A Fair Trade Christmas

One of the things we noticed when we moved to Italy is that it is much harder to find fair trade produce than it is back in the UK. Actually, the same is true for organic food, free range meat, eco-responsible toys, etc. I'm not quite sure why this is. Fortunately this does all seem to be changing, slowly but surely. Our local supermarket has recently expanded its organic range to about, oooh ten products and they have a small fair trade selection.

Luckily we have a big Altromercato store nearby. It is the fair trade ("commercio equosolidale") store in Italy, and they stock everything from clothes to food, cosmetics, and interior stuff. And best of all, it isn't stupidly expensive.

So where better to buy Christmas presents for our son's nursery teachers? Mr P&P (who got himself elected as parent representative and gets to do the running for this kind of thing...) and I just spent an hour whizzing round the shop to put six of these beauties together:

Each handmade hamper had either a tea or coffee cup, a pack of tea or coffee, a mini-honey, and two sweet things. I can't tell you how pleased I am with them. Everything is fair trade! Some of it is organic! The basket itself is partly made from recycled materials! *bursts with excitement*

Seriously though, this is the perfect antidote to mindless Christmas commercialism to me (well, bar not buying anything, I guess). Now I just hope the teachers like it too!