a gift guide with a conscious

Disclaimer: There are a lot of great gift guides out there this year, as well as some terrific pieces from the minimalist community about not buying gifts at all. Last week Gayla Trail, an awesome Toronto-based writer/gardener, tweeted her concerns about creating a gift guide. She didn’t want to contribute to the “buy, buy, buy” frenzy, and after digesting all the above, I’ve been thinking about it too. [Update: Gayla did post a gift guide and it's wonderful & thoughtful.]

I want to offer an alternative but need to be really honest first: this year, I’ve purchased Christmas presents for friends and family from big corporations, both online and in stores. I will go further and admit that I had a run-in with the Target dollar bins last week (shiny wrapping paper, weakness!). My battle with senseless spending will not be won overnight and despite my confessions, I can honestly say that I’ve done better this year. Much better.

So here are some ideas I’ve come up with/collected in my attempt to expand the homemade, thrifted, and upcycled portion of my gift giving. Feel free to steal them, and believe in the power of micro-movements when setting goals for yourself.

#1 – Go thrifting for clothes & accessories. There are so many beautiful, hardly-worn sweaters, coats, scarves, t-shirts and other clothing items waiting for you at your local thrift store. I bought a friend two great sweaters at Amvets for her birthday, had them professionally cleaned (they were that nice!), and then attached a homemade tag explaining that they were “upcycled” by me for her. Bonus: Find out when the store’s 50% off day is (most have one day a week where clothing items are discounted) and hit it up for extra savings.

#2 – Cookie care package. My cousin Kathy gave my brother a certificate for a cookie care package when he graduated from high school. It included a self-addressed stamped envelope with an order form. Josh just had to select his desired type of cookie, and send it back to her. Later that week he got a homemade batch in the mail! I love this idea.

#3 Infused vodka. I stole this idea from the Container Store but instead of buying bottles from them, I’m going to use mason jars I already own. My friend James is something of an expert on this and he says fruit works really well and tastes delicious.

#4 Wine cork bulletin board. I’m sure you’ve seen these on craft blogs or maybe even in stores. I’ve been collecting corks from wine bottles for a couple years to do this project, and discovered this year that you can get used corks fairly cheap on eBay. I made one of these babies for Christmas this year using a picture frame from a thrift store. It was fun and satisfying.

#5 Tea cups with fancy tea. Again, a thrift store upcycle. Cool tea cups are easy to find where I live, and I managed to pick up a great selection of fine china from Japan and England. Seriously gorgeous.  I bought fancy tea and plan on giving my kitsch-loving friends a medley of flavors to go along with their fancy cups & saucers.