Gifts of experience:

• Tickets to a play, the ballet, a concert, or art show.
• Season sports team tickets.
• A trip to the zoo, beach, art museum, or national park for a child.
• Movie tickets.
• Enrollment in a class – places like Michaels and community colleges offer low-cost art, craft, and computer classes that people may enjoy.
• iTunes gift certificate.
• A gingerbread house making day.

Gifts of necessity:

• Pay someone’s cell phone bill for two months.
• Offer to change someone’s oil, breaks, or other car issue.
• Help someone to winterize their house.
• Give babysitting certificates.
• Organize someone’s garage.

What else can you think of?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Teach a child something or just spend some time: Honestly, I can’t tell you one item my grandma gave me for a holiday. But I think about everything she taught me or did with me all the time. How to sew, cook, play cards, paint, and more. Plus her stories stick with me. These are the things kids remember when they’re older, not that race car from ten birthdays ago.

Go on a family hike: Yup it’s cold, but nature looks different in winter than any other time of the year – get out and see it for yourself. Go at night and see the houses lit up (you’re allowed to cringe at the energy use, but you have to admit, it’s still pretty.)

Perk up an elderly family member’s house: They’ll appreciate it. You can shovel their walk, clean out the basement, or plant some bulbs that will come up in the spring.

Reconnect with someone: Write or call someone that you haven’t spoken to in a good long while. This is always a nice surprise.

Plan a fun day: Gather everyone, friends, family, whoever, at your home and have a great holiday cookie bake-off, a snow fort contest, play board games, or make homemade holiday gifts.

Take ten minutes a day to learn something new for the planet: Sign up for a green newsletter, add green new feeds to your rss, or visit an eco news blog or site a few times a week. Take some time to learn the issues that affect us all year round.

Volunteer anywhere. Find your opportunity.

What else would you suggest? How can you give the gift of time vs. stuff?  

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

[images via, stock.xchng & Buy Nothing Day]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Green gifts can cost a little more; but not if you make them yourself. I’m going to give you some ideas for homemade eco gifts that won’t cost too much to make and that people will actually adore. Some are from Tree Hugging Family’s past, and others are new.

If I see any more over the next couple of weeks, I’ll post those too.

Great little homemade green gifts for party hosts:

Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener

Flower & Spice Table Toppers via Family Corner

Organic homemade beauty gifts:

Following are some of the organic beauty recipes I’ve posted here over time. These make great low-cost homemade eco gifts. If you’re going to give one of these as a gift, make sure you spice it up. Put the product in a nice vintage looking jar or bottle and be sure to label it. You can make a wonderful custom label on your computer, or for say grandma, have your kids make the label with crayons and markers.

Lemon Bath Cookies

Organic Facial & Body Cream

Organic Cleansing Creams

Homemade Sugar Body Scrub

Homemade eco crafty gifts:

Solar Art Project – if you can find some sunshine, a solar print makes a great gift when matted. Image via Sunprint Gallery.

Make some homemade paper, then bind it into a journal with a beautiful cover. To learn how to make a homemade journal watch one of the following videos – Junk Journal (a pop and his daughter make a journal out of recycled trash!) or Basic DIY Book Binding Demonstration.

Make everyone a homemade reusable shopping bag out of old clothes or fabric you already have on hand.

Yummy green homemade gifts:

Cookie and Brownie Mix In a Jar – replace conventional items with organic.

Cornmeal Rosemary Biscotti or Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Get Out Those Canning Jars – by the timely Linette who must have known I was going to post about this.

Great homemade eco stocking stuffers: 

Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids

Homemade Recycled Stickers

[image via here]

Recycled and molded crayons: Grab those broken crayons and learn how to mold them into cool shapes (use holiday molds).

Bonus homemade joke gift for bad co-workers, mother-in-laws, or your lame ex: Homemade Anti-Tree Hugging Beauty: Bacon Soap!

Stay tuned because soon we’ll also be looking at some more homemade gifts (hopefully) plus eco-friendly wrapping ideas. In the meantime, Eco Street had a great post last year -7 groovy handmade recycled gifts to make and give, that has plenty of cool ideas, even for pets.

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family