Environmentally-Friendly Gifts Can Be FUN! ~Texas Homesteader~

by Texas Homesteader ~
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With all the competition during the holidays to grab the attention of your Christmas gift recipients you’ve got to wonder, can you really give more environmentally-friendly gifts that they’ll actually love?

As it turns out, yes.

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Eco-Warrior

I’m very environmentally aware in almost everything I do.

Now I don’t expect everyone to see things the way I do. We’re all different & that’s a wonderful thing! But being very environmentally aware is just part of who I am.

For me, if at all possible I’d love to give gifts with a lighter footprint. Gifts that hold true to my values. But gifts that they’ll love! Here are my favorite suggestions:

Low-Waste Hygiene

I hate those light-weight plastic razors. So I’ve owned and exclusively used a vintage Gillette safety razor for several years.

It’s my most luxurious zero-waste move ever. But at first RancherMan still used the flimsy plastic disposable ones.

So I’m GIDDY that he has asked for a real honest-to-goodness safety razor for Christmas! No more plastic disposable razors in our household, can you hear the choirs singing?? This will be a favored of all environmentally-friendly gifts for him.

I got him a vintage nickel-plated Gillette SuperSpeed beauty from the 1960’s and it’s as clean as a whistle. (He wanted a vintage razor but you can buy new *safety razors very inexpensively too)

Low-Waste Razor Blades

As if that wasn’t enough to get excited about, he ALSO asked for this box of *double-edged blades to go with it.

Why buy these blades when you can buy a little plastic box of five safety-razor blades at Dollar General for a buck??

Well these blades are paper wrapped and come in a cardboard box – no plastic at all!

They were very inexpensive and 100 blades will last quite a long time for both of us. My little crunchy-green heart is just singing!!

Experience Gifts

There are other environmentally friendly options – what about giving “experience” gifts?

Although each year we usually gave homemade Christmas gifts. But back then we’d still purchase toys for our grandbabies.

Then one year something wonderful happened…

Our kids said that they wanted to pull away from the holiday excess that’s been lavished on their children in the past. So they have asked for no toy gifts for the grandbabies.

RancherMan & I decided to give experience gifts to our grandkids each year (back then their ages were five to eleven).

There were lots of options and we had so much fun planning.

We really loved taking them to the Ft. Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Aside from the stock show events they have a midway, petting zoo and lots fun things for kids to do.

Of course there are many other experience-gift options such as taking them to museums, exhibits or maybe lunch and a movie with an ice cream treat afterwards.

We’ve taken them to the theater for live plays, Rock Climbing and enjoyed hours at a Ninja Warrior Obstacle Park. It’s always a blast & we really look forward to our new tradition.

These memories will far outlast any toy we could have purchased for them. If you’d like you can see the list of all our Experience Gifts we’ve given them so far.

Edible Gifts

And of course gifts of food are often an environmentally-friendly gift option.

This year RancherMan is making for me one of my absolute favorite decadent treats:

Triple Chocolate Truffles!

He’ll be using the same recipe he used when he made me Mint-Chocolate Truffles for Valentine’s Day. Oh my, I can’t wait!

(although to be honest, I’ve asked for only a 1/2 batch this time because
I ~~have no willpower~~ want to watch my girlish figure. eh hem…)

In my opinion homemade gifts are priceless because they’re presented with something that costs the gift-giver their time – true gifts of love.

We’ve been presenting homemade Christmas gifts to our family & friends for several years. I’ve written about our homemade gifts from years gone by – both food themed as well as projects.

Those gifts have always been made with love and have been well received by our friends & family.

Magazine Subscriptions

But what if your loved one lives far away? Magazine subscriptions are a fun way to give a gift over & over throughout the year.

One of my favorite publications is Mother Earth Magazine. It’s chock full of hints & tips for DIY, MIY, self-sufficiency. And every now & then you might actually see an article published in this magazine from MOI! 🙂

There are endless options – children’s magazines, specific hobby themed magazines and more. Something for everyone!

So there is a quick list of fun yet environmentally-friendly gifts. Delightful to give OR receive!

What about you – what are your favorite gifts to give & get?

~TxH~

This post categorized in

Gift Ideas

Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas:

See All Our Eco-Friendly Posts

Low-Waste Gift Wrapping & Presentation

All Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

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10 thoughts on “Eco-Friendly Gifts Can Be FUN!”

Helene at

I’d love experience gifts for my girls too. They’ve got enough stuff.

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Nancy at

A couple of years ago we started doing something to help our daughter and son-in-law around their home and they did something with us. They helped us try to drill a well point for our own suburban water supply. We had loads of fun and multiple tries getting down about 16m but ended up this year paying for a professional borehole which is down to 42m and flows well. I helped with clearing rubble and other jobs while they were at work and having sewerage and foundation damp repairs to their home. My husband started making them a wooden cupboard…still to be finished. They also helped with the honey harvest. We live in suburbia in Cape Town, South Africa so it is Summertime now and there are water restrictions…my garden is thriving on the ground water. They however are living in California currently so till they get back we can’t do a similar thing but I’m sure we will go back to doing things to bless and help rather than giving bought ready made things for Christmas.

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Terri Presser at

Thanks for sharing this at Good Morning Mondays, some great ideas. I don’t really mind what I get or how much it costs, I just love it when my family think about it and get me something they think I would like. Have a blessed Christmas. Blessings

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  The gifts always make up so much of the pressure we seem to all experience at Christmas so we’ve tried to scale it back to make it much less the center of attention. Our children are now following our footsteps with their children, our grandbabies, and scaling way back and focusing on other instead of themselves. I think there are many people who are just becoming aware of how ridiculous the gift thing has gotten over the years and are wanting to step back and refocus. ~TxH~
  
  Reply ↓
Carrie Groneman at

I LOVE this post! The idea of a gift of ‘experience’ with the grandkids is one of the best ever. I featured you on my fb page and hope you will link up to Wonderful Wed Blog Hop again next week. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow

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Melissa French, The More With Less Mom at

I love the idea of experience gifts! Thanks for posting. Hello from Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop.

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Nicole @Little Blog on the Homestead at

I’m with you, I love food recipes but man it’s hard to have them around and not eat them all before they are given out! I love giving homemade spa products, way more eco-friendly (and chemical free) than store bought stuff, I put them in glass jars that are really pretty and then whenever they run out they can either return the jar (and I’ll usually refill it) or keep and use it for something else.

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1. Nicole @Little Blog on the Homestead at
  
  They’re so fun! And you get to test all the leftovers 😉
  
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CTY at

Want to give a great gift that is DIY, inexpensive, helps the environment, gets everyone outside, gives time with loved ones, and forges memories all rolled into one? Make seed bombs from vegan gel caps, a bit of organic potting soil and some seeds (about 2 seeds/cap). For added fun make some slingshots for firing those bombs into hard to reach places.
Merry Christmas!

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Green Living Fpr The Lazy And Spoiled at

I love this post! I am still giving some major gifts to my daughters and grandchildren but most of them are very useful – sewing machine etc. Hopefully some of these things will last a lifetime and not end up in a landfill in a few months. Of course many gifts will be food! My daughters say that I’m their CSA. We have just over a half acre but we’re putting it to good use.

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~Texas Homesteader~

Working To Provide For Ourselves On Our Homestead

Eco-Friendly Gifts Can Be FUN!