Last Minute Green Gift and Holiday Decoration Ideas

Okay, holiday procrastinators, you’ve got two days left to do it up all red-and-green like, emphasis on green. Here’re a few articles that might help you in the twilight hours scramble:

  • Does your giftee fit a certain personality, such as “travel buff” or “foodie?” Katherine Tweed offers green gift ideas for a variety of types, including that special someone, in “Sustaining the Holidays.” Show your fondness for “the birder” in your life with shade-grown, bird-friendly coffee, for instance, while bequeathing “the intellectual” with a museum membership.
  • If you’re still mulling over how to spruce up your decorations and gift wrap while maintaining a semblance of eco-savvy, Shawn Query’s “Season’s Greenings” will point you in the right direction. Hate to throw away that charming Charley Harper 2010 wall calendar? Reuse it as wrapping paper. Then assign an owner to that gift with a handmade note, fashioned from an old greeting card.
  • "Homemade Holiday," by Dierdre Gill, also serves up a platter of do-it-yourself projects to get you in the spirit, including garlands consisting of pinecones and berries.
  • If you've got an eco-sensistive fashionista on your gift list, take a gander at Susan Cosier's "How Green Is Your Garment," which will advise you on what fabrics, manufacturing processes, and methods of garment care are easiest on the planet. Then find an outfit that fits the bill. Try checking out some of these green designers who displayed at New York Fashion Week this past fall.
  • Michele Wilson recently wrote about a few select green gift ideas that you might not come across in a run-of-the-mill catalog, such as toys born from recycled milk jugs, and housewares molded from vinyl records.