As the holiday season gears up and shoppers work through their Christmas lists, four churches are offering a way to find meaningful gifts while supporting artisans throughout the world.
St. Luke Church in McLean, Nativity Catholic Church in Burke, St. John Neumann Church in Reston and Good Shepherd Church in Alexandria will host fair trade holiday markets featuring handmade goods produced by artisans who receive living wages.
St. Luke will host its market Nov. 21-22, while the other parishes will host theirs the following weekend, Nov. 28-29. The markets will be open after weekend Masses.
Each market is run with Fair Trade Winds, a family-owned retailer founded in 2007 by Paul Culler. Fair Trade Winds brings the products, sets up the displays and staffs the sales while parish volunteers promote the event and help shoppers. Culler explained that artisans are paid by the wholesale organizations before their products reach the markets, rather than waiting for individual items to sell.
“People need help all year round,” Culler said. He hopes the markets encourage shoppers to think more carefully about where their purchases are coming from and how choosing fair trade products can support artisans and their families long after the holiday season.
Shoppers visiting the markets can find jewelry, scarves, socks, pottery, chocolate, coffee, Nativity sets and other handmade goods. At Nativity Church, parishioners have long favored Haitian wall art hammered out of oil drums, reflecting the parish’s longstanding connection with Haiti.
For parish organizers, the markets are an opportunity to put Catholic social teaching into practice, including the dignity of work and the rights of workers, solidarity with the poor and care for creation.
Kim and George Young, who lead the Nativity Creation Care Ministry, said fair trade means treating purchases as “more than an economic decision” but a moral one.
That message echoes Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’,” which says that “purchasing is always a moral — and not simply economic — act.” The encyclical also calls on Catholics to hear “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” together.
Lynn Thompson of Good Shepherd’s Care for Creation ministry said the market is a way to answer that call. “We’re caring not just for the earth, but the cry of the poor,” she said.
At St. Luke, Megan Salas, co-chair for the Care for Creation ministry, emphasized that fair trade goes beyond charitable giving. “It’s not about charity. It’s about justice and dignity,” she said. “We say shop like it matters and shop fair.”
At St. John Neumann, Janet Broderick said ministry volunteers try to connect shoppers with the artisans behind the products. They display photos from Catholic Relief Services of artisan communities and share information about fair trade to help shoppers understand the impact of their purchases.
Broderick said the goal aligns with warnings in Laudato Si’ about consumerism, encouraging shoppers to purchase fewer, higher-quality items that support traditional craftsmanship.
The markets have also become an important source of funding for the parishes’ Creation Care ministries, which receive 10% of sales.
Nativity, which began hosting its market in 2019, sold about $22,000 in products its first year and nearly $30,000 last year, according to the Youngs. The proceeds help with funding campus plantings and other sustainability efforts.
At St. Luke, the funds support composting programs, native plant initiatives and educational events. Culler said the markets provide much of the funding the ministries need for their annual projects.
Beyond the sales, organizers hope shoppers leave with greater appreciation for the people whose work makes the markets possible.
“It’s not just about the recipient of the gift, but who created the gift,” Kim Young said. “It’s wonderful that we are able to support that — even though they may be on the other side of the world — through fair trade.”
