Holiday Gift Alternatives

Christmas has traditionally been an important time in the life of many families. It is a great opportunity for sharing the principles behind our lifestyles and beliefs with others, especially with young children. But if your extended families and friends aren’t as environmentally or socially aware as you are, the commercial hype can be troublesome. For many, Christmas is just another commercial opportunity, benefiting greeting card and candy manufacturers, and often becomes an orgy of excess packaging and unhealthy eating, tempting some to try to ignore it altogether. But there are ways to enjoy the holiday season with our families and friends, but not forsake our eco-ethics. Here are some suggestions for alternative gifts...some to give to the children you love and some for children to help you make for others. Have an eco-friendly Christmas this year!

• Children love personalized gifts, so create a simple book about the child, written and illustrated by you.

• Collect all the makings for hand puppets — brown lunch bags, googly eyes, scissors, markers etc.

• Record interviews of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles on audio or video tape; you can ask them to discuss their memories of the person you plan to give the tape to, or your family’s history, especially funny or meaningful anecdotes.

• Frame one of your best photographs. Buy a frame from a local business or artisan. Or make one yourself out of stiff paper or cardboard, decorated with colored paper, old wrapping paper, beads and/or leaves, small pinecones, or seeds.

• Make your own calendar using cut-out pictures, photos, and/or drawings.

• Assemble a collection of favorite recipes.

• Get out your video camera and make a film of the kids putting on a play. Mail it to the grandparents with a holiday song as the finale.

• Bake a basket of muffins and cookies and deliver them to neighbors.

• Create a hand-decorated coupon for your best friend promising a weekend of babysitting while she and her spouse take a weekend away from the kids.

• Create a coupon book of certificates for your children – ten gift coupons for them to redeem during the year. One could promise a Saturday afternoon building a playhouse. Another might be a promise of tennis lessons or an afternoon of making cookies.

• Your teenager could make a coupon to give to Dad, promising to wash the car or to make dinner three times.

• Promise your significant other some special activities – a candlelit dinner, a massage or an outdoor activity that you both enjoy.

• Assemble a gift basket with compact fluorescent light bulbs, forms for getting rid of junk mail, healthy recipes, some weatherstripping and cozy slippers (so they can turn down the heat a few degrees).

• Give a membership or a donation to a local cause such as a soup kitchen, a shelter for battered women, a local environment group, etc. Call local churches, synagogues and charitable organizations for ideas.

• Give a membership to your local zoo, museum or art gallery, or "adopt" an animal at the zoo or to support an endangered species.