The biggest way to be more sustainable during this highly wasteful holiday is to buy less stuff this year.  Make a commitment to buy fewer gifts overall this holiday season.   With the added financial pressure that many people are facing this year, this is a great consideration for the planet and our bank accounts.

• buy less per person
• do a name draw within your friend or family group so that you don’t have to buy for everyone
• Presence not Presents
  • agree to no gifts, just spend time together (people may be relieved by not having as many gift obligations).  Ok, I realize this may be challenging; spending time together or travelling to be together may be restricted at this time.  However, get creative – zoom or phone calls can help us be “together” when we need to be apart.  Another idea is to have Christmas in January instead.

Here are some gift ideas to help you be kinder to the planet this holiday season.

Intangibles

In our family, have an overall theme to guide us with presents each year and in 2019 we chose Intangibles.  All of our gifts had to be things that you can’t hold.  This forced us to be creative in new ways.

Here are some of the intangibles we came up within our family:

• ring tones/alarms (My son is a musician so he recorded original ring tones and alarms for all of us)
• distillery and beer tour (We were headed to Canmore that January so it was a timely gift – they called it the Canmore Minivan Booze Cruise)
• concert tickets (of course, these ended up being cancelled with the pandemic, but it’s the thought that counts!)
• gift card for the floatplane – to get to Vancouver for the concerts
• glass blowing experience

 

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Donations

Choose a charity that is important to your loved one.  Make a donation in their name.  (We have done this for birthdays in the past – One time it was the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre where you can adopt an animal.  They send you updates on that animal for the next year!)

 

Second-hand

It would be great if we could normalize giving used items for gifts.  Manufacturing, packing and shipping new items continually puts a lot of strain on our planet.  Lots of great things already exist.  Call it vintage and it makes it cooler somehow!

 

Local

I love that there has been a growing movement over the years to support local businesses.  It’s becoming an even larger focus this year during the pandemic when so many small businesses are struggling.  Supporting local keeps money in your community and it also helps reduce shipping products around our globe.  Small, local businesses need your support more than Amazon, Walmart, Costco, etc. so spend your money thoughtfully this season. (This is our family theme for gifts this year – Local Businesses only!  I’ll update this after the holidays with what we came up with.)

 

Time

Instead of more stuff, gift them with time.  Offer up some babysitting, chauffeuring, dog-walking or fix something that needs repair.   Be creative.  Time is more valuable than things!  The older you get the more you realize that.

 

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Want to make the holidays even more sustainable?  Here are some Christmas tree alternatives.