Special Occasions & Green Gift Ideas

We all look forward to celebrations with family and friends, whether they be birthdays, weddings, or holiday celebrations. However, along with all the wonderfully positive emotions and the rush of excitement from these get-togethers, often comes garbage bags full of wrapping paper, boxes and bows. For those of us who wish to, and are trying desperately to leave a smaller ecological footprint, we struggle with the desire to give beautifully wrapped gifts and the desire to help save the Earth. There are ways to celebrate and have fun, and still have an eco-friendly celebration. And even if each of us uses only some of these ideas, the positive impact will be momentous.

Gift Wrap and Packages

The holiday season, which traditionally begins in the U.S. with Thanksgiving and ends on New Years Day brings with it about a million extra tons of garbage! This is mostly wrapping paper and packaging, and with a few painless steps, you can reduce and reuse without turning holiday gift giving colorless and blah.

Robert Lilienfeld, who co-authored the book Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are, tells us that if every family reused just 2 feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. This is incredible! Can you wrap a gift reusing ribbon or without using ribbon at all? Of course you can!

And what about wrapping paper? Consider purchasing recycled wrapping paper. Or, become an artist and use plain brown recycled paper. With colored markers or tempura paint, decorate the wrapped packages by drawing or painting ribbons, bows and other holiday visions on them. If you don’t want to do that, have your little ones decorate them with their tempura painted hands. The warm creativity that shows through in these personalized packages is pure love. Another idea for gift-wrapping is to use fabric scraps. Tie them with colorful yarn and attach a gift tag made from recycled holiday cards and you’ve got a lovely presentation with old-fashioned flair.

Some gifts can be presented without wrappings. What about a pair of tickets to a great concert, show or sporting event? Put them in an envelope, write the recipients name and “With Love” from you in colored ink and wait to see their face light up when they open their gift.

Gifts can also be given in the form of donations to a favorite charity or non-profit. And what about giving gifts such as No Chore coupons, or free babysitting (of course, you have to be sure to make good on these). These don’t need wrapping up – very convenient and Earth-friendly.

Gift Purchases

Giving gifts is fun no matter what time of the year it is. When we give well thought out gifts that please the recipient, we feel like we’ve really hit the mark. When we give gifts that also help perpetuate the survival of the planet, we know we’ve done even better!

Gifts that are made from organic or recycled materials, or made by local artists are wonderful choices. Gifts from organizations such as Oxfam are a delightful way to give to your ecologically and socially minded friends and loved ones. You will also want to consider buying Fair Trade. People in underdeveloped countries around the world make Fair Trade items. Your purchase of Fair Trade gifts will benefit these people in many ways. Organic and locally made gifts are also a great way to go. These are so much nicer than the garden-variety gifts that can be bought at Wal-Mart. Remember that the biggest, best and most important gift of the holidays is the time you spend with, and attention you give to the people you love.

Lighting and Warming Without Being an Energy Pig

If you are completely and fervently committed to not adding to the megawatt and fossil fuel overload that occurs at holiday time, do not put lights on the tree or anywhere else for that matter and turn the heat down for goodness sake.  And don’t turn on the oven for hours for all that cooking and baking.

If however, you want to be eco-friendly, and still take part in some of the traditional celebratory rituals, try these tips: 

• When you are going to have a group over for dinner or an open house, turn the heat down by a couple degrees. No one will notice because all those extra people milling around in your home will be creating heat.

• Use LED lights for your decorative lighting. Because LED lights have semi-conducting material rather than incandescent filaments, they are 90 percent more efficient than traditional Christmas lights. Literally billions of kilowatt-hours could be saved if everyone used LED holiday lights. LED lights also last longer, release little heat and if one goes out, the rest will keep glowing.

• Whether you are using LED or traditional lights, turn them off at night when you are asleep to save additional energy.

• When it comes to washing all the dishes after your holiday feast, make sure to only run the dishwasher when it is full – then use a water conserving setting.

Your Holiday Tree

The tree debate is always a big one. Do you buy an artificial tree that will last for years and years, thus eliminating your yearly car trip to the tree farm; but also used who knows how much fossil fuel in the course of it’s production? Not to mention the fact that when it goes to the landfill it will take millennia to biodegrade? Or should you purchase a real tree? The real tree releases a whole bunch (yes, whole bunch is a technical term) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it’s cut down and (hopefully not) burned in your back yard after you’re done with it. Or it takes up space in the landfill. The best we can hope for it is that a real tree will end up being chipped into mulch or at least put outside where it’s remains will become a home to critters. So, real tree or fake tree? Well, that’s going to have to be your call. As noted above, there are pros and cons both ways.

