This holiday season, you can find green, natural, buy local gift giving guides everywhere (TreeHugger has one). For other green ways to celebrate the holidays check out this blog.
Here’s mine.
First, buy as little as possible. Make stuff, cook a dinner for someone, do something that they want to do but maybe you don’t. My partner and I have agreed to not buy gifts for each other and do something like the above. (I guess I’m going to be watching Ishtar or going bowling. My son says it’s because I’m cheap not because I’m green. I remember a friend in high school who would break up with his girlfriend right before Christmas and then make up after. Green before his time).
I know this non-buying can be very difficult if you have children, especially younger ones, who might expect Hannah Montana stuff or whatever the latest craze is. I clearly remember driving all over to find an Optimus Prime. Sometimes we feel like “bad parents” if we don’t get them whatever else is getting. I have three almost grown children and when they talk about fun moments as younger kids, it’s never the Play Mobil Dollhouse but times together.
Here are some links of great ideas, though, if you decide you want to buy gifts:
- Cool Cleveland's holiday gift guide
- Heights Arts holiday gift show
- Support Fair Trade and small artisan communities this Sunday (Dec. 9) and other days this month.
- And check out last year's guide from GreenCityBlueLake, a lot of it is still useful.
A few other thoughts:
Traveling from my house over to the east side to buy a few jars of the Cleveland Botanical Garden salsa—which uses tomatoes grown right here in Cleveland—is great but it uses a lot of gas (unless I use the Rapid) so it kind of defeats the purpose right? As my father used to say “Don’t go gas-assing all over town”). If you’re an east sider, go for it.
So maybe I will go to Unique Thrift on Lorain, buy a good used basket and stuff it with stuff from the West Side Market and Dave’s: Fair Trade Coffee, wine from Debonnet Vineyards in Madison, Ohio, grab a six-pack at Great Lakes Brewery, Or stay closer to home and walk to Gypsy Beans at W.65th and Detroit, grab a bag of coffee beans and a travel mug, hop over to the Detroit Studio and pick up some stickers for the grandkids and stop in next door at Kitsch City and pick up some Buddha Pencil toppers.
You get the picture, every neighborhood has a collection of stores where you can put together a nice basket of stuff. Why drive to some mall and waste gas getting there and aggravate yourself driving around looking for a parking space?
A book to consider:
Wake Up and Smell the Planet, not a guide about guilt, but about making little choices throughout the day that improve the planet. Put out by the folks at Grist. If you’re in Ohio City, stop in at the Bookstore on W.25th and ask Michael to order it.
I invite readers to jump in and post their own Holiday gift ideas, thoughts, etc.
