Let’s Talk About: 3 Tips for Sustainable Gifts
I recall Black Fridays during my teenage years fondly. I had saved up a few hundred dollars from my part time job and would stay awake until midnight to hit the stores with my friends.
But times are different, as you may recall from one of my previous blog posts, I am currently on a debt free journey and money is TIGHT. Not to mention, although I have found gift giving very rewarding as a young adult, it has become progressively more difficult as friends and family now have everything they need and want. And I refuse to buy cheap generic gifts for consumerism’s sake.
So if you’re in a similar predicament, here’s some tips for sustainable and affordable gift giving for the holiday season or for any other special occasion.
There’s three basic questions I think of when trying to shop sustainably:
- Is the gift itself a sustainable product? Is it made with sustainable materials, or perhaps it’s a thrifted item, or it’s a reusable product to replace disposable ones.
- Does this gift support small business?
- Is this gift made locally or support local business?
Some gifts you get might check all three boxes, others just one, and that’s okay! Let’s go through some personal examples below.
For Babies
I recently became an auntie to two beautiful twin boys and I’ve already been brainstorming toys I can get them at different ages that aren’t made of plastic.
My first gifts to them were custom onesies off Etsy, which is a great way to support local artists and producers. For Christmas I plan to get them beechwood teething rings and rattles. Not only are they made of a renewable material, beechwood is safer as it’s nontoxic and has antibacterial properties.
This type of gift is a sustainable item, and supports a small business owner, but isn’t made locally. Overall, it checks two of my three boxes and it’s a gift I feel good about giving.
For your Parents
So you’ve flown the coop, and your parents are now empty nesters. If they are anything like my parents, they probably have everything they need and want, especially with all the extra money they have now that you’re out of the house! We don’t need all those empty rooms filling up with junk they don’t need, so in the past I have gifted my parents with experiences off Groupon.
One year I got us four tickets to the planetarium, a nice double date gift for my husband and I to go with them. Two for one, an event and quality time, am I right?! We decided on some dinosaur themed presentation, which turned out to be one of the funniest experiences I’ve ever had. What we all thought would be like the old school discovery channel CGI dinosaur shows, was an animated story about a father paleontologist and his daughter bonding via time travel to save the dinosaurs? Talk about unexpected! We all still laugh about it to this day.
This gift helped support a local university and science program, and was sustainable because it was an experience not a material item.
For your friends
Friends can be at different life stages so the gifts can vary. My friends all have pretty established home lives with décor, furniture, clothes, appliances, etc. A great gift idea for friends that’s also affordable and sustainable can be ordering some festive sugar cookies from a local baker, or you can even make up the ingredients for cookies into a mason jar and tie on the recipe card with a cute ribbon, or even just a little self care gift basket with some locally made candles, soaps, and sweets. Gifts like these can help support small and local businesses!
Final Thoughts
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that time with loved ones is the most important gift of all. If you’re able to afford gifts for others this year, try running your gift options through the three questions listed at the beginning of this post. Keep in mind, that buying a gift for the sake of participating in the consumeristic ritual of modern day Christmas, is not sustainable. Let’s encourage hand made gifts, small gifts, and locally sourced gifts! Happy Holidays everyone!
