Environmental Tips for Individuals: Eco-Gifts

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Eco Gifts

• Ideas: Offer/ask for gifts that don't involve buying anything. For example, time together, a back rub, babysitting, offer to teach something you know how to do (e.g., making candles), donation to charity, seeds from your garden, tickets to an event (musical, lecture series, play, concert, etc.), organic house cleaning service, gift certificates for spas, music downloads, movie downloads, etc.
• Other Eco Gift Ideas:
  • Ask for/give the gift that keeps on growing -- a tree!.
  • Make it a Fair Trade Holiday! Buy gifts at the Online Fair Trade Shops.
  • Give alternative charity gifts (check out the great online alternative gifts at the bottom of the page). Another resource: Charity Christmas Gifts.
  • Consider purchasing gifts from companies focused on providing products which use renewable energy sources (i.e., solar powered radio or outdoor lighting).
  • Eco-Artware promotes gifts made from reused and natural materials and ideas for making your own eco gifts.
  • Shop for gifts at antique stores, estate sales or flea markets.
  • If you are a school teacher, consider asking your students to bring in items that can be donated to a local charity that is distributing holiday gifts for underpriveleged children.
  • Create sustainable gift baskets filled with sustainable gift items (e.g., compact fluorescent lightbulbs, plastic bag dryer, organic cotton socks/scarfs/hats/etc., showerhead with mist setting for lowest flow showers, organic and/or vegan snack items, organic cotton towels, shade grown coffee, fair trade gifts, solar battery charger, solar radio/flashlight, etc.
• Resources: For more ideas, read 25 Great, Consumer-Less Gift Ideas.
• Find Gifts: Green Pages Online and the List of Alternative Gift Fairs in the U.S. can help you locate great gifts.
• Light Up with LEDs: If you are installing Christmas lights, consider purchasing more energy efficient Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs). They have an average life span of 100,000 hours (vs. 1,500) and reduce energy consumption by up to 80-90%.
• Gift Giving Policy: If you have a big family/lots of friends, come up with a plan to reduce the overall number of gifts given. One way is to randomly assign to each person only one other family member/friend to buy an eco gift for. Another (fun) example is for each person to buy and wrap one nice eco gift and then hold a party where everyone takes turns selecting their gift from the unselected (and already selected) gifts.
• Gift Exemption Voucher: For someone you no longer want to exchange gifts with, print out and send them the Gift Exemption Voucher.
• Holiday Cards: If you are sending out holiday cards, you can find eco-friendly ones at Conservatree or New American Dream. Thrift stores also carry donated Holiday cards during the holiday season. As an alternative to standard greeting cards, look into sending electronic greeting cards (check out tree e-greetings to plant a tree with each e-card) or making your own from waste paper.
• Wrapping Paper: To reduce resource consumption from using new wrapping paper, you can find donated wrapping paper at thrift stores during the holiday season. Alternatively reusable gift bags, usable cloth (e.g., nice dish rags), old maps, decorated paper bags, any colorful pieces of material, home-made gift bags, or the sunday comics can substitute for store-bought wrapping paper.
• Decorating Your Table: Consider decorating with soy candles and items from nature or seasonal fruit and vegetables in a bowl.
• Less Waste: The following sites provide great ideas for creating less waste during the holiday season:
  • Simplify the Holidays
  • Deck the Halls with Less Waste This Year!
  • Recycled Christmas
  • How to Choose and Plant a Live Christmas Tree