Thrift a Gift

If you happened to be up bright and early Friday morning and watching CTV Morning Live, you would have seen yours truly chatting with Stacey Brotzel about thrifted gifts for the Christmas season during the live fundraiser for the Edmonton Food Bank at the Chateau Lacombe Hotel.

I had a great time chatting about a favourite topic and showing off a few of my thrifted gift finds!  And, er, apologies to those of you who might have seen your gift up there – SURPRISE!!!  (Just act surprised.)  This is not a new topic for me – last year, I bought all my gifts secondhand and had a very Merry Thriftmas!  This year, I’m shopping secondhand of course, and small and local.  I have a few tips for people new to the idea of thrifting gifts…

1. Buy less – crazy concept BUT most of us don’t need much and don’t even want for much.  I have spent hours and hours decluttering; I’m thinking twice about what I will “buy back” into my house, and encouraging my family to do the same.
2. Buy differently – almost everything you might look for in regular retail stores can be found secondhand or in small local shops and markets.  You can even get gift certificates for thrift stores – a perfect gift for *some* people (HINT HINT MR. STYLE).  Homemade gifts and consumables like wine bath salts are also good alternatives to traditional gift giving.
3. Receive differently – are you okay with receiving a secondhand gift?  Whether purchased secondhand or a hand-me-down or a straight-up re-gift, many people are still iffy when it comes to receiving secondhand gifts.  To that I say, get over it!  Just like with donations, people have their reasons for letting something go and more often than not, it has nothing to do with the quality of the item.  Let’s all just focus on living lives full of things and experiences that spark joy!  With that perspective, the cost and source of gifts become irrelevant!

Here are a few gifts ideas I came across while thrifting…

Ahhhh, there’s so much thrifted goodness to be found and shared!  If that doesn’t convince you, maybe my CTV Morning Live ensemble will…

That is an Anthro brand dress, ladies, and it cost less than a latte.  Wouldn’t YOU want to receive something like that for Christmas?!!  Well you can’t have mine (!) but you should seriously consider doing some thriftmas shopping this year!