1. Garage sale toys

2. Experience gifts

3. Money

 4. Donation to a charity in baby’s name

5. Most shocking of all . . . NOTHING!  Before you discount this idea as completely Scrooge-like, hear me out.  Will a baby really know if you got her a gift or not?  Most pint-sized toys and clothes get relegated to the basement or attic within a few months.
 
You may think “going green” means shelling out extra cash for organic clothes and hand-crafted toys carved from sustainable wood.  All the gifts we mentioned use no raw materials so your bundle of joy can leave a little footprint on the Earth.  Rather than depriving your child, you’re emphasizing the true meaning of the holidays: family togetherness, festive food, good cheer, and of course (adjective) + (abstract noun of choice).

I live in Oregon where we’re surrounded by evergreens and breathe in pine-scented air on a daily basis.  Every Christmas I’ve had a real tree, some of which we tromped out into the woods to find and others that we’ve picked out at our local tree farms.  It has always seemed like a normal part of the holidays to have a real tree, so I was shocked to hear others touting the eco-benefits of plastic holiday trees.  Say it isn’t so! 

Still, it’s good to consider the plastic vs. real debate and then think beyond it.  There’s certain to be a tree that will fit your budget and your green values.

Pros of Real Trees

• A fabulous woody scent
• Real trees absorb carbon for the time that they’re alive
• They can be composted or shredded into mulch (Available here but maybe not in other cities)
• More natural than artificial trees
• Don’t need to be stored year to year

 Cons of Real Trees

• Must be replaced each year
• Sometimes have to be shipped across country when local trees aren’t available
• Often raised using pesticides           
• If tossed into landfills, can take years to decompose
• Fire danger
• Messier than artificial trees

 Pros of artificial trees

• Can be reused for several years
• Cost less money over the long run
• Are less messy than real trees
• Don’t require a trip out to purchase a tree each year

Cons of artificial trees

• Have plastic smell, or no smell whatsoever
• Most are made in China and have to be shipped to the U.S.
• Contain PVC, a material that pollutes during production and releases toxins
• Have been known to contain lead
• Will take centuries to break down in landfills
• Have to be stored every year

 Thrifty Green Alternatives:

• Decorate a tree outside your home
• Plant a pine sapling in a large container and use it for several years.  When it gets too big, transplant it outside and start another one.
• Be creative with a branch or a bunch of cuttings.
• Use beer bottles!  O.K.  This photo is ridiculous and very UN-baby-proof, but it’s nice to know that people can think outside the box. 

If you celebrate Christmas, what sort of tree are you using this year?  Did you find a way to make it eco-friendlier? Thanks for sharing your input—and for joining us this Thrifty Green Thursday!  Please visit our amazing bloggers below and jump right in if you have a frugal, eco-friendly post to share.  

I know that part of the fun is receiving a package, wondering what’s inside, and opening it with abandon.  But here’s a green idea: what about giving the gift of experiences this holiday season?

Experience Gifts for Adults

Gift certificates to favorite local restaurants.  My mother-in-law pays attention to the restaurants we frequent or mention wanting to try when she visits us–then we’re surprised with gift certificates to them months later!

Gift certificates to local grocery stores.  This might not seem like much of a present, considering people spend money at the grocery store all the time.  I personally love to get gift certificates to places like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, and I make sure to buy something special for myself with them, because it’s a present–not a coupon!

Memberships to museums or theaters, movie theater tickets–anything to give parents a night on the town.  These combined with some free babysitting would surely be appreciated!

A good old homemade coupon book.  You know the kind: you scrawl out promises to take your loved one to a movie, on a walk, or to a favorite restaurant.

Experience Gifts for Babies and Kids

Children’s Museum or Zoo Memberships.  A little friend of Audrey’s gets treated to a zoo/children’s museum membership by her grandparents.  They live close to both locations and make good use of it.

Parents could make their kids homemade coupons promising trips to the park, bike rides, or other favorite activities.  If you’re not the child’s parent, a coupon promising to take the lucky recipient on some sort of adventure would be great gift–and it doubles as a gift of babysitting for the parents!

Is anyone giving “experience gifts” this year?  Do you have any other brilliant ideas for babies, kids, and adults?  This post is a part of Works for Me Wednesday, a blog carnival hosted by Rocks in My Dryer.

Don’t forget to enter our wool changing pad giveaway!

Like some green moms, I aspired to blend boiled kale into ulta-nutritious meals that my baby would love without the expense and waste of prepared baby food.

After a few months of trying to balance sleep deprivation, dirty diapers, teaching, and my own sanity, I decided to embrace those tiny jars of freedom and relinquish my dreams of green perfection.  Although I did supplement with home blended meals, organic jarred food was a huge gift.   You can read about my baby food adventures here.

All those glass containers were carefully recycled, but now that I’m out of the baby food stage, I wish I would’ve reused them instead. 

Here are just a few ways they could come in handy for holiday gifts:

• Of course, the most practical suggestion is to make a chair. (kidding–but the chair is real.  Click on the image to check it out.)
• The larger jars are the just the right size for homemade jam or jelly.

• If you’re trying to fit healthy eating into your busy holiday schedule this year, use baby food jars for toddler snacks on the go or salad dressing in packed lunches.

• For the project person in your life, baby food lids can be screwed onto a board, equal distance apart, to create a nifty storage system.  It works for the garage, a craft room, or for desk supplies.  For directions, go here.

• They are a great way to package up homemade finger paints or powdered tempera paints as simple stocking stuffers for your tots.

• You can dry herbs from your garden, seal them in the tiny jars, decorate the lids and and use them as gifts.  
• If garden grown herbs aren’t readily available, you can make a handy little spice selection for a friend by buying spices in bulk and packaging them up in decorated baby food jars. 
• Create a purse-sized sewing kit for busy moms by filling a jar with buttons, safety pins, and a small piece of cardboard wrapped with thread and loaded up with a few needles. 
• This site offers an extensive list of crafts that can be done with baby food jars, including tiny gardens, candles, and homemade berry ink.

Do you have any tips on how to reuse those nifty little storage containers?  If so, we’d love to add to our list.