5 ways to give Eco Friendly Christmas Gifts

With Black Friday Behind us, last minute Christmas Shopping has everyone scrambling, but relax, going green is the answer. Gifts are an excellent way to show your love during the holidays, but the environmentalist in you bristles at the thought of all the consumerism and waste that goes into the holiday. Having Christmas lights up for a whole month just because they are fun is hardly carbon neutral. That is the tragic point, Christmas is fun, but it isn't earth conscious. Still here are easy gifts that will help you speed through your nice list this year, whilst shrinking your Christmas carbon footprint.

#1 You can give the gift of a reduced carbon footprint with the purchase of carbon offsets. Most reputable carbon offset websites have the option of giving someone a gift in their name. The sites will usually either email or mail a nice certificate to the person you are gifting for. Thus you don’t even have to worry about giving them a physical gift, or shipping something. A simple solution to gift giving during what is looking to be a Covid-19 Christmas. Some things to beware of, not all carbon offsets are created equal, and there are some scams out there. So please do your research and find the offset that best suits you. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just enough to do some good and stuff a Holiday season ecard with good intentions.

#2 Have Trees planted in their name! This is a lot like carbon offsetting but it is specific to reforesting, and is best done when strategically feeding people and restoring watersheds. For Tree planting I suggest Ecosia. The company keeps really good tabs on how the money they raise gets translated to trees put in the ground, and they do an excellent job making financial reports and project successes known to users. The e-certificate Ecosia provides is very gift and would make an excellent ecard.

#3 Clothing that plants trees from the Ecosia e-shop. I'm getting myself a hoodie for Christmas. It is a guilt free green Christmas gift with use.

#4 Gently used clothing from Depop or a thrift store. Depop will be safer during covid-19 but thrift stores often support valiant causes, so your choice. Fast fashion is a major contributor to global pollution so skipping new clothes for clothes other people no longer use is a great way to make Christmas less bad for the earth. There is also the option of buying new clothes made from recycled materials, so that your family can open a pristine new gift this Holiday season without breaking the carbon bank.

#5 Jewelry and Watches are also best bought second hand to prevent more materials be extracted from our warming earth. Consumer action to forgo brand new items can lead to a reduced climate impact of Christmas. The technology behind watches that aren’t smart hasn’t advanced much recently, so if you have a family member looking for an analog watch, any refurbished piece will do as well as a new watch. In fact buying used may open your budget up to new prestigious brands that would not have fit the Christmas Budget before.

Bonus Gift Idea or #6 Houseplants. Houseplants wont save the earth but they are a nice peace of decor with minimal consumer impact on the environment. A simple to care for houseplant may help your friends and relatives tighten their bond to nature and foster more growth in our cultural understanding of how nature is to be treated. If kept small houseplants can indeed be a welcome Christmas gift that benefits the receiver.

There are many other ways to make yours an environmental, eco-friendly, or green Christmas, through donation, thrift, or abstention, it is just important that we think about our carbon footprint in everything we do, and that we each find our own way to reduce our toll on the planet this Holiday season.