where are you shopping this year?

my friend leigh has been doing a series of posts about alternative ways to christmas shop this year. up until recently, i wasn't aware of the many, many people who are constantly giving a cut of their profits away to worthy causes. case in point -- toms shoes. you may have seen their commercial on television. for every pair of shoes toms sells, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. right now, i think they're doing a huge holiday campaign in hopes of selling 30,000 pairs of shoes so they can donate 30,000 pairs to kids in ethiopia. by buying a pair of shoes for yourself, you can literally save a life since a child can die of something as simple as an infection caused from walking barefoot. i don't need any new shoes this holiday season, but when i do, i will be ordering a pair of toms. you can see their website here.


leigh knows several people who have started their own etsy.com shops to raise money for adoptions and other causes. if you've never visited esty, you really should. basically, it's just a huge website where people sell stuff they've made. from what i've seen, people normally note on their websites if they're donating to a specific cause. you can find ANYTHING on etsy, so it's a great place to buy presents AND support an adoption or other worthy cause. you can see leigh's recommendations here and here.


i just found a great new website from an artist in tennessee who was selling clothes, canvas art, and other doo-dads to bring her son home from ethiopia. now that he's home, the profits from her work are going to benefit a camp for AIDS patients in the bahamas. she has some pretty creative ideas for kids, like making a matching game (like memory) out of cute fabric. check her out here. i love the africa t-shirt on the left and put it on my christmas wish list.




if you'd like to help the dean cause specifically, we just got our coffee website up and running today. all you have to do is visit our website, order as many bags of coffee that you'd like, and wait for them to send it to you in the mail. we get $5 per bag of coffee, $5 per t-shirt, and $3 per coffee mug bought through our page. each month, they'll send us a check for our profits that we'll deposit directly towards our adoption. seriously, i can't think of a better gift for a friend or co-worker who is difficult to buy for than a bag of fresh coffee.

another great idea is buying apparel from one of the many non-profits doing wonderful work around the world. i'm currently obsessed with a t-shirt from the AHOPE store. AHOPE is a non-profit in ethiopia that cares for HIV positive orphans. they run 2 orphanages in the capital city. we first learned of AHOPE from reading there is no me without you. you can learn more about AHOPE by clicking the link on the sidebar. there's a great video on the homepage right now about AIDS orphans in ethiopia. but think about it -- for 20 bucks you can buy an awesome t-shirt. your 20 bucks might help AHOPE pay their light bill for a month in one of their orphanages. and by wearing your t-shirt, you advertise AHOPE and its mission to the rest of the world. they also have cute stuff for kids... check out the t-shirt i love:


now, i'm not saying you can't go out to toys-r-us and buy your kids a few toys. nor am i saying you can't buy your mom that sweater she's been hankering for from macy's. but we can all be more intentional with our money this holiday season. maybe you'll choose to buy your daughter one less doll this christmas and instead buy her a shirt from AHOPE. or maybe you'll forego a new pair of high heels and buy a pair of toms instead. in doing so, i think we can begin to reclaim what christmas is really supposed to be about.