Posted on 12/05/2008 11:29:05 PM PST by Libloather
Green gift ideas for an eco-conscious Christmas
By Laura McLean
From the Ground Up
December 06, 2008 6:00 AM
Editor's note: This is part of a continuing series on the strides being made in the green movement by businesses, communities and individuals who want to live in harmony with the Earth.
Make your Christmas greener this year! You will have more holiday cheer knowing you are helping in some way to conserve while still enjoying the tradition of giving and celebrating.
"Christmas is the season of love, the season of giving, but sadly, it is also the season of waste," write Jennifer Basye Sander and Peter Sander in their book "Green Christmas: How to Have a Joyous, Eco-Friendly Holiday Season."
This book was a pre-Christmas gift to myself. It's filled with advice on how to conserve during this resource-draining season. Wishing to expand that notion to gift-giving, I emailed a dozen friends, asking their ideas on ways to preserve our Earth while continuing our traditions.
Here are some of their ideas for green gifts. Not surprisingly, many are "outside the box."
Some ideas are rooted close to home, such as those offered by Colin Williams.
"Back in the early 2000s, five siblings closed our South Dartmouth home, and carried out countless kept items of ours, of our parents and of their folks. A navy-blue-and-white houndstooth woolen coat had been in the front coat closet, and has since been residing in a closet of mine. On a thoughtful whim, I asked a friend who is a seamstress with a costumer's inspiration, if she'd like to look at Mom's winter coat with the idea of taking the work to cut it up, to make winter hat gifts for the granddaughters. The answer was yes. The tams and pillbox results are adorable."
"In this economy and for people who are a little sentimental, a homemade personal gift would be lovely," suggested Fransje Zucchero.
"Vinegars, jams, seeds from your own garden in a pretty bag with a nice note. You gave me a spout once which you could stick in a plastic soda bottle to make a watering can. A homemade wasp catcher, soaps with dried flowers or herbs.
"Homemade labels for a friend. For instance 'from Laura's hidden garden' or 'from Fransje's wildflower meadow' or 'from Mary Lou's roof garden.'
"Tickets to a garden tour or a subscription to a great magazine or a membership with the R.I. Wild Plant Society. An invitation to share a weekend in New York to see the botanical gardens with a few friends. An offer to sharpen and clean garden tools. Bird seed in a nice container."
Gifts can be simple yet ingenious, as this idead for a loved one shared by Mary Lou Manley.
"My brother and I re-enacted one of her favorite childhood pictures of us, as adults. We went to the same spot in the Whaling Museum, between the jaw bones, dressed in outfits that were similar to what we wore then, wool jacket, velvet collar, and had it nicely framed."
Don't forget the gift of your time — cook a meal, do the ironing, wash the car, give a massage.
"What comes to my mind would be home-cooked food items made with organic ingredients and packaged in containers recycled and not dispatched to the trash bin," suggested Mary Lou Newell.
Annie Rockwell of Parlow Mill Farms in Marion had these to add: "a contribution to local open space in the recipient's name, a contribution to Heifer International, a gift certificate to a local, not chain, restaurant."
Planting a tree makes a doubly green gift. "It represents the future, and will provide shade to cool your living areas in the summer," say s Kathy Tracey of Avant Gardens in Dartmouth.
"December is not the best time, perhaps, but certainly a gift certificate to a nursery can be had. The recipient can spend the winter months dreaming of what specimen he/she would like to establish."
Or they could get it now to substitute as a Christmas tree, as suggested by Peter A. Mello of Sea-Fever Consulting LLC Mattapoisett.
"Renting a Christmas tree sounds pretty green, pardon the pun."
He cited an article in which the San Francisco Environmental Department and Friends of the Urban Forest offered a better alternative to clear-cut trees, and will live on as a gift to the community long after the holiday season. This idea could be adopted anywhere.
Other ideas go beyond the here and now, like that of Margot Wizansky.
"How about World Vision Gift Catalog? Or similar? A goat or a sheep or a share of one for a child in Zimbabwe. A soccer ball for an orphanage, etc. Five ducks are only $30 for an impoverished family to have protein and to start a business."
Encourage future gardeners by giving them the seeds of knowledge. Avant Gardens will host a three-part workshop for "green gardeners" this spring that will not only offer sound instruction on soil prep and easy care design, but suggestions on what crops are the least trouble-free.
At each session, the participant takes home seeds and young gourmet veggie seedlings to start producing.
"Buying consumables versus more stuff that we don't need and ones that are local to keep down the carbon footprint of the gift, and plow the money in to the local economy — so green food, green services, green restaurants," was suggested by Lee Hayes of Marion, who adds, "How about a green lawn care gift certificate to people who use ChemLawn?"
Or maybe a gift that keeps on giving, like a garden share at a Community Supported Agriculture facility such as Parlow Mill Farm or How on Earth?
I found an amazing assortment of gift possibilities in David Evans' guidebook, "Cool Green Stuff." For instance, there's the "Stop Global Warming" bracelets, from at www.ecoist.com. The company plants a tree for every bracelet sold.
This booklet is like the ultimate catalog, with items artfully photographed and online sources provided.
Like looking into a green Andy Warhol gallery, it covers products that range from fashion to home to garden, with the intention of making the world a cleaner, greener and more beautiful place.
This would well make a wonderful present in itself.
There are many green- oriented books available, too. One worthy of mention is "Going Green" by Nancy Taylor, who penned a weekly column for the past five years by that name for the Planet Jackson Hole newspaper.
For only $12.95, it contains indispensable advice for "those who are ready to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk."
Times are a bit tougher than that, sweety. Grab the crossbow...
My gun can be green friendly as it will lower the carbon footprint of any person who breaks into my house.
*Twas the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*See the PC Police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just a ‘ Holiday ‘.*
*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd! *
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
* At Lowe’s the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears*
*You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.*
*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate ‘Winter Break’ under your ‘Dream Tree’*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
not Happy Holiday !*
How about some road Kill? That is pretty green, and ya just chew around the tire marks.
Well, I do have some moose steak and moose mincemeat in my freezer. Maybe I’ll leave ‘em under the tree for Santa
You’re making me hungry! The ecotards should be quite pleased that one less beast is passing greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
!
She calls it "Christmas" when she is trashing it as a season of waste. Then, changes to "Holiday Season" when it is represented as an adoringly green holiday!
What she is really saying: here is another opportunity to show how adorable I am. I care! It's all about me!
How is this "green"? They had to drive somewhere to shop for the clothes (or order them online, generating exhaust from a delivery vehicle), drive to the museum, drive home, chemicals used in the photo development, drive to the framer at least twice, etc., etc.
It's a sweet idea, though.
Intend to have an armed nature walk this afternoon in hopes of obtaining a wild oinker to manipulate into pan sausage. Could not be any greener than that.
Yep, why the heck is she even saying Christmas? The politically correct crowd is afraid of saying the word Christmas. So how liberal is she really? She doesn’t have good liberal credentials if she says Christmas in the first place.
For tomorrow, I'm torn between my famous three-beast meatloaf or rotisserie garlic-herb pork loin. You be surprised what my squaw and I can do.
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