Dreaming of a Green Christmas

I think it's a great idea and will consider it. Remember the days when you could take gently used toys to the fire department to be given out at christmas? They won't take anything but new in the package now! I do hope this catches on - the old fashioned xmas that was about love, family and fellowship and now so much about gifts!

Awesome idea!

I HATE the consumerism and the constant scramble for stuff, junk and waste!

I'm with you!

one thing my husband's family has done for 20+ years is never use wrapping paper. they reuse christmas bags over and over, and sometimes have funny memories of "getting this bag when i was 5". after each christmas the bags get stored in the rafters until the next year. so much easier and saves paper.

May your ideas become a movement!

I am with you!

My kids gifts are being made. By myself and a few other people.

My neighbor is making them these rubber band shooters. He has a few for his kid, and my boys LOVE them. so he is playing the wood carver:)

My neighbor also came up with this cheap idea. That he again has most the parts for...I am taking some Old clothes...and he has this foam that hardens. So we are going to fill the clothes with foam. And when it dries, it makes the perfect wrestling buddy. You can smash them around. Throw them in the air...Since I have all boys...and we are always fitting with each other, I am hoping this encourages them to wrestle with their dumby and not a brother:)

I am going to give my neighbor a couple bucks for his time. And maybe a six pack of his favorite beer.

Makes me happy knowing my kids are going to still get stuff they want...and love...and It cost me nothing more then my neighbors time.

My neighbor likes it...because it now links our families together a bit more. they are our best friends to begin with. But this takes it one step further.

I am in..Where do I sign???

Great ideas! Our family too, is looking more toward a 'green' Christmas this year. One suggestion, that may not be really money saving, that our daughter suggested is that each of our families (my husband and me, our daughter and her husband, and our son and his wife) plan an outing of some sort for all of us. (with the three grandchildren, that will total nine people, so may tend to be a bit on the costly side, depending on the outing planned). We would then give a nice card to each of the other families stating what the outing would be. The outings could take place any time during the year, but would be something we'd all have fun looking forward to and would give us time together as a family other than just at the holidays and birthdays.
I also remember our first Christmas in California. That year, my husband was deployed with the Navy. Our twelve year old son, our new baby who was not quite three months old, and I were spending the day by ourselves. Money was very tight and yet I wanted to have a nice Christmas for the older boy. I visited thrift stores and yard sales looking for just the right things to buy, and found a good many things that worked out very well. I believe I did manage to purchase one special item new for the older boy, but for the baby, it was all good recycled toys that mostly were geared for him to use when he reached about a year of age. Since spending money for a tree seemed to not be in our budget at all, I found some cardboard boxes, cut out three circles that graduated in size, and used green yarn to connect them into a 'tree' of sorts. I had my decorations box from years past, and simply took tinsel garland, fake snow and ornaments to decorate with. This 'tree' was hung from a ceiling hook that was already in place in our apartment, and looked really quite nice. I have to say, that for me at least, this is one of the most memorable Christmases we've had.

As my children are older (ages 34-14), we've made the choice to spend our money on a family trip instead of more stuff. We'll be spending the holidays at the coast of Texas, exchanging only stockings. I'm baking and knitting socks, hats, backpacks and such, all made with yarn from small yarn operations.

We already use our holiday gift bags over and over; if our daughter were to compare Christmas photos, she would definitely see that something is amiss. We also do this w/ birthday gift bags for family. My SIL just had a birthday and she got a bag that we've all passed around quite a few times. We had a laugh over that one; I guess it's time to retire the poor thing. I also re-use the non-photo holiday cards from the year before and try to turn them into gift tags if at all possible. I have also purchased pre-owned toys, etc. from Ebay for our daughter, too, if they're in great condition. I don't think I would do this carte blanche with all friends and family, however, but that's me.

Sounds great.
Will do my best!
My family & I already do some of that so I will try to think of even more
ways!
Good job getting us going.

I bought my daughter used Barbie clothes off Ebay - does that count?

I seriously HATE wrapping paper! I try to put gifts into useful containers. Or sometimes we wrap with paper bags and the kids decorate them.

I just can't do a green DS for my kids :( but everything else, I try to do with reason and intent my best green Christmas.

Totally! I am planning on making all gifts this year. I have done it in years past and just bought a few materials, but this year I should have everything. I also usually give close family members photos of my kids in frames as presents, and earlier this year I bought a deal for 2 photobooks to give to one to each grandma. Cheap! Other than that all home-made. I am a crafty person though and I know not everyone is, but everyone can think of something creative to re-cycle or re-use!

