Guide to Green Gift Guides
I’ve seen so many gift guides published over the last week, many of them specifically focused on handmade and eco-friendly gifts, that when one of my co-workers said “I’m out of ideas for gifts this year, I don’t know what to get anyone!” I shook my head in disbelief. There are more resources out there than ever for eco-friendly and handmade shopping! Many of my favorite blogs have put together fantastic guides, so I’ve compiled links to what I think are the best eco-friendly/handmade/fair trade gift guides out there, and added some ideas of my own at the end (as well as a link map of my Magical Green Gift collage above).
zzilch’s Official Guide to Eco-Friendly/Handmade/Fair Trade Gift Guides 2007:
Inhabitat published a slew of Green Gift Guides this year. Highlights: Transglass Recycled Glassware which I’ve posted about here before; Water Droplet Necklace by Eco fashion designer Linda Loudermilk. Purchasing one of these necklaces supports a donation to the YEW Foundation to fund clean water initiatives; One Laptop Per Child XO Computer, energy efficient laptop for your child and a child in need with the current donate-one-get-one offer (through Dec 31st); Cufflinks made from recycled subway tokens.
Inhabitat Green Gift Guide: For Her
Inhabitat Green Gift Guide: For Him
Inhabitat Green Gift Guide: Gadgets
Inhabitat Green Gift Guide: Stocking Stuffers
Inhabitat Green Gift Guide: $50 and under
Inhabitat Green Gift Guide: For Kids
Inhabitat: The Best Knit Gifts
Inhabitat’s Giving Back for Christmas as well as Gifts that Give Back are two great lists of ways to give a meaningful gift that will benefit lots of people and causes that need benefiting!
I also think their recommended reading list in the sidebar is an excellent green reading gift guide.
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Design*Sponge published several inspiring gift guides, including a handmade gift guide and an eco-friendly gift guide. Highlights: Knitware ceramics by Alyssa Ettinger; Om Home Pillows at Poppytalk Handmade;
Design*Sponge Handmade Gift Guide
Design*Sponge Eco-Friendly Gift Guide
Grace also made a list of charitable gift ideas, and on the same page you can find links to her other great 2007 gift guides organized by budget. I noticed a few eco-friendly gifts included in each one.
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Modish has published a series of handmade gift guides that are overflowing with great ideas. Highlights: Eco-Friendly wallets by DB Clay; Eco-friendly crysanthemum earrings by Prismera Design; iPhone Monster by Marty Flint; Unbelievably cute Felt animals by Girl Savage.
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: For the mens
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: a girl can never have too much jewelry
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: Gifts for tech lovers
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: Gifts for workaholics
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: I felt that… (things made of felt)
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: Gifts under $25
Modish Handmade Gift Guide: Eco-friendly gifts
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Poppytalk published an indie shop holiday gift guide, and handmade holiday gift guide. Highlights: Nesting Lotus Bowls by Whitney Smith; Notebooks from Jengs Shop.
Poppytalk Handmade Holiday Gift Guide
Poppytalk Indie Shop Holiday Gift Guide
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Designist Dream is publishing a Hanukkah Gift Guide featuring exclusively Israeli designers and Israeli-made products. Highlights: Hand-crafted clay magnets; Handcrafted black lace decorative bowl.
Indie Fixx published 12 Days of Indie Holiday Shopping, featuring her favorite indie shops and highlighting the best gift ideas. Highlights: Becky OH! fabric handbags; Sweet as You Please scent candles made from 100% soybean base.
Core77.com’s 77 Design Gifts under $77 includes some eco-friendly gems, such as Sigg Stainless Steel bottles, a subscription to Good Magazine, and Matterial eco-friendly paper goods.
I also came across 40 Simple Gift Ideas to Spark a Smile which includes many unique gifts that are eco-friendly, as well as alternative wrapping ideas. Highlights: Nepalese Recycled Silk Sari Yarn, Recycled Paper Coasters.
The Great Green Goods blog is always good for some green gift inspiration.
ThisNext is another great place to find gifts. You can search by tags such as recycling and eco-friendly and find some great stuff that others have recommended.
TheFind Green is another resource for finding green gifts.
