Is your gift giving list as long as mine is? It is so hard to come up with new ideas. I created this episode so you can have ideas for eco-friendly and sustainable gifts. So you can give with an open heart and without any guilt this holiday season.
15 Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas for Healthy, Sustainable and Green Gifts for Your Family This Holiday Season
I hope that you are in the same place that I am and that you are feeling good about finishing up 2021 and starting off 2022. Starting the new year being as well and as healthy as you possibly can. You know I talk a lot about going toxin-free. And of course, the reason behind that is because there are so many toxins in our environment. And there's just so few that we actually can control. But there are many areas where we CAN control the toxins in our environment, so we must! This is the reason why I started Detox by Design. It is the reason why I opened up my own online toxin-free living store, because I wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to go toxin-free.
If you're anything like me, it can be a little bit daunting around the holidays. There's a really long list of people to buy for and I hate buying junk. I hate just buying something for someone just for the purpose of having a gift for them. I want the gift that I give to be useful to the person, to be something that they actually want. And I also wanted to be a gift that's not going to harm our earth, or harm the person that I'm buying it for.
Consumables
One of my favorite things to give is anything consumable, meaning that the receiver of the gift is going to use it up. Some of my favorite ideas are things that they really need, like deodorant or lip balm or a solid lotion. Those three I have in my store right now and they're packaged in compostable packaging. When the person uses up the product, they can throw that container that's made of paper board into their compost pile if they wish or they can recycle it. So those are three ideas for something that's consumable. And also in really eco friendly packaging.
You could also grab a lip gloss or mascara in glass packaging. If you're buying a consumable, think about what the packaging is like. When it has been fully consumed, where is that packaging going to go?
Another great idea for consumables would be food!
A CSA subscription - See if there's a local farm that would benefit from your membership. You could gift a CSA subscription to a family and they would have vegetables for all of the summer and the harvest season.
Candy from a local candy artist - A box of really special food that they normally wouldn't get for themselves. I love giving food for Christmas because I'm a foodie myself. And I love trying new things.
Pick out all of your very favorite snacks and put it together in a gift basket. Maybe with a movie or with a gift certificate that says let's watch X movie on this date with these snacks. You know just kind of a fun and different idea for giving a food based gift.
Eco-Friendly
Reusable silicone bags are really helpful for storing leftovers or sandwiches for lunch or anything on the go. I still have some in my store as well and they're really high quality and work really well and they last a really long time.
Stainless steel or silicone straws are really popular. We love those in our house. We're always drinking from a straw. I prefer the silicone straws because they don't hurt if you accidentally jam your teeth on them. And silicone is really safe.
Stainless steel coffee mug or a stainless steel water bottle. I know that Hydroflask is all the rage with the kids these days. I personally prefer EcoVessel. And the reason why is because if you have the straw lid for a Hydro Flask, you're still drinking through the plastic straw and the lid is also plastic. When you go with EcoVessel, everything is silicone. The straw is silicone, the parts inside of the lid that hold the straw are made of silicone, and also the area that you drink from on the lid is made of silicone. So that's why I prefer EcoVessel.
Solar powered phone charger. I've seen these online and they look really cool. And they're a great gift for somebody who is into hiking or is outdoors a lot and they don't have access to electricity. But also just using solar power over regular electricity is a great idea. This could also be the perfect gift for a techie person in your life.
Think Local
I want to encourage you to buy local. Support your local store, support your local artists, your local creators, and your local restaurants. Really, there are so many different gift ideas for small businesses in your area. And when you're supporting a local business, you're not only supporting your local economy, you are also reducing the amount of distance that things are being shipped. And that of course, impacts our environment just through how things get to us, and the impact of that shipping.
A great idea is a wood cutting board. When I say a wood cutting board, I don't mean just buying one from Macy's or whatever. I mean finding one from a local creator. Oftentimes, artists who make these wood cutting boards are actually finding fallen trees that they are making these from. So they're taking this tree that is not being used, it hasn't been cut down for the purpose of making these wood cutting boards, and they're reusing that wood to make something useful out of it. Check your local holiday vendor shops to find these.
Experiences - another great gift idea that is very eco-friendly. Some ideas for experiences would be to give them tickets to the theater, or the ballet or an amusement park. Or you could even get memberships to these different places like a zoo, or an aquarium or the children's museum or an art museum. You could give movie theater tickets. My daughters have gotten gift certificates for a place that makes local pottery that you paint. They've also gotten gift certificates for local cooking classes and things like that. Gifts that can be enjoyed throughout the year!
I'm really excited to get into the holiday spirit and give some of these gifts! Now if you're looking for the gifts that I mentioned today from my store, you can check that out at www.detox.design/thebox. If you want to connect with me more and just learn more, the best place to do that is in my Facebook group called Toxin-Free Talk. You also can follow me on Instagram and I'd love to connect with you there.
Send me a DM if you have a question.
