Eco-friendly Christmas gift ideas

We’re in the 11th month of the year! Not long until the Christmas holidays now. Every year I promise myself that I’ll be more organised and not let myself get sucked into stressing too much about presents and gifts.

I’ve always wanted gift-giving to be meaningful and this year, on top of that, I am making a more solid commitment to it also being less of an impact and cost to this blue planet. I already have friends who, for years now, instead of paying for Christmas cards for friends and family, would pool that money into making a charitable donation to a cause they value and support. I’m thinking I might do the same. Personally though, it’s not a straightforward decision for someone like me - all my family and childhood friends live overseas and sometimes a handwritten card is still priceless. Maybe I’ll come back to this next year.

In the meantime, here are a few Christmas gift ideas I looked into:

Consumables. In high school, one of my friends and I baked cheesecakes for everyone we wanted to give a gift to. It was fun doing it all together - from baking, to wrapping and delivering/presenting it to our friends. To this day, it remains a happy memory. Other gift ideas in this category are things like wine, plants and flowers, candles, books or even trade coffee subscriptions.

Relaxation gifts. Think massage vouchers or other vouchers for haircuts, spas, mani-pedis and so on. Do we put in streaming service subscriptions in this category? How about gym memberships?

Gifts to help. Don’t feel like you need to limit yourself to homemade vouchers. During an emergency surgery I had to go through this year, a few friends gifted me with a subscription to cooking boxes and I thought that was such a brilliantly thoughtful gift. Other gifts to help could be towards home cleaning or car cleaning. What else can you think of?

Experiences. There is so much here especially as restrictions start easing and borders start opening up - cooking classes, zoo/gallery/museum memberships, wine tours, concerts, dance classes, tours and so on.