SOLANA BEACH — Dozens of shoppers attended the Nov. 18 kickoff to the Alternative Christmas Market at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church. The market offers a wide variety of unique gifts that impact people thousands of miles away.

Shopper John Gill of Carlsbad considered buying food and medicine for refugees in Darfur instead of such holiday gifts as a new tie or gift cards to the mall. “There are all kinds of really unique gifts,” Gill said. “That’s what keeps me coming back each year.”

The market, which has been an annual tradition for the past 22 years, will run each Sunday through Dec. 9. Shoppers can fund anti-poaching patrols to protect endangered gorillas in Rwanda, or donate to efforts to restore the sight of Tibetan orphans blinded by cataracts. Ten dollars will go toward a one-month supply of food for a mother and child in Ethiopia, and $25 will help fund a month’s worth of fresh produce for a low-income military family based at Camp Pendleton.

Certificates with descriptions of purchases can be gift-wrapped and used as stocking stuffers.

According to Tom Theriault, outreach pastor at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, the Alternative Christmas Market had humble beginnings. “It started about 25 years ago at a Presbyterian church up in Pasadena,” Theriault said. “Then, one of our very active members here at Solana Beach Presbyterian, Susan Hoehn, heard about it and introduced it to our church. People loved it and it just grew and grew.”

Last year’s series of markets attracted more than 500 shoppers and raised $125,000 in worldwide donations. Theriault is hopeful that even more community members will participate this year.

“It’s our humble effort to bring Christmas back to its original meaning, which is to be simple and life-giving,” Theriault said.

Mary Valhalla, a longtime coordinator of the market, shopped Nov. 18. “What I love so much about this market is the ripple effect that it has,” Valhalla said. “You purchase a gift, but the people who really benefit are all of us.”

The market Nov. 18 also featured a variety of crafts on sale, including olive woodcarvings made by Palestinians. Gill said that a purchase from last year’s market — a vase from Vietnam — was another reason why he came back. “It cost only $35,” Gill said. “It was 2 feet tall and just gorgeous.”

Floresta, a San Diego-based Christian environmental organization that works around the globe, is one of the organizations that will benefit from the market. “We work in areas where poverty is caused by deforestation,” said Megan VanderGeest, a Floresta representative. “Our goal is to provide holistic solutions to meet the environmental, economic and spiritual needs of the rural poor.”

Thanks to money raised by the market purchases, Floresta will be able to sponsor a village in Oaxaca, Mexico. The organization will train farmers and their families in planting and maintaining family gardens.

For $25, shoppers can also donate toward villagers in the Dominican Republic so they can open up fruit and vegetable stands.

“For us as a nonprofit, working with Solana Beach Presbyterian has been a huge blessing,” VanderGeest said. “It allows an opportunity for people who may not be familiar with our work to see what we’re doing.”

Theriault said the market is a way for shoppers to escape the mall madness that goes hand in hand with the holiday season.

“It’s a chance for people to do something at Christmas that is meaningful and significant to the world, rather than just buying more stuff for people who have a lot of stuff to begin with,” Theriault said.

Three more Alternative Christmas Markets are scheduled for Nov. 25, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9. The markets will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Solana Beach Presbyterian Church is located at 120 Stevens Avenue. For more information, visit www.solanapres.org.