Plastic Free Christmas

[LifeLessPlastic]

I'm trying for a Plastic Free Christmas this year (see my blog for details) and I was wondering if anyone has any great plastic free gift ideas.

Also, what is everyone else doing for Christmas this year? Are you all going plastic free? Have you talked to your families about what you're trying to do?

[LifeLessPlastic]

My plastic free Christmas was a great success. Here are some gift ideas that came out of it:

* Glass jars for storage (no plastic coating or seal on lid)
* Wooden cutting board
* Books
* Gift certificate for music lessons
* Wooden hair comb
* Reusable coffee mug
* Eyeshadow and lip gloss in metal tins
* Burt's Bees shampoo bar
* Dr. Bronner's soap bar
* Lush deodorant bar
* Sappo Hill soap bars (very yummy smelling!)
* Socks (held together with tiny metal clips)
* Beer
* Chocolate bars
* Cookies
* Electronic gift certificates
* Ceramic planters
* Magazines
* Candy bought in bulk from Whole Foods
* Fancy Italian soda in glass bottle

[Wendy]

I just joined so I could reply to this! My 7 yr old is very concerned about the environment & we have been helping him fuel his green ideas and supporting him with tons of information & facts. I have explained to him that there is a reason I don't buy him & his sister all of the toys they see on tv, because they are cheap, plastic, garbage that comes wrapped in more plastic garbage & eventually it all ends up in the trash. He understands fair trade & organic as well, so I think we're on the right track! As for Christmas, I have done really well I think, considering this is the first year I have made a big effort to avoid plastic junk. I have visited a lot of craft shows in my area and fair trade stores and so far this is what I have found for my family:

A fair trade basket full of hand made fair trade musical instruments, wood & clay. (super excited about this one, the kids LOVE to make music!)
Wooden whistles, yoyo, hemp & wood skip ropes, silk mini parachutes,organic fair trade chocolate, and Peruvian knit mittens will fill their stockings
Books as usual, they are both bookworms!
locally made cloth upsy daisy doll for my 3yr old
Wooden labryinth game (Fair Trade)
Wooden HABA pram
I found a natural wood, locallly made flatbed truck & trailer for my 3yr old nephew
A Minka Peruvian teddy bear for my 1 yr old nephew, sooo cute he's hard to part with!!
my son is getting a bike, and it's hard to avoid plastic with partsof that, but I think I've come a long way from last year.
I'm also buying some hand made cloth gift bags for most of my gifts, I noticed an ad at his school for these by one of the quilters guilds.