GREEN GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS

The Christmas countdown is well and truly underway – and if you haven’t braved the shops yet, it really is time you got started!

But before you battle through the chainstore crowds, check out our Green Gifts for inspiration. There are ideas to suit everyone – and they’re all (or were!) available online so you can stay snuggled in front of your computer while others collapse under the weight of their shopping bags J

So we’ll start with “that” person. Every family has one - the relative who is almost impossible to buy for at Christmas.

This year, instead of trudging the high street hoping for inspiration, why not give them a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped?  It’s a great idea which involves buying a gift but sending it elsewhere.

Your friend or relative receives a gift card and magnet, telling them how their “gift” has been used and there’s a huge range of ideas to choose from. 

According to Oxfam, 967 million people in the world are hungry, and a child dies every five seconds of hunger-related causes. A gift of just £10 can feed a hungry family for a month – or you can choose from other options such as the planting of 25 trees (£8), tools for farming (£30) or school books (£8).

If your Unwrapped gift costs more than £50, your relative also receives a free gift box and celebrity DVD.

There are gifts in the range to suit people of all tastes from bookworms and animal lovers to DIY fans or eco-warriors.  You can see the full range here

http://www.oxfam.co.uk/shop/content/unwrapped/how_it_works.html

 

Oxfam also has a range of “real” gifts for family and friends, including fairtrade items, energy saving presents and gifts from sustainable sources.

 For example, you could buy a solar battery charger for £12.71 or a wind-up torch at £19.56.

It offers a good range of food gifts from Fairtrade luxury chocolates to Christmas puddings and stocking fillers such as Fairtrade chocolate coins (£1.95).

Children’s gifts include the top-selling cardboard rocket, made from recycled cardboard (£29.35)

   

and the Doll’s House (£26.42) which has an eco-friendly twist for a favourite toy.

Before the dolls move in, the whole thing needs to be decorated so it’s great for those who love paint and crayons.  It’s made from at least 75% recycled cardboard and can be folded away for easy storage.

Or how about buying a child the Best Eco Book Ever – an activity book which explores topics like recycling, ecology and the environment in a fun way. (£4.95)

If you are buying for people who aren’t averse to charity shop finds, then the Oxfam site is brimming with second-hand ideas.  Items from Oxfam shops all over the UK are available online and you can pick up anything from pre-owned Playstation games to Spiderman toys.

For example, a keen stamp collector would love a First Day Cover envelope with stamps – some are available from as far back as the World Cup in 1966.

People interested in living a greener lifestyle would probably appreciate a copy of one of the Green Guide range of books.  You can browse the titles here, including the Green Guide for Christmas (£4.99) and the Green Guide for Home and Household which is available at a special offer price of  £7.49 for Christmas.

The range also includes Pocket Green Guides to England, Scotland and Wales for only £1.49 and EcoEscape UK (with free cyclometer) which includes green places to stay, eco days out and local food and drink (£8.99).

Staying with the green bookworm theme, I’m hoping someone will buy me Tamsin Blanchard’s book, ‘Green Is the New Black’. It’s a must-have and is available brand new from Amazon at £6.74, although personally, I’d rather be given a pre-owned copy. These start from only £1.07 – and it’s much more planet friendly to extend the life of someone’s discarded book J     Many online retailers now have a range of eco-gifts, including top retailer, I Want One of Those.com.  (IWOOT)

Iwantoneofthose.com

Their wind-up phone charger (£4.99) provides up to 8 minutes of talk time from a 3 minute wind – a lifesaver when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere and your phone has died. 

I also love their Sun Jar - an ingenious and pretty lighting concept from designer Tobias Wong.

Instead of storing  traditional jam, this jam jar stores sunshine – and automatically turns itself on when it gets dark.  You just sit it on your windowsill to soak up the sun and its solar charging panel and low voltage bulb do the rest!

IWOOT is also stocking a Mini-Kin green power generator for Christmas. It costs £30 but it’s such a superb idea.

Basically it’s a wind-powered battery charger which straps to your arm or your bike (or pretty much anything really!) Its propeller powers a turbine which creates enough energy to power up a variety of gadgets. You can plug the battery unit into your iPod, mobile phone or PDA.

 It also has a back up battery pack with USB connector – but cycling in the wind is so much more planet friendly J

IWOOT has a wide range of unusual gifts for the friend who has everything. I think the keyring featuring “permanent” bubble wrap sounds great – an ideal stocking filler for someone who just loves to pop bubble wrap. (It’s highly addictive as all true-poppers know only too well!)

The Friends of the Earth website (http://www.foe.co.uk) has a range of eco books, including bargain basement books which start from just £1.99.  (I’ve already put their How to Grow Organic Vegetables and Herbs (£8.99) on my wishlist.)

Or how about buying someone the Friends of the Earth fundraising calendar, which features images from around the world (£7.50).

And when it comes to wrapping up all your gifts, remember to use alternatives to traditional gift wrap whenever you can. For example, the glossy pages of an unwanted magazine are great (you can use car magazines or fashion magazines for adults and old comics for children’s gifts.)

Some gifts look lovely without any wrapping at all – or you could recycle gift bags from previous pressies. (We have a couple of bottle bags in our family that have been doing the rounds for at least three years J)

And, when thinking green, remember that you need to go beyond the gift-giving. I love outdoor Christmas lights but we ditched ours a couple of years ago because of the energy they wasted.

This year, we’re switching on again – but we’re using outdoor solar lights. The Eco-Savers lights (a string of 50) are £19.25 from Amazon and you won’t need to feel guilty about lighting up your house.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=266239&tag=thbigrgu-21&camp=1654&creative=6562&linkCode=ur1&adid=1WW9QA04KXQYGHBCVJP3&

Before you go, please join our Cut the Christmas Carbon campaign.  (Click the Christmas Carbon button at the top of the page and get some tips for greening your Christmas.  After all – our wonderful planet deserves a gift of its own from Santa J

Then, PLEASE email us to let us know that you’ve joined. We’ll update you when more tips have been added - unless you’d rather we didn’t - in which case we won’t :)

* Send us your Green Christmas Tip - we'll print the best that we receive - and pay £10 for the best tip received before December 20.

Send it to susan@biggreenguide.co.uk

 

Have a great green Christmas.

Susan