Our top 5: Favorite Clever and Sustainable Holiday Gifts under $150
With a much needed shift in consciousness toward eco-friendly, sustainable living, the holiday season is a perfect time to show your loved ones you care by caring about the environment at large.
Steer clear of gifts that require packaging, especially single-use plastic and other wasteful materials. Keep in mind local artists and designers you can support with a fun purchase! And if possible, avoid shopping online to reduce the burden of shipping goods (this one is a hard one, especially if what you want can’t be found locally..but it’s worth a try!)
A Pretty Holiday Outfit
For the stylishly inclined, snag a sexy piece from Reformation, a fashion brand that has been on the forefront of sustainability and has quickly skyrocketed in popularity since their launch only a few years ago. Textile waste makes up approximately 6% of trash entering US landfills each year. Reformation uses deadstock fabric (i.e. perfectly good leftovers) for 15% of their products. And 75% of their fabrics are in the top sustainable fabrics. Bonus: they also sell one of a kind vintage pieces! Locations in Los Angeles, New York City, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Canada and the U.K.
2. Perfect Stocking Stuffer-Public Transportation!
This one may not be front of mind when it comes to holiday gifts, but an MTA subway card (if you live in NYC), wrapped with a bow, can be a practical, thoughtful and unexpected gift! Try a monthly unlimited - who doesn’t love to save on an entire month of transportation? For those outside of NYC check local options for a yearly membership, such as bike shares. Citibike in Miami, Divvy in Chicago, or Bluebikes in Boston, to name a few.
3. Happy Houseplants!
This one is not only eco-friendly to begin with, but the gift keeps on giving! Houseplants allegedly clean the air, certainly improve mood, and as design lovers know, they make every room look better…we love ‘l.a. plantaholic’ (@laplantaholic) on IG, and for sale on etsy with reasonable shipping prices and great reviews!
Houseplant by @laplantaholic
4. Golden re-usable straws plus craft, local liquor for festive holiday drinks!
Re-usable straws have that fun factor, plus they fit easily in a purse or bag for when summer comes along and iced coffees to-go are a daily temptation. ditch the plastic straws and use a sleek looking, stainless steel straw, available for a very reasonable price on world market. and because it’s stainless steel, it doesn’t affect taste, like some of the compostable straws do - in fact it has a clean, cool effect on the palate. for the holiday season, pair it with a locally distilled liquor, such as kings county distillery winter spice whiskey. and package your gift with a recipe idea! one of our suggestions is a winter spice mosow mule. this recipe by love and lemons calls for vodka but we think it would taste even richer and more winter-y with a spiced bourbon…and served with a golden straw! yum!
5. An experience to last a lifetime.
What could be more sustainable than something that can’t even be wrapped? offer your loved one a ticket to a movie, concert or play and make a night of it. we so want to see ‘to kill a mockingbird’ in Nyc, in an adaptation by aaron sorkin, supposedly one of the best productions in history…pricey, but check for last minute, wallet friendly options on stubhub.com. we also love bam (brooklyn academy of music) here in brooklyn, and tickets can run as low as $25 per show. outside of nyc the options should be endless, check local listings or keep it simple with a gift certificate to the movies!
LUNGS, a new play by by Duncan Macmillan, showing this spring at Brooklyn Academy of Music