So you want to give ... nothing to your loved ones this holiday season? Or at least nothing that'll end up on a dusty shelf or in a landfill? Consider these stuff-free gift alternatives.
Tangible gifts are so 20th century.
Photo: iStockphoto
Purchase carbon offsets
Plane flights during the holidays can be packed with irritations: crying babies, sick people hacking and coughing around you, passengers invading your personal space. But the biggest irritation might be outside the plane: all those greenhouse-gas emissions are giving the planet a serious migraine. Help your loved ones feel less guilty by offsetting the emissions from their trip to the annual family gathering. Find the whole carbon-offset concept overwhelming? The Tufts Climate Initiative and Stockholm Environment Institute have a useful site to help you navigate the options.
Write I.O.U.s
Coupons for personal services are not just for brokeasses anymore. Dust off your babysitting, pet-care, housecleaning, gardening, snow-shoveling, or haircutting skills -- whatever you've got -- and make someone's day just a little bit easier.
Return of the King
Consumption isn't the problem, says Bill McKibben -- it's Christmas that needs an overhaul.Stop junk mail
Mounds of junk mail flood our mailboxes, especially in the holiday season, but the idea of methodically contacting a slew of marketing companies to stop the madness can be daunting. Fortunately, there is a solution for lazy time-strapped gift-givers. Subscribe your gift recipient to a stop-the-junk-mail service like 41 Pounds; they will do all the legwork and contact direct-mail marketers on your behalf. (Just make sure your mother doesn't secretly love those ValPak coupons.) Catalog Choice is a free service that blocks catalogs, but it doesn't deal with other types of junk mail.
Adopt a creature or an acre of rainforest
You can adopt endangered animals -- and even parcels of rainforest land -- in someone's name. For the greenie who has everything, look past the charismatic megafauna to sting rays, Hellbender salamanders, and vampire bats -- because nothing says happy holidays like poisonous stingers, cannibalism, and blood sucking.
Sign up for a CSA
Buying a CSA share for your family supports local (and often organic) farms and broadens the selection of fruits and vegetables you normally eat -- sunchokes and kohlrabi, anyone? And hey: if you share one with a friend (or offer to cover the cost of a membership for a few months), it could lead to other benefits. You can search for a CSA program in your area at LocalHarvest.
Teach a skill
Perhaps your friend or relative would love to learn to cook, knit, or play some killer power chords on the guitar? Offer to put those CSA veggies to use, host a stitch 'n' bitch, or teach them that Green Day tune that makes you fondly reminisce about the '90s. All this requires is your time -- and, uh, possibly some talent.
Make plans
One might argue that you should be spending time with your friends and family anyway, but kick it up a notch and offer to plan a series of events or outings: cook and eat dinner together; buy tickets for a concert, play, sports event, film festival, or lecture series; go on a hike; or take a class. You'll manage the details, and all they'll have to do is bask in your wonderful company. Note: this is similar to the previous item, but no talent is required.
Give a membership or donate to a cause
Museum and zoo memberships can be great presents, as can memberships in or donations to an environmental organization (cough, cough). Whether your loved one gets fired up about animal welfare, food politics, or coal, there's a green group out there. Not sure which one is the best fit? Consider charity gift certificates. And if you're still stumped, there's one green nonprofit in particular that sure would appreciate the dough.
Get crafty
If you absolutely must give a tangible gift, try coming up with something handmade. It will be more personalized than buying plastic crap from a store, and you might be able to incorporate reused or recycled materials into the project. Possibilities include sewing winter hats or gloves, compiling a photo album, baking holiday goodies, putting together a book of poems or stories you've written, or burning a CD of your last musical performance. Make sure to check out these tips on eco-friendly gift wrapping.
Ply with eco-booze
OK, so even the most eco-friendly, fair-trade, biodynamic, organic hooch is still, well, something you have to buy. But wait ... what better way to liven up a family holiday (dys)function than passing around bottles of organic wine, vodka, Scotch, or beer? Not only is the container recyclable, but these kinds of memories are priceless, people.
Turn your turkey carcass into a spectacular gumbo
This Friday, don’t just Buy Nothing—use nothing!
