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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

The nicest gifts are always those that have been handmade, fashioned by the hands of the giver and full of warm vibrations. Making your own need not be expensive or difficult. It just requires imagination and a little skill.

The varied  ideas we have included here should start you on the absorbing and productive path.Give the most precious gift - a gift of  time that will always be welcome.

Heirloom Recipes

Get all the recipes that may have been handed down through the family and copy these and put in binder and give as gifts. This way your precious ideas from the past will be preserved.

Most enjoy the historical ties back to older family members and cherish them. Another idea is to hit the antique stores / charity shops / garage / yard sales. Most have very affordable items that certain members of the family might have collections of, such as decorative cups and saucers, pipes, walking canes, costume jewellery, etc. Stay away from the costly items and really search in advance (it helps to know the people your buying for too) Decorate items like old boxes or cane baskets and fill with more home-made treasures (craft and cooking).

 Handcrafted Pillowcases Make home-made pillowcases for each recipient. Trace their name on the edge with stencil, embroider and then finish sewing so the back side is hidden. My Grandma did this for us when I was about ten and I loved it!

 A Basketful of Ideas

  You can make t-shirts for the kids from organic fibre. You could tie-dye, using eco-friendly dyes or decorate with ribbons, buttons etc. 

Make the pre-teen girls a basket of organic nail polish and lip gloss, beading supplies, hanging things for backpacks, etc.

 Little girls LOVE dress-up stuff. Make them up a box of flashy garage sale /charity store fancy dresses. Dance clothes work well. Add some cheapo (but flashy) costume jewellery. Add some shiny shoes (find them at thrift stores). Little boys also love dress- up stuff and little tea sets for fairy parties.

 If you can sew, find some remnants and make a beautiful princess dress or wedding dress complete with a veil or tiara. Take a pair of old high heels and glue sequins and shiny stones to them!

Toddlers LOVE bubbles. Send them a HUGE bottle. If they're really little, include a small container and tell the parents to put a little bit of the solution in the container. That way, they have very little spillage and the child is thrilled that he/she can blow their own bubbles! Make wands from pipe cleaners.

Make a crafts box. You can find odds-n-ends that you might have in your house. Throw in a pair of scissors, glue, a ream of paper, glitter, wool felt, scraps of fabric,cardboard, wool, yarn, string or whatever and the children will be happy for hours!

 If the child has something that they are very interested in, buy them a book about it.

 Wooden Wonders

 Look for patterns for wooden toys if you have access to wood tools and saws. For the younger ones, a set of building blocks are great and easy! They are just squares, rectangles, arches, etc. Sand down the edges put them all in a sturdy container or heavy duty draw string cloth bag, to store the blocks. You can leave them natural wood.

 For girls, you can make a simple dress by getting a sweatshirt (a size or two bigger) and then sewing a skirt onto the bottom. To make the skirt, just cut a straight strip of fabric and gather a bit as you sew around the dress. Hem the bottom and you are done! You can also include a matching scrunchie (fabric and elastic) for her hair. Make bags out of old small denim skirts, sew the bottom, attach handles and decorate with lace etc.

  The 'Thing Box'

 One of the best gifts we ever received from our uncles was a "thing box". They had made a simple box from balsa wood with a hinge lid and some rope handles. Inside the box was a variety of art & craft bits and pieces - butchers paper, small scissors, pencil case, crayons, chalk, coloured paper, glue etc. Each box was painted in a bright colour with matching coloured items inside where possible. It was a great hit with all of the nieces & nephews and I still use the box today (a number of years later). You could collect items for the box during the year.

  My two uncles also had a homemade gift policy. We were only allowed to give them gifts that we had made ourselves. This policy encouraged us to be creative and put time and effort into our gifts making them unique. It also taught us that you don't have to spend a lot of money for a gift to be appreciated (our parents also appreciated not having to pay for the gifts we gave).

