The World Came to My Place Today by Jo Readman

A Kid’s Winter EcoJournal: With Nature Activities for Exploring the Season by Toni Albert (there are also other season activity books available).

A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids by Julie Hall

Blue Potatoes, Orange Tomatoes (how to grow a rainbow garden) by Rosalind Creasy

Below is what I gave Cedar, my son, last year. He’s big into rocks and the earth and he’s loved these books.

Let’s Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans

Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals by Chris Pellant

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My holiday list:

For Cedar the coolest kid in town: A slick wooden marble maze. He really want one of these.

For Cedar’s dad: — because we do try to get along and this is his favorite line of body care.

For my not so green, yet cool anyway sister: Something that will make her go organic.

For Bella, my best girlfriend’s baby: This beautiful Waldorf puzzle.

For Bella’s cool mama and one of my best friends ever:  Self Love Scrub because she could use a break.

For my auntie: Because she loves kitchen and dining ware.

For my brother: Recycled Vacuum Lights, because he loves working on cars.

For ME!: Because I’ve been pretty good this year. Some new bedding in the following design.

To create your own dream giving (and receiving list) or simply to stock up on green gift ideas visit EVO — register and they’ll plant a tree in your name.

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Grounds for Change is the perfect place to snag holiday gifts for most people (not the kiddos perhaps). This company roasts only Organic Fair Trade Coffee that is grown in shaded conditions. Grounds for Change has a comprehensive Wholesale Coffee program for independent coffeehouses, as well as a coffee fund raiser for organizations.

They offset all non-renewable energy CO2 emissions used for business operations and transportation and participate as a member with 1% For The Planet and donate 1% of sales to environmental groups. Nice company.
Here are some good gift offerings:

The 2007 Holiday Blend: a mix that combines high-grown coffee from the Andes and two select East African coffees with a wonderful maple syrup sweetness that is accented by distinctive blueberry and lemon notes. (Marye is drooling right about now).

Coffee of the Month Club (this is what I want!)

Copper & Brass Coffee Scoop: Fair Trade and handmade in Chile at a family-owned artisan’s studio.

Burlap Coffee Bag Tote Bags: sewn in the USA from Grounds for Change empty coffee bags at a woman-owned and operated organic farm.

To learn about other gift offerings from Grounds for Change click on the photo below.

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What comes in the Eco-Camp Kit:

• “Solar shower – One Solar heated reusable shower. 20L capacity, sufficient for 2-3 showers.
• Water-powered digital alarm clock – no batteries required.
• Solar powered iPod charger – One hour of sunshine gives about one hour of play time of Apple iPod’s.
• Organic cotton roll-up bed – Hand made from high-quality hand woven organically grown cotton using natural colourfast dyes. Easy to carry and much more sumptuous than a camping mat.
• Soft shetland wool throw – hand knitted throw made from soft, undyed Shetland wool. Can be used as a blanket or luxurious picnic rug.
• Self-powered LED Lantern – wind-up technology lantern. 60 seconds wind-up provides one hour of illumination.
• One bar of organic soap
• One Organic cotton bath towel – available in natural.
• All contained within an eco-friendly Biome Lifestyle bag.”

This is the perfect holiday gift for your green-minded outdoor loving friends.

If you need a little more help Biome Lifestyle has a great all-in-one Christmas survival kit and advent calendar.

Listen to their cool description:

“Each day will bring you a fairtrade chocolate coin and a helpful eco-tip/guide to help you through the period. The kit will also contain a variation of small surprise gifts. The calendar is made from sustainable materials and designed to be re-used every year.

Therefore, not only is the kit a sustainable and reusable advent calendar, it also provides green-survival tips and fun activities for all the family, to make Christmas just a bit more educational and eco-friendly.”

Nice. Visit Biome Lifestyle to see more green gift giving options.

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Eco-Libris is this very neat website that’s promoting eco-savvy by means of reading and books. Their goal is a world where books and reading does not have a detrimental affect on the planet. Books are; as we well know mostly paper. And we all know paper comes from trees. As a big reader myself I do get stressed out about books vs. the planet. If you’re wrestling with this too then Eco-Libris can help.

Eco-Libris is doing something akin to balancing. Balancing books and trees. How it works is you decide how many books to balance out and Eco-Libris will plant a tree for each book balance. providing you now with a simple and affordable way to do something about it. All you have to do is to choose how many books you want to balance out with Eco-Libris, pay for it online, and a tree will be planted for each of these books.

I recently received an email with the following helpful information from Raz, who works with Eco-Libris.

“The process itself is fairly simple – upon entering our website, customers decide how many books they would like to balance out. They then pay for it online and a tree is planted for each of these books. Customers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One Tree Planted for this Book” and can later display these stickers on their books’ sleeves.

We have partnered with three highly respected US and UK registered non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with local communities in developing countries to plant the trees. These trees are planted in high ecological and sustainable standards in Latin America and Africa, where deforestation is a crucial problem, and planting trees not only helps to fight climate change and conserve soil and water, but also benefits many local people, for whom these trees offer many benefits and an opportunity for a better future.

We hope that people who buy books as gifts these holidays (and a book is always a great present) will green up their gift with us, balance the gift book and add our sticker to it.”

Right now another cool deal Eco-Libris has going is their own holiday gift guide that can help you find the best green-minded books for gift giving.

Overall I think this is an excellent idea and a great gift too. If you are concerned about how your reading habits affect the environment check out Eco-Libris today.

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“Haitian artisans take clean 55-gallon oil drums and flatten them into a “canvas,” draw a pattern in chalk and then hand chisel and hammer the metal into these intricate sculptures. Signed by the artist. Lacquer-finished for indoor or outdoor use.”

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I’m going to show you some of their clocks though. Frankly because clocks are good gifts — most people can use one both at home and at work. These clocks are better than most though in that of course they’re made from recycled bikes. Click on the clock for more information.

I like this first one the best.  

Visit Resource Revival to learn more.

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Barnwood Images by Rebecca Tolk are at Modishoppe and are so great. They satisfy your need for art and your need to be green. They’re photographed with a Holga camera and printed with archival inks with a waterproof and fade resistant coating. Each piece is unique in its imperfections and simply amazing. There are three style sets available.

The frame:

Barnwood Images- Flowers

Barnwood Images- Grasses

Barnwood Images- Fields (fields are sold out but I LOVE them so, figured I’d show them — plus you never know when items may come back). I like the grasses too though quite a bit.

Which ones are your favorites?

[Props to Great Green Goods for the heads up]

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