Buying British for Christmas

I’ve bought British for dh - new sheepskin slippers from Celtic - made in Cornwall. His old ones are very worn now.

From experience of having stalls at craft fairs where I sell home crafted goods, clothing etc., people mostly don’t want to pay the price that these attract and don’t seem to appreciate the work involved in creating something that is individual and unique…….many would far sooner buy cheap, mass produced stuff.
I’ve been asked to make specific things but when I’ve quoted for fabric/yarn/haberdashery etc plus my time for making it, people don’t want to pay.

You do have to be careful at CraftFayres though I ve brought three things recently which haven’t been strongly made My daughter bought me a stone/ beach wood/ shell ornament which pieces fell off bit by bit I ve bought two lovely crystals on a chain one for me one as a present they were from different makers both broke one round my neck the other one before the recipient even wore it They were replaced
However it’s made me a bit wary of craft fayres I have had two pair of lovely earrings which seem ok 🤞🏼

My OH is a fan of Darcy clothing - he has the cotton jacket and trousers as worn by Monty Don. www.darcyclothing.com/
I like community clothing too.

Blossoming

Thank you for the links, very helpful. I try where possible to buy local and preferably handmade.

I have been to some local Christmas fayres recently.

Lots of things looked like tat.

And lots of things, sorry to say, are not the type of things I buy. for myself or anyone.

The first group, apparently some people buy from ebay, and then try to resell at a lot higher prices.
Quite frankly, it looked like it.

2nd group - stuff[with the exception of food], that if there wre to be a fire in my house, it is not the type of stuff I would grab in a hurry.

Perhaps it is all my age.

I was only talking this afternoon at being a Grinch at Christmas.
I walk into our local garden centre and it looks truly wonderful. All I can think of is tat from China! You absolutely don’t ‘need’ it so don’t buy it! Do not empower a dreadful regime if you can avoid it. Sometimes, sadly, you can’t.
If you are on gransnet you will have enough baubles and lights I would imagine.
I thought I’d found some reasonably priced crackers from a firm based in Rochdale but I sent them a message and , sadly, they are importers and they come from China.

No apologies needed. As a Canadian, we are very aware of how important it is to support your own economy and to buy local as much as possible. Having said that though, I do enjoy buying little things from abroad just to shake things up a bit, especially at the English shop in town that stocks Cadbury items we normally can’t get locally and different kinds of crisps. We have a strict no U.S. buy in our home due to the current political going ons.

What we aimed for this Christmas was to shop at some of the wonderful craft fairs we have close by and to buy from Canadian department stores like Simons (similar to a UK john Lewis). Managed to find wonderful crafted gifts and artisan foods for stocking stuffers for everyone on our list.

Gibsons puzzles are made in the UK, as are others.

I try to avoid goods made in China, especially toiletries which includes well-known British brands now, unfortunately.

karmalady that took me back, wool in skeins! I remember having to stand with skeins of wool around my wrists while my mother wound them into balls. 😀

I try to buy from local shops and galleries. It's difficult but I won't buy things made in China.

I bought something for my grandson from NOTHS that was not UK made.
You still need to be careful.

I am making British, all from British wool, from local sheep. My food is already ordered, organic and British. Everyone is getting hand knitteds from me, ranging from socks that I can make in 3 days to jumpers and a special gansey which has taken weeks to make. The wool for these socks is spun in a local artisan mill in Devon

www.jarbon.com/

All my AC buy British food and we don`t do big present swaps

The only items non-British will be in a present I bought for myself, an Estee Lauder advent calendar

Even the jigsaws I take when I visit are British and made from wood in Britain

www.wentworthpuzzles.com

I will be going to a Christmas artisan fair in my local cathedral city soon, I may pick up some more bits there, all locally made

Chocolatelovinggran

Magenta, if you want to be sure that the goods are made in Britain, you need the website Not On The High Street.
Be warned, it's slightly addictive - you set out looking for some gloves, and come to hours later, hungry and thirsty, having planned to spend £ 4000.....

Not all goods sold by Not on the High Street are made in Britain. Like Etsy they sometimes sell goods manufactured abroad. But, also like Etsy, NOTHS sells some goods made by independent crafters and artists based in Britain.

I do a lot of my Christmas shopping in Scotland, usually in independent small shops or galleries. Other than that it’s gift tokens.
Just to add I’m another Patrick Grant fan!

I’m a big advocate for buying British made, and I think your comment quite odd paddyann54, as Wales and Scotland both produce goods with either their national flag or a Union Jack, or both, depending what the intended market is.

I’d prefer to buy Welsh, but not everything is made here, and I would far rather buy something made anywhere in the UK than from overseas, and if not available, from Europe rather than further afield. My top priority is to buy my friends and family what they want and/or need, so I’d source the nearest version of whatever it was.

I buy local ,nothing with a Union Jack on it and nothing from Israel .Haven,t done for a long time !

Sorry goods not foods although plenty of edible gifts

Another one who recommends not on the high st. Their foods are British, high quality and arrive promptly. They have regular offers and sales when they are even better value

Magenta, if you want to be sure that the goods are made in Britain, you need the website Not On The High Street.
Be warned, it's slightly addictive - you set out looking for some gloves, and come to hours later, hungry and thirsty, having planned to spend £ 4000.....

Etsy sells some goods made by independent crafters and artists.

I do my best to buy British and go to craft fairs when I see they are coming to my neck of the woods.It isn’t always easy and is more time consuming but worth it.

Sunshine4All Patrick Grant is my hero! I highly recommend his book "Less".
Conscious Skincare is very good, made in Wales and plastic free.
Folksy is a good site for gifts - like Etsy but exclusively British made

Good idea and thank you for the links. I intend to buy less this year generally in the form of gifts.

Take a shopping trip to any local, owner run gift shops. Most of them will be stocking and supporting local artists and craftspeople, amongst the products they sell.

They’ll usually display that information and be happy to tell you all about where things come from.

Thank you for the links, very helpful. I try where possible to buy local and preferably handmade.