Holiday Gift Idea

• Look for gifts that are unpackaged or minimally packaged,without unnecessary plastic wrap or cardboard backing.
• Evaluate the gift for simplicity and durability. Consider the impact of your gift: Is it environmentally friendly and safe for children? Will it be reusable? Is it recyclable or madefrom recycled materials?
• Purchase holiday cards made from recycled paper or make your own fromitems found around the home.
• Draw names or share the cost of a gift with a sibling or friend.

Here are holiday gift ideas that you can tailor to the personality or interest of the recipient.

• Help someone recycle - give a can crusher, a set of recycling bins or a recycling cart.
• Give an experience (for example, a ride in a hot air balloon or day trip on a train).
• Make a giant edible cookie holiday card with a personal greeting in icing.
• Give a garden! Seeds, gloves, tools, etc.
• Create a family recipe book.

• Season tickets to a sporting event.
• Membership to a museum or nonprofit organization.Theater tickets.
• Free baby-sitting service.
• New parents? How about diaper service for a month?
• Share in an environmental fund.
• Reusable lunch bag.
• Refillable pens.
• Energy-saving fluorescent light fixture or bulb.
• 100% cotton dish towels or sheets.
• Reusable coffee cup.
• Gift basket filled with non-toxic household cleaners.
• An old tricycle, bicycle, rocking chair, etc., fixed up to pass along as an heirloom.
• Automatic thermostat control device.
• Compost bin.
• Reusable food storage containers.
• Cloth shopping bag.
• Cloth napkins and napkin rings.
• House plant.
• Solar watch or calculator.
• Reusable razor.
• Durable hand tools.
• Durable wooden toys.
• Quilts and comforters.
• Water-saving showerhead.
• Personalized "coupons," such as a night off from dish duty, a foot massage, etc.
• Bat roosting box - bats keep insect populations down.
• Gourmet dinner for a busy couple.
• Bird feeder and seed.
• A subscription to a favorite environmental magazine.
• Stationery - made from recycled paper, of course - and stamps.
• Reusable bags, bows and gift wrapping.
• Car safety kit packed into a coffee can (e.g. candles, orange hazard triangle, etc.).
• Shutoff-timer for watering the lawn.

• Scarves, handkerchiefs or bandanas.
• Old posters and maps.
• Pages from a child's coloring book taped together.
• Old sheet music.
• Newspapers
• Last year's holiday paper.
• Wallpaper scraps.
• Home-sewn cloth bags.
• Fabric scraps.
• Pictures or advertisements from magazines and catalogs.
• Sunday comic pages.
• A present in a present (e.g., a hat in a matching scarf, jewelry in a wooden box, cookies in a reusable tin or cookie jar, barbecue grill utensils or picnic supplies in a tablecloth, kitchen gifts in towels or all-purpose cloths).
• A plain box decorated with leftover glitter, paint, markers, etc.
• A cake pan, basket or a wooden box.
• Reusable decorative bags.

• Bows saved from other gifts.
• Reusable items (e.g., hair bows, ornaments, shoe laces or toys).
• Stencils or pictures from holiday cards pasted onto a plain brown paper bag or box.
• Last year's holiday cards cut up for gift tags.
• Old neckties.
• Spices, (E.g., bundled cinnamon sticks or cloves in mesh cloth).
• Scrap fabric, lace, yarn, rickrack.
• Scarves.
• Beads and buttons.
• Dried or silk flowers.

• Popcorn (explain that birds can eat it.)
• Biodegradable starch packing peanuts.
• Used packing peanuts from previous gifts.
• Crumpled ads from the newspaper.

• Consider buying a potted Norfolk pine, fig tree or indoor house plant that can be used every holiday season as your evergreen tree.
• Purchase a tree from a tree farm rather than cutting one down in the wild.
• Use trimmed branches from your tree for decorating around the home or making wreaths.
• Consider buying an artificial tree that can be reused every year.
• Decorate evergreen bushes or pine trees outside a window with removable, reusable decorations.

• Memorabilia, such as a child's first shoe or grandma's hankie scented with perfume.
• An old full skirt as a tree skirt.
• Old jewelry (E.g., necklaces, earrings or bracelets).
• Items collected on vacation.
• Small stuffed animals and toys.
• Cookie cutters.
• Miniature toy cars.
• Dressed-up doll as a tree-topper.
• Ornaments made from recycled holiday cards.
• Edible cookie ornaments.
• Small pictures from old magazines.
• Popcorn and cranberry strings (can be eaten by animals after the holidays.
• Buttons knotted on a sturdy length of string.
• Gingerbread people and reindeer from leftover brown paper grocery bags.
• Tin can luminary.

Reprinted by permission from "Do It Green! Minnesota" www.doitgreen.org

Related Links:

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Family Gift Idea

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