Fair Trade Holiday Caroling
What is Fair Trade Holiday Caroling? Walking door to door or performing in any public place...congregation, school play, holiday party, subway station, etc, etc.:
- Sing a few carols
- Read a brief Fair Trade Public Education Script to your audience
- Ask your audience to make a Fair Trade New Year's Resolution or pledge to buy Fair Trade holiday gifts...together, the thousands of Resolutions we collect in the US and around the world will make a big impact on expanding the market for Fair Trade farmers and artisans.
All of the materials you need are in the Caroling Toolkit.
What songs would we sing? Both traditional carols and the clever, amusing, fabulous Fair Trade carols submitted to Global Exchange's Fair Trade Holiday Song Contest during the Summer of 2008. A Songbook is included in the Toolkit and there are additional songs you can print out from the website. Congratulations to the winners of the contest!
Carols and information on how to submit new carols are available here
When should we sing? Anytime in December, but we encourage you to consider caroling during the first two weeks of December, in order to invite people to purchase their gifts Fair Trade during holiday shopping.
To participate:
- Download the Caroling Toolkit
- Send an email to your referring organization or fairtrade@globalexchange.org to let us know the number of carolers in your group, so we can announce how many people participated!
Fair Trade Holiday Caroling Participating organizations:
Fair Trade Holiday Gifts
The Global Exchange Fair Trade Campaign is calling on the public to consider taking a pledge to buy some or all holiday gifts Fair Trade this year!
Here is a note from Fair Trade Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel:
Ever since I took my pledge to make all of my holiday gift purchasing Fair Trade, my shopping has become so much easier and more satisfying! Every year, I walk into my local Fair Trade store with the list of gifts I need to buy, and walk out an hour later with all my shopping complete. When I distribute my holiday gifts, the entire room of family and friends open their packages and have tears in their eyes as they read about the transformation those gifts made in the lives of another family. Each of my loved ones find it moving and meaningful, in the spirit of the holiday season.
And, as my colleague from the Global Exchange Fair Trade online store, Tex Dworkin, likes to point out...buying Fair Trade gifts is especially important because every time you give a Fair Trade gift, you are sharing information about Fair Trade with someone who might have never heard of Fair Trade products, encouraging them to start buying Fair Trade, too. I hope you will consider joining me in buying Fair Trade gifts this holiday, both online and in Fair Trade stores.
Collectively, we can all make a huge impact for Fair Trade farmers and artisans this holiday season! Please join us!
If you are willing to take the Fair Trade Holiday Gift pledge to buy Fair Trade holiday gifts, please send an email to fairtrade@globalexchange.org with Fair Trade Holiday Gift Pledge in the subject line so we know how many people are participating. Please indicate whether you pledge to buy one more Fair Trade gift than you would have otherwise bought or if you pledge to buy all of your holiday gifts Fair Trade. (PS: Fair Trade coffee or chocolate makes a great, easy gift to buy for all your coworkers!)
Fair Trade retailers are listed at www.transfairusa.org/content/WhereToBuy/ and www.fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/Memdir/pid/1722.
To take a look at Global Exchange's Fair Trade holiday gift offerings, please visit www.globalexchangestore.org.
Fair Trade Caroling and Gift Pledges are an initiative of Global Exchange's Sweet Smarts network, in collaboration with nonprofits, congregations, schools, youth groups, and others.
