Consider classy consumables for presents. It really makes people feel good to give gifts to people they love, even if they don’t need anything, and as much as some people protest, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t love receiving a thoughtful gift.
I’ve been telling Jon for years that I really don’t need any more stuff, particularly as gifts (ok, every few years a new ipod maybe…). This year he had the brilliant idea of getting me a box of chocolate covered fruit from Edible Arrangements for our anniversary. This is a gift that the whole family can enjoy, and when we’re done, we can recycle or reuse the box. We first discovered this company when our friend Lucy used arrangements of fruit on the tables at her wedding reception. It was classy, beautiful *and* delicious! They work on a franchise system and all products are assembled and delivered locally.
Last year for Christmas I put together a basket of gourmet foods from our local supermarket for my mother-in-law. They were things she loved, but not necessarily things she would normally splurge on. As a prize during the Energy Smackdown, we received a basket of local foods from Whole Foods. This was great because it raised our awareness to a number of local products we were not aware of as alternatives to our regular foods.
Another green-friendly gift idea is homemade gifts, but I think what I like most about this gift is that I don’t have to find a place to put it or store it and I don’t end up feeling guilty because I never use it!
Happy Greening!
Alicia
My siblings and I went in together and bought my mom a subscription to a CSA for her. Kind of pricey, but if you have a big enough family (or group of friends) to go in on it, this was about the “greenest” gift I’ve ever given!
I’m working on a blog post of my own of green gift ideas for kids.
i long ago told friends and family that i wanted only consumable gifts – food, wine, candles, soaps, books, etc. i even put some clothing in that category – but no ‘things’ that need space. i used the excuse that i move too much, live overseas, etc – for instance my mom has a volume/value aesthetic – so she’d buy me these giant bottle of shower gel from like costco and expect me to take them home to the uk. thanks extra baggage fee – i’d throw them out somewhere on the way to the airport and feel horrible about it. so now i give them a weight filter as well. they find the precision quirky, but they live with it.
one of my favourite gifts is to give people spices from penzey’s – while we can debate the merits of the carbon offsetting required for them to source their spices from the far east to wisconsin and then to the end user, they are a consumable and have nice, recyleable glass jars. giant refills come in ziploc bags to save on overall packaging. and they use things like dried bay leaves as packaging material which looks lux as a gift and is of course greener than styrofoam
Love the site! I had lots of fun searching around! Found you on MBC follower club.
come on over for a visit.
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