"Small Saturday": Love the concept

Victoria Vargas who blogs over at Smaller Living has proposes that rather than participating in the hysteria of Black Friday, we think about supporting local businesses and independent artists when buying Christmas presents--something she's calling "Small Saturday."  I love this concept and we certainly have tried our version of it over the years.  I would also encourage you to make as many presents as you can.  I think people really appreciate handcrafted gifts more and more.

Last month, I attended the annual pottery show at our local Farmer's Curb Market in Greensboro.  I found some amazing work by Leanne Pizio at Three Dogs Pottery in Oak Ridge, North Carolina.  Now I have several unique and beautiful gifts for family members AND I've helped support a local artist.

When Dan and Anna were growing up in Indiana, Black Friday became a traditional day for us to take the kids shopping in downtown Crawfordsville so they could buy our gifts.  I took one child, Jim took the other, and after shopping, we met for lunch at Arthur's Café.  After lunch, we switched children and found the other gifts.  The children enjoyed it so much, that we kept doing this even through their college years.  We all got to spend a calm, quiet family day AND support local businesses.

Last year, I made lots of fold-up cloth shopping bags for Christmas gifts.  These were very simple to make, but were truly appreciated by the recipients.  This year's gifts will have to remain secret for now, but I will reveal lots of them in a Christmas Day post.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and please, leave me a comment about your thoughts and ideas on "Small Saturday."  Thanks to Victoria for inspiring this post today.  The photo above was taken by Jim and is of Anna and Dan in front of our house in Crawfordsville probably around 1983.