The shameless marketing of Christmas décor and gifts that began before Halloween is in full force, hijacking Thanksgiving. I hate having to push past the Christmas displays of plastic crap to get to whatever it is that I came to buy — mostly groceries and other basics.

I’ve almost fallen prey to the holiday marketing madness a few times. After rolling my clock back an hour, I found it even more difficult to resist all those holiday lights in new shapes and sizes and with new tech features (because this year’s stuff has to be different from last year’s to give us more reason to buy more stuff).

But these days, the closer I look at whatever it is that I have nearly been seduced by, all I see is that we are stealing from the earth and from future generations.

And I walk away, knowing that I had a near brush with not being true to myself. I walk away, saving myself from the fallacy that buying more stuff will somehow make me happier.

I walk away, remembering that the dopamine rush of shopping won’t last, but the plastic in the landfill when the new gadget inevitably breaks will.  

Relief comes when I shop the small independent stores and holiday markets that carry locally sourced foods and handmade gifts with minimal packaging.

I am grateful to live in a community that supports these options. 

Diana DeFazio

Springfield