Dreaming of a green Christmas
Green gifts are certainly chic this holiday. Every media outlet ranging from House and Garden to Plenty has an eco-gift guide for the environmental shopper. Even chi-chi department store Barneys went green this year, with recyclable shopping bags and an eco-themed catalog. (I’m not sure $1,000 for a grocery-store handbag is the best way to go about conservation, but the idea is right.)
So what is the average eco-minded person looking for in a gift this year? Well, to start with, soap.
Lucas Heldfond, owner of San Francisco’s Spring, a store that sells earth-friendly home accents, said that many people are making their own gift baskets this year with Mrs. Meyers’ aromatherapy dish soap, countertop spray and all-purpose cleaner–products that don’t use toxic chemicals. Given that the packaging should be reusable, too, the products come in a bowl made of sustainable bamboo. The gift is thoughtful and useful, he said.
“What’s nice about green gifting is there’s a very practical side,” Heldfond said. “Dish soap isn’t typically a consumer gift, but this year, it’s chic.”
For something a little more personal, perhaps for the aspiring chef, Spring has put together themed baskets. One basket includes a cast-iron skillet (it will last forever), organic-soap vegetable wash and a hemp potholder. It sells for $36 at Astorecalledspring.com
House and Garden’s eco-editor Zem Joaquin, who also runs the site Ecofabulous.com, gave her vote for several gift choices in the December issue. Among them were “veriflora-certified” calla lilies from Organicstyle.com (meaning that the flowers meet environmental and worker safety standards), which sell for about $55; and “Antarctica, the Global Warming,” a photography book from Sebastian Copeland, with contributions from Leonardo DiCaprio and Mikhail Gorbachev. The list price is $55, but it sells for about $35 at Amazon.com.
The magazine Plenty, one of my favorites, had a decidedly more techie gift list in its December issue. The Skyhawk, for example, would be an ideal gift for an eco-geek. It’s a solar-powered stainless steel watch with a 22 time zone calendar and three world-time alarms. It starts at $375 at Citizenwatch.com. Also, Acorn Studios designed cufflinks made from recycled keyboard keys, for $14.95. Or it sells a business card holder made of old circuit boards for about $17.
For the woman on your shopping list, my pick is Korres’ Guava Body Butter. Made in Greece, Korres http://www.korres.com/ is a line of all natural skin and hair care products. I’ve tried it, and the rich cream not only leaves your knees and elbows smooth, but the tropical scent reminds you of a beach vacation in Hawaii. Which is much needed in winter. A 5 oz. bottle sells for about $21 at Sephora.com.