Holiday Shopping for Your Local EcoWarrior

I LOVE the holidays! December has always been my favorite month (HELLO... it's got the birthday AND Christmas and now Hanukkah as well- that's the trifecta of awesomeness).  I love December because I have always enjoyed the gift giving.  December has also always been awkward for me because I'm not really good at the whole "asking for gifts" aspect of the gift giving holiday.  I LOVE giving gifts.  I'm just not as good with the receiving end of it :)  Every November (sometime after my Dad's birthday) I get the calls from my Mom and sister... "Soooooooooooooooooooo, what do you want for your birthday? And while we're at it, think on what you want for Christmas?" I actually feel bad for them because I am completely unhelpful (COMPLETELY unhelpful). I'm not trying to be unhelpful; I just feel bad asking for presents.  Is this just me?  I thought I was bad to shop for and then I met and now shop for my husband.  I mean seriously, what do you buy a man that doesn't want anything because he doesn't want to create waste or impact the environment too adversely?  For those of you who knew me growing up and thought I was an eco-geek, y'all need to meet Steve!

Steve and I were actually talking about this the other day.  His birthday was just a few ago and his family turned to me for help.  I tried to help but Steve was as helpful as I am to my family.  That in minds, we knew our folks were going to ask us what we want for our birthdays/Hanukkah/Christmas.  So we were discussing, "what do we tell them"? Why make it harder on our family?  So you know me, I scoured the internet and actually found some interesting websites.  I shared them with Steve and he agreed these were pretty good lists. So if you have hard-to-shop-for Eco Warriors this season here are some helpful sites and suggestions to help you out this holiday season. GOOD LUCK! ENJOY!

The Environmental Defense Fund has some of the best suggestions. Fair Trade Chocolate is the only thing Steve actually asked for this year.  In the past I've gotten presents for Steve that's fallen under the "intangible section" according to the EDF. Tickets to concerts, donations to environmental organizations, etc.  One year his grandmother got him a year's membership to the State parks.  It was a good excuse for us to get out and hike regularly.

The Treehugger's Holiday Guide has good suggestions by category if you like to actually wrap something and give it to them, a bit more "tangible".  The cool thing about their guide is that it has categories for your eco-warriors that also happen to be techies, foodies, fashionistas, etc.  It's also on the EDF's list of good websites.

Top 25 Environmental Gift Ideas by: Shannon Kilkenny is a few years old but is still actually a very good list!

Global Stewards has a good page listing websites that sell Fair Trade Products. 

So, if you have an EcoWarrior you are trying to celebrate the holidays with... I'm sorry... I know, I know, we don't make it easy for you but hopefully this will help a little :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!