As the official shopping season begins today with "Black Friday," I urge everyone to take the same pledge I do each year and buy handmade.

What is the handmade pledge? It is a promise to purchase hand-made items by local artisans, which are more meaningful than store-bought gifts. This is even more important to me this year in light of Ebay's commercial that tell us that handmade items "smell like Church."

Can't make something? No worries. Shop at Etsy. Go to your local craft fair and buy gifts. If you live in the northern New Jersey area, shop at Peter's Valley. Go to BuyHandMade.org and sign the pledge.

There are lots of ways you can reject the commercial aspect of this season and give a gift that will last longer than the batteries needed to make it work.