4 Eco friendly gifting options this season

This year, let’s try making another person happy with our gifts  – Mother Earth! Yes, choosing eco friendly gifting options with some thought and a tiny bit of extra effort, can make you give out ‘green’ gifts that aren’t too hard on the environment or your pocket.

If you’ve read our last post, you’ll know that we’ve given suggestions for more eco friendly gifting options.  But you know, there are so many options we can look at! In this post, we are sharing our top picks for eco friendly gifting options for the upcoming festive season.

4 Eco friendly gifting options you should try this festive season

Food

Now here’s a gift idea that’ll never go out of style and is 100% wastage-free! You can go in either direction with food gifts – either gift the ingredients for a particular dish or cuisine, or gift the finished dish. Some great non-perishable ideas are dry fruit assortments, artisan breads, homemade chocolates and cookies. Or go with a cookie mix in a jar with the recipe attached, a pasta basket with various dry pastas, sauces and spices or a health basket with healthy snacks and a book about healthy cooking. Try to avoid too much refined flour and sugar – we want people to be healthy!

Something for Kids

Kids probably enjoy the gift part of festivals more than the adults, so you need to put some thought into their presents! Avoid all the battery operated, noisy toys and go for ones that encourage open ended play, like wooden blocks and puzzles. There are some really cool toy brands that manufacture eco friendly toys made from recycled materials and which use safe, lead-free paints. You may have to pay a little more, but can be assured of quality! Other options are reusable lunchboxes made of steel or – stay away from harmful BPA found in many plastic lunchboxes and water bottles. You can also opt for homemade crayons or notebooks made of recycled paper as well as traditional fabric puppets.

In fact I would suggest Shumee, they have a fabulous range of eco-friendly toys that every child must own! Ditto for babies!

Baby

Babies are tiny people, but they need lots of stuff as well as generate loads of waste! With babies, going green saves you money, since you don’t have to keep buying. It also saves you space since you don’t need too much of anything – just wash and reuse! If you have new parents among your friends or family, they’ll certainly appreciate cloth diapers, reusable wipes, organic baby food as well as organic baby products. You can even get organic baby clothes these days! To make your gift basket even better, add in some wooden teethers, and soft toys like simple dolls and fabric blocks.

8. Charity

We all have that friend or cousin who seems to have everything and you have no idea what to gift. For such people, a charity gift card works well. You don’t clutter up their homes or lives, while you also ensure that someone somewhere gets what he really needs. It’s one of the sweetest gifts you can gift anyone during the festive season – the gift of giving! There are many causes that could use our help, like children’s education, elderly support, women’s employment and of course, the environment!

Its the thought that counts when it comes to gifting. When you choose eco friendly gifting options, you are making a choice to live a greener life not just for yourself, but also others.