Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas

So, we're in the holiday season, and love it or hate it, for a lot of us that means we're buying presents for our loved ones. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't have to be the consumer-fest we Americans usually associate with this time of year. Nonetheless, if you are buying this year, maybe you'd like to take a look at some of the out of ordinary gift ideas that are out there.

One of my favorites this year might be the "must have" for that eco-conscious teenager on your list. Why not hook her up with the Dian Fossey Adopt A Gorilla Fund. You can adopt a gorilla in your teenager's name and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International will send him or her a personalized adoption certificate with pictures of the groups of gorillas that your forward thinking teen is helping to protect. In addition, you will get a profile of the adopted gorilla with specific details from the group of scientists who have dedicated themselves to protecting these majestic jungle dwellers.

Also, with your adoption paperwork, your gift will give a year's subscription to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI) newsletter, packed with facts and real-time news about how the gorillas are faring. Lastly, you'll get a window cling with a colorful display of your support. That last one carries some serious street cred with the eco-friendly crowd!

You can find the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International at http://gorillafund.org/support/adopt.php

Now what about the more mature members of your holiday gift-giving list? If your folks are like mine, they pretty much just buy for themselves, and gifting can be hard, because they already have what they really want! While this isn't new, I have always loved the idea of naming a star for someone. No, I haven't named a star after myself. That would be a little, uh, presumptuous in my opinion, however...

Naming a star for someone seems like such a wonderful, feel-good gift that I want to suggest it for your "hard to buy for" list. It's inexpensive and comes with a parchment certificate indicating the star name, star date, and it's coordinates. You also get a personalized star chart that shows the same details and the constellation the star is in. I mean, c'mon, that's pretty cool! You can find YOUR guiding star here-

http://www.starregistry.com/

Or, you could just go all in and adopt an acre of ground. Sound odd? It did to me, but once I dug into the details, it's actually a very cool eco-gift! When you adopt an acre, your donation goes to preserving countryside in some of the most endangered places on the planet. (By the way, you can adopt an acre on nearly every continent on the planet, including here in our beloved US of A). With a gift of adoption of an acre you will get membership to Nature.org, fact sheets with details about the area you've adopted, and a fun magnet set! Not only that, but you get a subscription to Nature Conservancy, a quarterly that Nature puts out and e-letter that your loved one can choose to opt into or not. One of the coolest things about this one is that you can also create your own personalized homepage on the nature.org website. Now to me, that is just way too fun. I would love to point my friends to www(dot)casathome.nature(dot)org. See what I mean? By the way, that site link doesn't exist, but I'm willing to bet someone reading this article might get my unsubtle hint, lol! You can adopt an acre here-

http://adopt.nature.org/acre/africa/gift.html

Anyway, if you're buying gifts this year, these are some really fun alternatives to zhu-zhu whatchamacallits that you can feel really good about giving and that might just make the receiver feel good too. Happy Holidays, and peace be!