North American consumption continues to spiral out of control, with America’s infamous Black Friday underway (so named as it is the day when stores are in the black financially for the year), and already one person killed in a shopping frenzy at a Wal-Mart in New York State. American stores make an estimated 40% of their sales between Black Friday and the end of the calendar year.
American spending in 2007 was slightly down to about $850 per person spent on gifts. That makes for a grand total of an estimated $220 billion dollars Americans spent on Christmas gifts in 2007. Canadians spend an estimated $30 billion dollars on Christmas as each consumer spends an average of $800 per person on gifts. The Story of Stuff reports that in the USA more than 99% of stuff that people buy actually end up in the garbage within six months of purchase.
To help you green your Christmas, we have compiled a list of simple tips to assist you in reducing holiday consumption and your ecological gift footprint.
Buy Nothing
This option is probably the simplest – buy nothing. There is really no need, except for supporting malls and stores, to purchase gifts during the holiday season. It is better for the earth to not get involved in the endless cycle of consumption. A Christian Science Monitor article reports that Americans generate an extra 5 million tons of waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Voluntary gift abstinence at Christmas is the greenest policy.
Give Charity
Decide as a family, instead of buying more things you don’t need, that all family members will pool their Christmas budgets and make a donation to a green charity.
If you prefer to buy individual gifts there are numerous charities to choose from that are appropriate for each family member. You can buy carbon offsets for your high-flying father or mother, animal adoption certificates for kids, save a rainforest acre for your earnest brother and your sister will love one of the African well-water projects.
Craft Circle
Craft circles are a great way to spend time with friends and create a sense of community. Craft circles are when a group of individuals get together for a four to eight week period and make holiday gifts. Each week a different group member teaches the other members how to make an interesting craft project. At the end of the craft circle, members will have enough homemade gifts for the holiday season. Typical projects include making chocolates, soaps, bath salts, scarves, liquors, advent calendars, holiday ornaments, wreaths, and jams.
Cookie Exchanges
Cookie exchanges are a fun way of getting all your holiday baking done at once. Organize 5-10 friends or family members into a baking group and set a date for a cookie exchange. Each member decides what type of cookies (or other holiday desert or treat) they will bake and prepares enough for the other members of the group. The group members then meet and exchange the holiday baking.
ReGift
This simple practice is where you find something in your house (or something you received during the holiday season) and you pass it on to someone who might appreciate it more. Regifting was once seen as a bit of a holiday faux pas, but as people are become more and more conscientious about waste, regifting is gaining in social acceptability. Try not to regift in the same friend or family circle and don’t regift duds.
Experience Gifts
If you must give something, consider purchasing a fun experience for someone. Tickets to an opera, dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, windsurfing lessons, sewing classes, a yoga class, movie tickets, or a ski pass, all make great gifts. Most people will remember an interesting experience long after they have forgotten about the vase or socks someone else got them.
Buy Local
Try to buy gifts that were made by local artists. Buying local gifts will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions created during the transportation of the gift from factory to mall. Too many of the goods found in North American malls are created in distant developing countries, usually not under the best working conditions either, and shipped to your local stores. Each time you can purchase something created sustainability and locally, you reduce the carbon footprint of your gifts and support your local community.
Green Gifts
If you decide to purchase something that is not made locally, consider carefully the carbon footprint and social conditions of how the item was made. Most green companies are extremely willing to provide information about the sustainability of the product.
Simple, but effective green gifts include organic cotton reusable grocery bags, reusable coffee cups, walking shoes, water bottles and lunch kits (try not to buy plastic), a bicycle, how-to-go-green books, carbon offsets, a vegetarian and organic cookbooks, or a bus pass.
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