5 Things We’re Loving This Holiday Season
5 Things We’re Loving This Holiday Season
As the year winds down, the holidays can bring a mix of emotions. Celebration and excitement, alongside reflection and fatigue, and everything in between. This season, we're drawn to things that offer comfort and connection.
Here are five of our favourite things to do this holiday season.
1. DIY gifts made with what we already have
There's something special about making your own holiday gifts. No rush shipping, no plastic packaging, and no last-minute crowded malls. We're loving creative, low-waste ways to mark the season using what's readily available, without breaking the bank or harming the planet.
One of my personal favourite ideas this year is a homemade simmer-pot kit. It's cozy, smells incredible, and is a gentler alternative to scented candles or room sprays.
How to make a simmer-pot gift kit:
- Gather your ingredients. Use what you have, or mix and match from this list:
- 1-2 oranges and/or apples
- Cranberries (if gifting within a week)
- Cinnamon sticks
- Whole cloves, star anise, and/or cardamom pods
- Small sprigs of rosemary or pine
- Dry your oranges and/or apples
- Slice oranges and/or apples into thin rounds
- Lay slices on a lined baking sheet
- Dry in the oven on the lowest heat for 2-3 hours, flipping halfway, until fully dry and slightly translucent
- Assemble your gift
- Add your dried oranges and/or apples, spices, and herbs to a reusable glass jar
- Tuck in a handwritten tag with instructions: "Pour contents into a small pot, cover with water, and simmer on low, topping up water as needed."
It's a small gift that will make any space smell wonderful, and who wouldn't want their house to smell like fresh citrus and a homemade batch of ginger snap cookies?
2. Supporting local and community-led artists
This season, we're spending more time thinking about the things we bring into our homes and gift to our loved ones: who made them, and how they impact our community.
This year, we're especially loving:
Falastin by the Stitch
Falastin by the Stitch is a Palestinian Canadian embroidery artist whose beautiful tatreez pieces celebrate heritage and cultural memory. Their handmade bookmarks, greeting cards, and other decorations make meaningful, one-of-a-kind gifts that tell stories of heritage and resilience.
Native Arts Society
Native Arts Society is an Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+ led art gallery and studio. The space features original artworks from Indigenous artists, and their online store features everything from t-shirts, hats and bags to original lino prints–something for everyone on your shopping list and a great way to support local, Indigenous-led movements and artists.
3. Reading our way through cold winter days
To me, there's nothing quite like cozying up with a good book on a cold, minus 20-degree day. Reading offers comfort, curiosity, and a welcome break from what can sometimes feel like never-ending screen time.
This season, we're especially grateful for local independent bookstores like Octopus Books and Love Lyla Books, spaces that promote community voices, social-justice storytelling, and learning and conversation through literature. These stores are a great way to support local businesses, and find stories that comfort us, challenge us, or open a window into someone else's world.
On my own reading list:
With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories by Nicole Nehrig–an exploration of how women have used textile work to build meaning and connection throughout history. As a lifelong crafter, I'm excited to learn about how women used the tools they had, often a needle and thread, to seek freedom when their voices were silenced. There's also something so cozy about reading about warm fabrics and fibre arts while it's cold and snowy outside.
4. Gifts that change lives: Oxfam Unwrapped
For the person who says: “I don’t need anything this year”, Oxfam Unwrapped is the perfect option.
Unwrapped is our symbolic giving store, but behind every symbolic gift is something very real. Two of the most important things our teams on the ground need to support people during a crisis are wells and survival kits, and you can deliver that support.
With cholera outbreaks in South Sudan and refugees struggling to find clean water in Ethiopia, wells and survival kits can save countless lives. These gifts are not only a thoughtful gesture to someone you love, but also a direct act of solidarity with families in need of critical aid.
This season, we’re loving gifts that spark connection and conversation, and Unwrapped does both. Take a look through the Unwrapped online store to find the perfect gift, while delivering safety, water, and food to the people who need it.
5. Making time for rest
Finally, we're embracing the idea that it's okay to slow down.
Rest can feel radical during a season that tells us to do more, buy more, and be everywhere all at once. But giving ourselves permission to rest is essential: for our wellbeing, our creativity, and even for the work we do in advocating for a more equal world.
For me, rest can look like:
- Leaving a few blank spaces in my calendar
- Choosing early nights and slow mornings
- Taking breaks from screens and scrolling
- Spending time in nature
- Prioritizing my hobbies
Sustaining activism isn't possible without taking care of ourselves, and when we rest, we return to our communities more present and energized, ready to keep doing the work.
Whether you’re crafting at the kitchen table, supporting local artists and businesses, finding new ways to give with Oxfam Unwrapped, or just finding a few moments of quiet, we hope this season brings you comfort, connection, and a restful start to the new year ahead.
Discover more stories
Getting water for her family in rural Somalia used to involve a lot of effort for Amina Mohamoud Sahardid. She had to walk to the village well that was in…
The recently constructed narrow dirt road winding into Haldyaam in the mountainous region of western Nepal came at an unexpected price: It knocked out the supply of water serving the…
