fair Trade production is done by women." When you support Fair Trade, you invest in workplace equality and give artisans and farmers more autonomy and power to improve their own lives.
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If you are anything like me, getting up and waking up are not the same thing. Getting up is as simple as rolling out of bed, but, for me, WAKING UP involves caffeine. I know I am not the only one -- millions of people think of coffee as an indispensable part of their morning routine. That routine is made possible by millions of others....
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