A tasting of four meatless “turkeys” for the holiday table
Comments
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sagesiren Posted 10:25 am
20 Nov 2007
i've gotten into researching my family tree, and i also decided that a great way to record family history would be to record my grandmother telling stories.
i got myself a little digital voice recorder that has a USB connection for your computer, and i recorded my grandma telling stories about various aspects and events of her life. i filled a whole CD last year, and we only got up to her marriage! there is plenty more to tell, so this year i'm going to make volume II, and she will tell stories about raising her children, and possibly tell about her firsthand experience about different historical events, or just what life was like back without computers, tv, plastic, or what she did for enjoyment as a child and as a teenager. there will be plenty of other material for subsequent "volumes"--she can talk about older generations that no one else really remembers or experienced except her. you would be surprised at how many colorful stories there are lurking in the roots of your family tree! even if you think there aren't any and you're from a boring family, i'm tempted to guarantee that there are juicy stories back there somewhere waiting to be told by (or coaxed out of) someone in your family.
anyway, you get the idea. i edited the tracks using the software that came with the digital voice recorder, and burned cd's for everyone in my extended family. they absolutely loved it. they keep asking me for more, saying "when's the next album coming out?"
hope this helps or inspires someone out there...
halcyon days to you all.
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Ashley Braun Posted 4:17 pm
20 Nov 2007
I mean who couldn't use a simple and concrete green guide to daily life? Especially one with a sense of humor?
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John former Marine Posted 10:56 pm
20 Nov 2007
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kmp Posted 3:06 am
23 Nov 2007
I have two friends with birthdays this weekend; as they usually get lost in the shuffle of Thanksgiving, I always try to make sure to do something special. One friend is crazy about my fritatta, so I am driving to her house and making her two fritattas for her birthday (with organic, local ingredients of course!). I'm meeting the other friend for drinks at a local watering hole and, as he actually likes to cook, I'll bring him some of my fancier canned creations of the fall: organic lemon basil white wine jelly and Magic Hat mustard. Eco-booze indeed!
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spaceshaper Posted 2:10 am
25 Nov 2007
Especially, try some classic fairy tales on your kids: they'll often have solid environmentalist and humanitarian messages (is there a difference?) that can last a lifetime, all wrapped up in that magic world that children all seem to inhabit much of the time. "The Princess and the Frog" teaches that seemingly altruistic acts can bring benefits in spades. And was there ever a more appropriate fable for our time then "The Magic Porridge Pot"?
Stop, little pot, stop!
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Guapa Posted 8:57 pm
27 Nov 2007
My husband and I love nothing more than getting our hands dirty planting native seedlings in the Wet season. Luckily Xmas and the Wet coincide perfectly. So a couple of years ago I came up with the idea of choosing native trees that resemble my family members and planting them around our property. I then send photos through the year as the trees grow.
Not only do my family get a gift that will (hopefully) last well into the future, provide all the usual benefits of a home for wildlife and oxygen for the planet but I get to have my family close by at Xmas too.
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TitanGreens Posted 3:42 am
28 Nov 2007
- Lloyd Christmas
I think stopping someone else's junk mail is a great stocking stuffer -- especially for people who aren't quite as "internets" savvy. Catalog Choice is really easy to use -- but as mentioned, only takes care of catalogs and not Valpaks, credit card offers, and 20 million dollar money-back guarantees.
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Greta Posted 2:59 am
29 Nov 2007
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brojiley Posted 1:38 pm
29 Nov 2007
My siblings and their spouses and I have agreed to spend an extended weekend goofing around together instead of giving each other gifts this year, date has been set.
Also in years past I have been a fan of giving a donation of bees or trees or sheep or something to Heifer International for those people in my life, like my mom, that are really hard to shop for. Although last year I gave her the gift of taking down the ugly wallpaper border in her bedroom and bathroom and a gift card for a bucket of low-VOC paint in the color of her choice. The year before I gave her a photo album of all the digital pictures I had taken of our family for the past 3 years but never bothered to print. That's probably not green but not "stuff".
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pcarbo Posted 3:26 am
08 Dec 2007
Tickets to a: movie, local sports game, theatre production, concert, art gallery, museum.
Money/gift certificate for a restaurant (serving local food, perchance?)
Any yummy food (because humans eat) and especially organic, fair-trade, and hopefully with as little non-recyclable packaging as possible
Registration to a fun class at the community college, such as German lessons or watercolor painting or guitar lessons.
A season's pass to the regional park or nature reserve (if it's not free, like in Canada)
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wiscidea Posted 9:34 am
13 Dec 2007
We were pleased to see bluebirds visiting them only a week after I put them out them out last spring! And we look forward to seeing them again next year. It is one of those gifts that keeps on giving. And the bluebirds probably eat bugs that bother my vegetable garden.
When giving an item like a bird house as a gift, it probably helps to select a functional house suitable for a native bird AND provide some information about where to place the house -- part of the gift might be the research to ensure birds actually use it -- and perhaps install the house for the recipient. Hey... throw in a bird identification guide and a gift certificate for a native plant nursery right away!
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