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Waste Less Gifts and Festivities

Visit the City of Olympia's Web site for beautiful, downloadable gift certificates.
 

  • Tickets to the movies, the theater, musical performances, or sporting events

  • A membership to a museum, zoo, or organization

  • Lessons for golf, tennis, skiing, snowboarding, music, dance, scuba, swimming, sewing, painting, sculpting, puppetry, foreign language, financial planning, or something they’ve always wanted to try

  • A subscription to a favorite magazine

  • A shared outing to a park, a greenhouse, garden center or bookstore; a favorite walk, bakery or coffeeshop (bring your own cup)

  • A talent you can share such as sewing, cooking, playing music at a special event

  • A service you can provide such as babysitting, raking, gardening, an afternoon of chore services, a ride

  • A donation in their name to a charitable organization

  • A bus pass
       

  • Use washable dishes, glassware and napkins rather than disposable plates, cups and napkins 

  • Offer small initial servings and plenty of seconds or thirds

  • Turn down the heat before guests arrive - the extra people provide plenty of warmth

  • Send leftovers home with your guests in re-usable containers

  • For seldom worn fancy party clothes, consider renting or looking in consignment shops

  • Place gifts inside containers like cookie tins, flower pots or baskets

  • Give a “treasure map” to find an unwrapped gift hidden elsewhere in the house

  • Wrap in children’s or your own artwork

  • Use old maps to wrap packages

  • Look through old magazines, catalogs and calendars to use attractive photos

  • Wrap in cloth napkins or kitchen towels

  • Use re-useable or re-used gift bags

  • Replace ribbons and bows with evergreens, berries, dried flowers, hand cut snowflakes or origami

Polls commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream since 1998, show that many Americans are interested in having less hectic, more meaningful joy-filled celebrations with family and friends.  Many are looking at ways to de-emphasize the “stuff” and build traditions that are more fulfilling.  Here are a few ideas to help you consider your holiday traditions. 

  • Investigate the many cultures that include light as part of the mid-winter holidays. Maybe you’ll learn something new about your own cultural traditions.

  • In Holland gifts come with a poem, often humorously honoring the recipient, who reads it aloud.  This helps shift attention from the gift to the person.
     

  • Have the children take on the challenge of decorating and wrapping gifts.
     

  • Use leftover Halloween candy to decorate gingerbread houses.  Graham crackers make an easily handled gingerbread substitute. Here's a recipe to make "icing cement":

3 egg whites
1 pound powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
   
Beat egg whites a little, until frothy and light. Sift together powdered sugar and cream of tartar. Slowly add the sugar mixture while beating the eggs. Continue beating until the icing is very stiff. This is your "mortar." The thicker, the better! (Caution: Because of the raw eggs, do not eat the icing or lick your fingers.)

  • Bake or decorate cookies – they don’t have to look magazine perfect.
     

  • Forget the cookies and go for mini loaves of sweetbread, brownies or bars.
     

  • Look for ways to expand the expectations of the holidays from one “must be perfect event” to multiple special moments spread throughout the season.
     

  • Schedule an evening to look through photos and tell stories about your past.
     

  • Decorate an outdoor tree with bird and squirrel treats.
     

  • Consider a live tree that you can plant in your yard or in a local park.

Last updated: 12/03/2009

Questions? Call Amber Smith at (360) 357-2491 or e-mail smitha@co.thurston.wa.us.