I love it all and am almost whole-heartedly with you...the line that would be hard for me to walk is the re-gifting.

I love the giving of your time and talent (cooking, cleaning). For most of my friends and some relatives, we all agree that what we really want is time together. We make the coffee date that we never seem to get to (friends) or fix a special meal to host family in our home and pamper them with all the details of a lot of thought and preparation while keeping it budget friendly.

Pictures is one of the least expensive things you can give if you're handy with the camera. All of those relatives would love an updated picture of your darling children, and it is so personal and cherished.

It's not tacky at all!!! Very respectful! I love this!

I hate wrapping paper...I cannot wrap a gift to save my life. I am the birthday, christmas bag keeper. I reuse them and then say "hey if you are not going to keep it, please give it back to me"...

However, I will not be joining you in the re-gifting (unless I know the person wants/needs what I have)... I am one who find it tacky.

I do understand your choice and respect the choice, but I cannot 100% join in. And it's not that I like the "conusmer frenzy".

Sounds great to me L.!! And very thoughtful which is always what giving at Christmas time was supposed to be about. I am never offended by something used especially if it has been lovingly used by someone I love.

Good for you and a very good lesson for your children in which they can participate!!

Blessings on your family and those lucky relatives. N.

I think it is an excellent idea! I don't know that we will be able to go 100%...but I will do my best!

I have done this before I had kids. I honestly don't think my friends appreciated the second-hand books! For my birthday this year, I asked for and received from my mom a beautiful stack of books that she had finished with, tied with string, garnished with a sprig of flowers from her garden. It was lovely.

I agree with you and we do a lot of these things too. However, I would only give used books/items to families if they know before hand you are planning on it. Perhaps you can do a pre-loved book exchange to involve them. Some people may just look at that as garbage, especially if they are planning on spending money on something for your children.

While I agree that there is too much commercialism at Christmas time I'm not going to go green as much as I am going homemade for most of the gifts we are giving. I'm a creative person and almost always make gifts for at least some of the people we give gifts to.
My DH and I have received a few "re-gifted" items over the years but they were from his mom and had belonged to his dad. She came across these things when she was going through stuff and because there were memories attached to them it was a great gift. I've also received jewelry from my sisters that they didn't want or couldn't wear (one sis developed a metal allergy). I make jewelry and love to wear jewelry so those gifts were special to me.
My kids are all teenagers and they will each get a homemade something from me but I will also be purchasing them one thing each that they really, really want. I don't think that is giving in to commercialism, I think that is making one little dream come true and everybody needs a dream come true sometime in their life :-)
So, for my DH and sons I'm going to make some fabric game boards (backgammon, checkers/chess) because we like to go camping a lot and it will be nice to have something more portable than rigid boxes for games. For my oldest daughter I'm making an afghan and some recipe cards of some of her favorite meals that I made when she was at home. Plus she'll be getting some little kitchen gadgets that she doesn't have yet.
And it goes on from there.
I'm one of those people that has a wrapping paper addiction :-) I LOVE wrapping paper-all those pretty colors and sometimes sparkly images and just have not been able to refrain from buying more every year. LOL. I do however, make all my own gift tags :-)

Receiving gifts is not so important to me anymore (although I do enjoy them when I get them) but I love giving gifts and when I shop (I try to shop at craft fairs/local mom and pop type stores) I shop with a purpose and not just for the sake of shopping to buy "something" for somebody. Oh and I most definitely avoid Black Friday anything. The two times I did it wasn't even remotely worth the effort and lack of sleep!

Happy gifting everyone! No matter how you choose to do it :-)

OMG!! This is the same thing I am working toward with my family. I came across your post just now...I guess I didn't see it when it first went on the board.

I am hosting my extended family's Christmas event this year. I have been mulling over the idea of "I've been dreaming of a green Christmas" as the title for my invitation. This is crazy to come across your post. I am loving reading all the responses. I am not sure how well it is going to go over with one of my sisters in law. But, then she gets to do whatever she wants when she hosts...so we all try to roll with whatever the host plans. Some just complain more than others. I will wear my earplugs when I hear complaints. Most people don't like to do homemade gifts because they take more time than the click of a mouse or trip to your local retailer. But, I love the creativity and love that goes into homemade...and they tend to be cheaper.

Thanks for posting.

Good luck and best wishes at having the greenest Chrismas ever!!!

This is a great idea, and helps me with the ideas I have been lacking. The season is about giving true giving. Any other ideas would be great?