 Walking Stick 

 I made my own by smoothing a stick with sandpaper, then with a knife, shaved off the bark to make a flat edge about 1" wide by 10" long. I then went to the library and found books on animal tracks, and drew the animal foot print with the name of the animal under it. I put eight or nine animal foot prints, up the side of the stick on the shaved, flat edge. I then used a woodburner to burn the figure into the wood.

The ones I've seen in catalogues were painted, but burning is more permanent. I then covered the whole stick with several layers of polyurethene, and put a rubber cap (made for furniture, chair legs to protect floors)) on the bottom end of the stick to protect it. My stick was bent at the top, which made a cane-type stick, but you could also drill a small hole in the top and loop a piece of leather to carry it or hang it up. You could also decorate the stick with leaves and their names, fish, wildflowers, or anything else that the child is interested in.

Boy Dress-Up

 The previous suggestion of giving a box of dress up clothes, purchased at a second hand store, the gift was specifically aimed at a girl. However, I can state from experience that boys enjoy these types of gifts as well. I encourage people to think about expanding a child's options in life by giving gifts that don't necessarily comply with culturally determined stereotypes. Of course, the giver must take into consideration the child's predelections, but experience from my own childhood and observations of others have shown me that all children love to learn new things and can grow from any gift that encourages creativity.

 Returning to the previous example, a box of dress up clothes may include old halloween costumes (pirates, ghosts, firemen, tarzan, suits, etc.) which many children of any sex would love to have in their closet. Often have more boys than girls interested in dressing up since they didn't have a chance to otherwise (and the selection wasn't limited to froo-froo dresses, etc). This led at least one friend to become more active in school plays because he liked the theatre atmosphere.

 Furthermore, gifts which include teaching something such as cooking, gardening, carpentry, etc. are truly good for both sexes. One of the best gifts I received as a child was a carpenters tool kit and some lessons on how to make a bird house and some other simple projects. This has translated into being handy around the house. I guess what I really want to say is that many skills people can teach benefit both sexes and often lead to a well rounded and capable individual, so keep an open mind when giving gifts. Education and imagination are two cornerstones to a good life and something I can't imagine living without.

Craft Lessons  A "Saturday morning Craft making session/lesson" coupon or invitation. This might, for instance, mean giving all the 9 - 12 year old girls the same gift with varying colour choices, so that when the cousins get together, it is fun for all.

 One could write up the instructions and photocopy for each of the recipients, then purchase the supplies in bulk and divide so there is enough for a couple projects for each child.

Another idea is to purchase heavy duty tote bags and add items like wool felt, pipe cleaners, construction paper, etc. Give the kids their own craft kits and let their imaginations run wild.

 Kids in the Kitchen

Chairty stores are great places for picking up old rolling pins, aprons, beaters etc. Add biscuit cutters etc and place in a bowl with a big ribbon tied around.

A Free Gift

A great gift for children is a library card. It's free and can be used over and over for life. Make the library visit a weekly advent.

Give "Time"

First off, try to remember that TIME is an incredible gift. If you're in close geographic proximity, a gift of time is easy and inexpensive.

 For young kids, a special trip to the zoo with just you is a great gift. It makes them feel very special, is educational and fun, and (depending on where you live) need not be expensive at all.

For kids of any age, teaching them something can be a great gift. Because kids like to have a tangible thing to open, give them the basic tools, and then teach them how to use them. For example,if you have a relative who knits suggest the best gift - knitting wool and a pair of needles and a note promising knitting lessons.

Keep It Simple  

Buy a small wooden jewellery-type box at your local craft store / second-hand store. Decorate the box with the child's name and fill the box with unique coins, polished coloured stones, or anything the child might like to collect. It can be their special "keepsake" box, and kids love it!

A subscription to an age/gender appropiate eco-friendly magazine.

Girls with long hair: Make scrunchies with inexpensive fabric. All you need is about 1/4 of a yard for 2 scrunchies and 1/2 elastic about 8 inches or so long. Or make baretts and head bands.

A Special Verse or poem or make a special book with the childrens photos as heads on animals etc. Keep a special box that you add a gift of a poem etc and any special events that happened during the year, like a lock of hair from a haircut and mark the date on the envelope for memories to share for years to come!