A reader tipped me about Giving Tree Give Cards. These are prepaid mastercards that you can give as gifts, and 10% of the value is donated to a charity of the recipient’s choice, and the other 90% can be spent anywhere the lucky cardholder pleases!
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What I didn’t see a lot of in these guides are gifts for kids. Having a small tribe of nephews and a niece to buy gifts for, and not wanting to give them lead poisoning, I’ve bookmarked a lot of shops that sell eco-friendly, handmade, fair trade and/or nontoxic kids toys and clothes, some of which I’ve shared here before. Here are the places I’ll most likely be picking up toys and fun things for my sisters’ kids this year:
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My favorite places to buy gifts (and the sources for many of the items featured in all of these guides):
I’m also a big fan of DIY handmade gifts as in gifts made by the giver. My husband and I have been teaming up to make gifts for our friends and relatives every year for several years now. Some of our projects (many of which were overly ambitious) include: watercolor paintings, framed lithographs, handmade journals and scrap books, manly man kits (included handmade soap-on-a-rope, trail mix, and a booklet of manly quotes), and the most ambitious project of all: last year’s debut album by Love Box (i.e. my husband and I) featuring original songs by the two of us, including two rap songs I wrote and performed. It took so long to write, record, design, and pakage…what were we thinking??? At least everyone laughed and enjoyed it.
I’m spent. I’ll be back next week with more artists from the Holiday Heap!
Don’t forget to Pledge Handmade, buy fair trade, and give the gifts that keep on giving!
[Collage Key (rows go from left to right). Top Row: Matterial Eco-Friendly notebook; Bamboo Serving Trays; om home pillows. Second Row: Haba Little Garden Pegging Game; Frida Earrings by Brooke Medlin; Chocolate Truffles from Viva Terra. Third Row: Bodhi Flower Lights; Becky OH! fabric handbag; Vintage Ties by Tymbal. Fourth Row: Sigg Water Bottle; DB Clay eco-friendly wallets; Handmade clay magnets. Fifth Row: Lana Organic Enno Anteater; Organic Lavender Sachets; Handcrafted Black Lace Bowl; Sixth Row: Alyssa Ettinger Knitware ceramics; iPhone Monster by Marty Flint; Chrysanthemum Earrings by Prismera Design. Bottom Row: Faucet Necklace by Linda Loudermilk; Girl Savage Felt Creatures; Suezybees hand-stitched Purse.]
Posted by Thryn | Filed under Uncategorized, gifts, handmade, recycled |
7 Responses to “Guide to Green Gift Guides”
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Wonderful summary of green gift guides. With the Bali conference on right now it’s high time for us to turn our attention to green matters. And although a gift is just a small thing it doesn’t hurt to make it a green one. It all helps raise awareness.
Hi there, that’s probably the best green gift guide I’ve seen this Christmas season. Congrats.
Something I didn’t see though was the Giving Tree Give Card. My mom recently told me about Giving Tree, which is a company that sells debit gift cards.
The really neat catch is that they require all of the gift card recipients to donate 10% of the money on the card to nonprofit organization.
Apparently, they have something like 1.5 million nonprofits that the recipient can choose from. Anyways, if you’re interested, you can learn more about it at http://www.givingtreelife.com/givecard/card_overview.aspx
Thanks Leanne! I’ve added the Giving Tree Give Card to the list, along with a few additional guides I saw today. I’ll keep updating it if I find any more green gift guides out there.
Hi Thryn,
Thanks for the shoutout - did you see the Asimon (Israeli public phone token) cufflinks on my Gift Guide? They’re very similar to the subway token ones you listed above. Awesome guide to green and gifts that give beyond. Happy Holidays!
If interested in Organic Holiday Cookies made from scratch, they are available for Christmas time, visit http://www.wildfloursbakery.com. I think they only ship baked goods in the usa though…
Additionally their slogan is, “Ending world hunger, One Bite at a Time”, and are donating 10% of sales to Gleaners Community Food Bank and Other Charities…
The Cookies are just delightful, it is rare to find made from scatch, delicious Christmas Cookies and Wildflours has them. Check it out, also they care Gluten reduced and other organic products, cool place…
Milano, those cookies look so delicious!! Thanks for sharing the link.
Ziva, I really like those Asimon cufflinks.
soap making…
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