Christmas with No Presents?

Colin “No Impact Man” Beavan

From Yes magazine, Issue 48 – Winter 2009



By Marielle Bardon

Christmas with no presents? Oh, no! That’s what I thought when I saw this article. But for Colin and his family they are perfectly fine with no presents and they still have all the things that we all love at Christmas like food, music and family. The reason they didn’t have presents is that “we could go a long way toward dealing with the crisis in our planetary habitat if we found a way to avoid those uses that don’t improve our lives—like the packaging that comprises 40% of trash in landfills.” If we didn’t drive to all those stores, then we wouldn’t be putting all those emissions in the air, and we wouldn’t have to pay extra money and have to store all those gifts that you do not want at Christmas.

If I didn’t have presents at Christmas I would be sad. But that’s only my opinion. I love the feeling of waking up and seeing all the cookies and milk gone in the morning, and looking at all the presents under the Christmas tree. I love presents on Christmas day.