3 Great Ways to Celebrate the Buy Nothing Day

Here are three of our favorite ways of celebrating the International Buy Nothing Day and protesting against consumerism. This post from SierraClub.org encourages us to examine the issue of over-consumption and do our bit for saving the planet.

There are a lot of reasons to hate the day after Thanksgiving. For starters, there’s waking up to all the unwashed dishes from the night before. But worse, it’s the day when even the most eco-minded recyclers can morph, zombie-like, into crazed marathon consumers. It’s Black Friday, which is largely responsible for the 1 million extra tons of waste that we generate as a country between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

This year, why not give your tryptophan-soaked body what it wants the day after Thanksgiving? Leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast and shopping-free rest. Join scores of Americans on November 27 in celebrating International Buy Nothing Day—a movement organized by Adbusters magazine to discourage holiday over-consumption.

Adbusters suggests celebrating by heading to your local mall and offering to cut up shoppers’ credit cards, leading a store-wide zombie walk, or making a conga line with empty shopping carts. But, if you want to avoid malls altogether, follow REI’s lead and #OptOutside—the outdoor retailer will be closing all 143 of its stores and paying its employees to spend the day outside. Even if you aren’t an REI employee, there are tons of great ways to celebrate Buy Nothing Day in place of Black Friday. Here’s a list of our favorites:

GIVE BACK

If you’re lucky, you just spent an evening gathered around a bountiful spread of food with your loved ones. So be thankful. Shake off the post-Thanksgiving blues by giving back to your local community. Lead a local beach clean-up or volunteer for a local food drive.

DIY

Two words: craft day. Skipping out on Black Friday is no reason not to make a dent in your present preparation. Break out your hot glue gun and invite some friends over for a day of eco-friendly crafting. Recycle household items to make fresh homemade gifts (it’s insane how many ways you can repurpose a Mason Jar). We guarantee your relatives will love them. Your wallet will thank you, too.

GET INTO NATURE

Replace retail therapy with eco-therapy. Spend the day after Thanksgiving trying out an ambitious new hike or taking a leisurely stroll around your neighborhood park. If you live in California, Save the Redwoods League will cover your admission fee to 49 redwood state parks.

No matter what you do, getting a bit of fresh air always beats nearly being trampled by deranged tweens at Hot Topic or being sprayed with bear-mace while shopping. Take the day to soak in your natural surroundings, and the paint on that discounted lawnmower you wanted will look a little less bright.

Image Credit: iStock/Sergei Fridman

Source: Celebrate International Buy Nothing Day | Sierra Club