Some creative holiday ideas that are gentle on the environment as well as the spirit.
LOW-STRESS GIFTS
Gift a service. Housecleaning, clutter clearing, yard work, car detailing. Pamper with a massage, facial or pedicure.
Gift lessons. Art lessons, music lessons, dance lessons or a pottery class.
Gift an introductory coaching session in an area of interest. A writing coach for a blossoming novelist. A nutritional coach for someone wishing to change their eating habits. A creativity coach for someone who needs a jump-start back into their art.
Gift your time. After the holidays, help with a project or take someone out for a play date.
LOW-IMPACT GIFT WRAPS
Remember how Grandma used to press and save wrapping paper? Start your own tradition of “re-use.” Silk drawstring bags with beaded tassels can hold all kinds of goodies and be used by the recipient the next season for their gift wrapping. The year’s recipient can toss in a “fortune cookie” wish as they pass it on. What fun you will have watching those fortunes grow within your circle of family and friends!
Take stocking-stuffing beyond the fireplace mantel. Come up with gift/wrapping pairs. In other words wrap a gift with a gift. Put kitchenware in a bread basket, a gift card in a picture frame. Let a necklace and earrings adorn a plush teddy bear.
Wrap presents in last year’s calendar, old posters, maps, coloring book pages, sheet music, blueprints, pieces of old quilts or embroidered linens.
Use strips of fabric and yarn as ties. Old costume jewelry, Christmas ornaments, fresh flowers, pine cones, and netting for bows. Make gift tags from last year’s Christmas cards.
POST-HOLIDAY IDEAS
TreeCycling: If you do not live in an area that offers post-holiday treecycling consider using your tree as a habitat for wildlife and birds by laying it out where the branches can offer shelter from the winter weather. Adorn the branches with seed cakes, fruit slices, or pine cones packed with a mixture of peanut butter and seeds.
Be green with your old things: Don’t let them clog up your closets as you head into the new year! Donate them. Re-purpose them. Re-gift them.
Look for municipalities that offer post-holiday electronics collection events for all your old electronics.
There is 25% more waste produced during the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That converts to one million extra tons of trash per week. We encourage you to consider ideas that not only save our landfills from the extra burden of this season but also save us from the extra stress that comes with juggling time, energy, and money in the holiday dash.
Have some great ideas of your own? I’d love to have you share them!