If you decide to buy a real tree for your holiday, you can refer to The National Christmas Tree Association’s web site. This Scottsdale, Arizona based group will direct you to the nearest place to drop off your old tree for proper recycling.

Note that while you might hear the suggestion that you should get a rooted tree and bring it in for the holiday, then plant it outside, this isn’t a great idea. Your rooted holiday tree will not adapt well to the hot indoors and you won’t be able to plant it outside until you can dig in the soil. If you live in Northern climates, the tree will have to wait until spring, and it may not survive that long. If you want to plant a rooted tree, by all means do so, but do it in the fall. String LED lights on it and enjoy the way it lights up your yard.

Tree Decorations

OK, you’ve picked your tree and now it’s time to decorate. Let’s think of the ways you can decorate a tree so that it is beamingly beautiful and also more Earth-friendly. Here are some suggestions:

• String garlands of cranberries and popcorn to hang on the boughs. These will be a welcome treat for birds and squirrels after the holidays are over and your tree is retired.

• Search the web for ideas on how to make recycled or homemade ornaments for your tree.

• You can cut out pretty pictures from the cards you received last year (you saved them, right?), and back them with a bit of colored paper or felt, punch a hole, string yarn or cloth ribbon through, and you’ve got ornaments.

• Decorate your tree with pinecones that have fallen from nearby trees or even acorns from an oak tree – a little ribbon, some hot glue and a pinecone or a few acorns and you have Mother Nature’s best decorations.

• Purchase some pretty holiday-themed wired ribbon and artfully weave it through the branches and around the tree. This looks beautiful and you can use the ribbon for several years.

• Cut festive shapes from felt, decorate with sequins or glitter, and attach a ribbon for hanging.

Greeting Cards

The best way to help the Earth when it comes to greeting cards is by sending electronic greetings. Use any cards you received last year to make tree decorations or gift tags.

To Decorate Your Home

For the Christmas holiday- If you have evergreens or ivy growing in your yard, use the trimmings to drape around pictures and on the mantle. You can also fashion a wreath from the trimmings by attaching it to a wire form and finish with a pretty bow.

If you are going to purchase decorative items for your home, shop at antique and resale shops for interesting items that you can use to create a wonderful décor. With a bit of creativity and artistic flair, you can give these items a second life and your home a lively look.

Packaging for Shipping

Use packing materials such as Styrofoam peanuts from items you receive in the mail or from the parcel delivery service. Or you can always use popcorn (the real kind, without butter). Or loosely ball up newspaper or leftover scraps of wrapping paper, and pack around the gift for comfy shipping.

Consider the Go Zero program when shipping your gift purchased from a green retailer. Many will add a contribution of $2 to your order with the idea of erasing the impact of shipping your gift. The money goes to The Conservation Fund to plant a tree that will absorb more than one ton of CO2 from the atmosphere over its lifetime. Check out the Go Zero program at www.conservationfund.org/gozero.

Entertaining

• Don’t use Styrofoam anything. Or paper plates and cups if you can avoid it. Serve your hors d'oeuvres, meals and desserts on real dinnerware and glassware. Don’t worry if it’s not fancy Christmas china, your guest will appreciate your efforts.

• Keep in mind that all that food you will be storing afterwards should be completely cooled before you put it in the refrigerator. If you put warm food in the fridge, it works that much harder to cool itself down. Or you could send each guest home with a delicious plate of leftover treats.

• Turn the heat down a notch or two. All those people and the warmth from the oven will keep your house toasty.

• Buy organic wine, along with organic food items if you can. See about purchasing a free-range turkey for the centerpiece of your healthy, festive, and eco-friendly meal.

• Turn down the lights a bit. Create a warm, festive atmosphere by using those LED decorative lights to provide ambience. Turn off the lights in parts of your home that won’t be used for entertaining, and lower the lights in the dining room to create a lovely effect and save some energy.

Holidays and other special occasions are a time welcomed by us all. We celebrate our faiths, we celebrate our cultures and heritages, and we celebrate our families and friends. Let’s also celebrate this wonderful planet we share not only with all other humans, but our animal and plant friends, too. Enjoy your celebrations in a way that makes sense ecologically, and don’t forget to share these ideas with family and friends.