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Green Gift Monday: a Rehash of our #ecogifts Chat

What's going underneath your tree?
What's going underneath your tree?

Well, last week’s #ecogifts chat on Twitter was a definite success… lots of great ideas from many different tweeters, with a really strong focus on gifts that you can’t buy. Among those who joined us was the folks at The Nature Conservancy (@nature_org), who put in a plug for their own Green Gift Monday initiative. I’d seen references to it, but hadn’t really checked it out — their goal was to “rebrand” Cyber Monday as Green Gifts Monday. Apparently, it went so well that they decided to extend it to every Monday before Christmas… thus this post (and others) as well as continued tweeting with the #GGM2010 hashtag.

Their effort and ours aligned nicely… they suggest “Make something, give an experience, donate to a cause or purchase an eco-friendly product” for holiday gifts… and that’s where our chat went (with a strong focus on the first two elements). Since I know not everyone’s on Twitter, I’d thought I’d pull together some great ideas that came out in the chat. Not necessarily a “top ten list” or something similar… just a handful of suggestions that caught my eye, and seemed to get a good response from the other folks participating.

Green Gift Ideas from our #ecogifts Twitter chat

  • @BethBader: Giving my kid activities as gifts this season. No cheap plastic, no batteries, nothing but her own energy to burn.
  • @PR_Couture: Donating books in friends’ names for @thedreamproject library – wonder if I choose lightly used books to make it.
  • @iblissmo: Will be baking and making some gifts (music mixes) – green in that not buying “stuff.”
  • @REdesignNYC: Some #ecogifts planned 4 this season: local farmers market food basket; home decor in great condition & salvaged from movers.
  • @EcoSpree: Organic homemade absinthe in reused wine bottles? (Note: I gave that a big thumbs up!)
  • @makautry: Making a rainbow-colored set of playdoh for the kids I babysit. Ecofriendly & encourages their imaginations!
  • @VanithSivarajan: I make my own origami lights–cheap, unique gifts. Now I need to green them! Who stocks recycled origami paper?
  • @PeopleTowels: Another favorite #ecogift is donating to the person’s favorite charity. I have found kids even like this!
  • @sussabmax: I like things that won’t add clutter–movie passes, gift certificate for a class, play tickets, etc.
  • @bethworrall: Kiva does gift cards, that gets my vote for great #ecogifts truly the gift that keeps on giving http://www.kiva.org/gifts

This is just a handful… many other good suggestions from these and other Tweeters. Make sure to check out @sussabmax‘s recipe for mintΒ liqueur, and @willotoonsinstructions for wrapping gifts in cloth. And if you want to check out the chat, you can do so here… don’t have to use Twitter to read through it. If you do use Twitter, feel free to add to the list… just use the #ecogifts hashtag.

Of course, you can also add your ideas here…

Need ingredients for homemade gifts? We’ve likely got it… from organic baking supplies to hemp yarn to recycled paper.

Image credit: greengymdog at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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