I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 2

In my last post I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 1, we learned about ways to decorate your home for the holidays without spending tons of money on decorations and contributing to overconsumption.  Instead you can make your own decorations with things you already have around the house or can find on the cheap.  I find that DIY decorations make the item mean that much more to me.  Anyone can go out and purchase cookie-cutter crap that looks like everyone else's cookie-cutter crap.  (How many house on a block can have that damn blow-up snowman!  My father used to make ALL our yard decorations from his own blood, sweat and imagination.  That's probably where I get my DIY-ness.)

Homemade and more fun!

Thanks for the DIY genes Dad!
ps, I don't want to talk about that dress!  It was my mother's doing.

Anyway, I digress... on to today's post - green gifts and gift wrapping.  The best ways to have an environmentally-friendly holiday season is to make your own gifts or buy them locally, and I don't mean at your local Walmart!  First off, if you need inspiration for why you should buy local, check my chica's blog poco sobre mi vida. 

Now I'm not perfect, some of my gifts did in fact come from chain stores but in my town, chain stores are almost all that exist.  So even though I had to shop at those big stores, I tried to choose gifts that would promote greener lifestyles or at least not hurt the environment (read: no gift certificates to drive thru coffee shops that dispense disposable paper and plastic constantly).  I just realiezed how hard this post will be to write without spoiling the giftees!  I will persevere!  For the kiddos, I got items that don't require electricity and aren't going to generate trash.  In fact, I'm the aunt that gives thrift-store clothing and educational toys.  (They're gonna hate me when they're adolescents and only want commercial goods.)  For the adults in my life, some are getting items that would replace disposable items that they use on a regular basis and some are getting vegan baked goods from my very own kitchen!

If I had at all planned ahead this holiday season, I would be gifting personally crocheted blankets and hats...  Maybe next year?  Maybe even some DIY decorations as gifts?  That would be doubly awesome!  Green gift-giving doesn't mean that the gifts need to be necessity items that they'd buy themselves.  You can be creative and get them something green that they never knew they wanted...  like the year I got my dad bat guano for his garden from a local cave who gave all proceeds of guano sales back to Bat Conservation International.  Yes internet, I gave my dad shit for Christmas!  And he loved it!  Got my mother earrings made from Scrabble tiles with her intials on them.  She loves Scrabble and earrings, and I guess her initials so that was a cute gift too.  See what I'm saying, think outside the box!

I myself have gotten lots of homemade gifts.  See how stoked I am with my new homemade knit hat in this video!?

 So now on to green wrapping.  This is where the creativity and fun really come together!  The first thing to do when getting ready to wrap presents, no matter how you choose to wrap them, is to turn on Pandora and chill out to jazzy Christmas music.  See that?  You just did something green - NOT buying those holiday cds and wasting all that paper and plastic.  Plus, um did I mention Pandora is FREE?  Freakin' sweet!

Now I frequently wrap presents in newspaper.  I don't subscribe to a paper (too much paper!) but I do get those damn sales circulars so I save those around gift time and start wrapping.  I chose not to buy wrapping paper because its so unbelievably frivolous.  To buy paper that will just be pulled off in a few short days?  Ridiculous, even if you recycle that paper, ridiculous! There is enough paper in your home, use that and leave your pocket and the environment better for it.

In complete honesty, this is not my photo.  I got it from the blog C.R.A.F.T.

I also frequently use reycled cardboard boxes, cereal boxes are a favorite of mine.  I use recycled boxes for everything from wrapping gifts, mailing items, and for organizational stuff around the house.... 

Canned goods container made from soda can box.
Now I have more room in my pantry!

This Christmas I plan to use recycled boxes and home made gift decorations, or better yet, wrap gifts inside little reusable bags, like Chico bags or Baggu or something similar.  That way the wrapping is green and its the gift that keeps giving.  (One of my biggest pet peeves is plastic grocery bags.) 

For more wrapping ideas, check these blogs and sites...

C.R.A.F.T for lots of ideas
DIY Gift Wrap for alternatives to paper
Apartment Therapy always has great ideas!
So do their partners, Re-Nest!

To make this recycled bag wrapping, click here for instructions.  This is the best way I've seen to fix your environmental karma after shopping at a big box store. 

Happy wrapping, ya'll, and Happy Holidays!  See ya next year!