Move over Santa–Redeemer’s Coming to Town

With Christmas right around the corner, it is the perfect time to find gifts for your loved ones! Let’s face it, as students, we have a pretty tight budget and it can be challenging to find affordable, meaningful gifts. This week, I spoke with a few Redeemer students and alumni who sell inexpensive products that could make great gifts! 

While clothes are always hard to gift—who doesn’t love a basic black or white tee or a cozy crewneck? The boys of dorm three recently launched their clothing company, D3KKO! While out on a thrifting run, they found some deals on shoes and Nike merch and discussed how to resell them. What was initially a clothing resale idea evolved into a custom embroidery business. The unique branding, D3KKO, comes from the word “dekko”, and the 3 in the name honours their dorm. Currently, the company offers embroidered t-shirts and crewnecks ranging from $15-$30! For more information or to order some merch, head over to their website, d3kko.com or their Instagram page @d3kkoclothing! 

Shopping for your dorm or circle of friends can be tricky because you have to find a budget-friendly gift that is also personalized to each friend. Redeemer alumna (2019), Kristen Parker, offers cute and one-of-a-kind scrunchies. They are hand-made, cost $5-$10 each, and will be shipped to your door for no additional cost! Currently, Kristen has partnered with Regeneration Thrift Store. Through this partnership, she receives clothing that would otherwise be thrown out and repurposes the fabric to make scrunchies, some of which she donates back to Regeneration. For more information, check out her Instagram page, @kristenjunne. 

We all have friends whose dorm walls are pretty bare, so why not help them spruce things up by purchasing one of Jenna Noordstra’s Inktober drawings? While a lot of artists use prompt lists for their composition ideas, alumna Jenna decided to go off the books for this one. She invented the design behind each unique drawing, and they range from a venus fly trap munching on helicopters to an octopus DJ. To see all the drawings she has available, check out her Instagram page @jennanoordstra!

Maybe the person you’re shopping for loves health and beauty. Fourth year theatre major, JoyAnna Bodini, runs an Arbonne business that sells over 250 consumable products, personal care, health, wellness and beauty products. While these items are more expensive,  they are all pure, safe and have not been tested on animals! To see the various products that JoyAnna offers, you can visit her page here: https://www.arbonne.com/pws/joyannabodini/tabs/home.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1jEJc3hceDxnUjxTnHckhA-izCDHUc1RRqbMCwbB7b3a2SSSs-yyzXfbA.

This Christmas season, before heading to your local mall or surfing the web, consider supporting one of your fellow classmates or Redeemer grads! Happy shopping!