More than one bar of fair trade chocolate in the stocking . . .

Free Christmas! is a movement of people who want to do Christmas differently.

We love Christmas and think it should be much more than simply an act of consumption. We want it to be a creative display of love- not just for our friends and family but for people across the globe and for the earth.

At the moment Christmas has some pretty nasty side effects; tonnes of waste, millions of unwanted presents, huge amounts of debt and stress. We believe we can change this! We want our gifts to help poorer people across the globe (see our ethical pressie guide) or to be about time not money or to be made of recycled stuff to bring some healing to the planet.

We think that if enough people promise to celebrate differently in these ways Christmas really will be a joy to the world. (You will have to excuse any cheeseyness or Christmas carol puns along the way… it is far too hard to resist.)

So on Free Christmas! you will find help with presents, resources to inspire others and a whole crowd of people trying to do the same thing as you. Check all this stuff out but most importantly join the movement: pledge- along with your family if possible- to Free Christmas!

Solid as Barack

I am pretty sleepy but want to put this down. Yesterday we celebrated Parihaka with some Kiwi's in London. Parihaka is an amazing and beautiful piece of NZ history, of the worlds first modern movement of peaceful resistance. It occurred long before those we now associate with non-violence came along but last night as we lit our sparklers we couldn't help but follow the thread from this small group of people on the coast of New Zealand in 1881 and the momentous election of the first black President of the US. It is a simple track; Parihaka inspired Ghandi- his family have since visited in recognition of this- and Ghandi greatly inspired Martin Luther King, and of course if it wasn't for MLK and the civil liberties movement the dream of a black president would hardly even be a dream let alone reality. Little did the tribe of Ngati Te Whiti know when they laid down their lives back then, peacefully in the face of their oppressors, that they would lay a part of the foundation for Barack Obama! The ripples...

Amazing really.

It is incredible news. Not so much for the policies he is gonna implement- this is politics; he may be a bit of a radical but I predict nothing too crazy is going to happen. Everyone wants to go for the second term, eh? But for the potent symbolism! And for the fact that this act can single handedly liberate the dreams of a whole generation of young black people. Truly huge.