Category Archives: Green Gift Ideas

All-Natural Toys for Kids

A site I’ve recently discovered is Magic Cabin. Their selection is just stunning. Their play silks come in seasonal colors. The Kraul Science-Craft Kits look like a delight. I love being able to teach my kids a touch of science in a fun way.

One of the really cool things is the Play Teepee. I love the idea! I don’t have the budget, for all these cost less than many a video game system. $239 right now for the largest size, which is 12 feet tall, and you don’t have to keep buying or renting cartridges. It may not compare to kids who really want the video games, but I know of a lot of children who would be delighted to have something they could be so creative with.

Their range is a lot of fun to go through. Travel games, connecting toys made of wood, craft felt and so on. I rarely get this kind of reaction to a store since my “I don’t need it” radar is set to high, but this is exactly the kind of stuff I want my kids to have.

Greening Your Gift Wrap

One of the most difficult things about gift giving to green up can be the gift wrap. So much wrapping paper ends up in the trash every year. Wrapping paper is potentially recycleable, but many people don’t bother, and some of the papers can be challenging to recycle.

wrapping paper

So how do you make your gifts look beautiful without wasting so much?

  1. Buy recycled
    Gift wrap made from post consumer waste is out there.
  2. Reuse
    Any gift wrap that isn’t too badly torn can probably be saved for next year. With young children a lot will be pretty badly torn, but think as you unwrap your own gifts and save what you can.
  3. Make your own
    This is especially fun if you have kids. Get some butcher paper, brown bags, newspaper, etc., and get creative. Draw on it, stamp it, just have fun with it.
  4. Use a basket
    A good basket can be a lovely way to present a gift. Try to skip the plastic wrap like you see in the stores.
  5. Reuse gift bags
    Just like gift wrap, gift bags can be used over and over. In my family these can go back and forth for years.
  6. Make the wrap a part of the gift
    Get a cloth shopping bag and put the rest of the gift in it. Put gardening supplies in a garden bucket or watering can. Get creative.

Best of all, many of these ideas, including sometimes wrapping paper and gift bags, can be found at secondhand shops like Goodwill. People often don’t finish and sometimes don’t even start rolls. You don’t have to buy new if you shop early enough.

Organic Cotton and Bamboo Sheets

I think of these as a nice gift for a couple to get for one another, or possibly a nice wedding or housewarming gift. Sheets aren’t the perfect gift for everyone, but they can be wonderfully comfortable.

Organic cotton or bamboo sheets are great choices. You can generally find them in your area, or shop online. Amazon of course carries both organic cotton sheets and bamboo sheets.

Bamboo for sheets can really sound funny, but I’ve felt them, and just as soon as mine are too old, that’s what I want for my next set. So soft!

The advantages to these are of course in their relative impact on the environment. Organic cotton is a definite improvement over regular, and bamboo grows incredibly fast. The catch can be how the bamboo is processed into a fiber. Green Cotton’s blog has some good information on bamboo processing considerations.

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How Do You Find Green Toys and Safer Toys?

The number of toy recalls this year has been nothing short of astounding. Everything from lead paint to GHB. It really is sad that so much can get into the stores that isn’t safe for our children.

safe toys

All of this is going to make Christmas gift shopping a lot harder for parents. While I had no intention of buying them, my daughter had expressed a strong interest in those Aqua Dots that have now been recalled.

While I don’t always succeed in keeping my toy shopping green for my kids, I have managed it some of the time, and a lot of the toys are pretty neat. Even Amazon has a fair selection of bamboo toys. My daughter has the bamboo dominos, for example, and really enjoys them. Amazon also carries a selection of handmade toys.

Of course you can shop with smaller companies too. There are a lot of companies online, such as WoodGamz.com, which makes cornhole games, Kazoo Toys which sells many toys that are made in the USA, and other such companies.

The challenge can be in denying your kids the hot toys that all their friends want. The point I like to remember is that my daughter won’t be upset with me for long. She has fun with the toys I choose for her, and generally doesn’t even think of the toys she had wanted unless she sees them again elsewhere (at which point the answer is simply ‘no’).

Admittedly, this is easier since she’s just 5.

What I like best to get for kids are toys that strongly encourage creativity or activity. Kids are generally pretty content with such toys.

Craftbury Kids, for example, offers a lot of old fashioned and wooden toys that look just wonderful to me. I haven’t checked all of the toys, but I think most of their toys are made in the USA or Europe, which is a nice start for not needing to worry about lead in the paint. They even have a log cabin toy set that is very similar to Lincoln Logs.

The Discovery Channel also offers a selection of green toys that your children may enjoy. I do miss seeing their stores in the mall, but at least they’re still online. Not everything that they sell is green of course, and some things such as the Discovery Hydrogen Fuel Rocket are only semi-green, being made of plastic but teaching about alternative energy sources.

While for younger children you shouldn’t forget how wonderful a plain set of wooden blocks can be, older kids can be more challenging, especially as they see what their friends get. The pressure starts more or less as soon as they have friends that they talk toys with… say, preschool age, and keeps building.

The best general advice I can give in that area is to do the best you can and talk to your kids about why you don’t want to buy certain toys. My daughter, for example, badly wanted Aqua Dots, which initially received a general ‘no’ but since the recall have had an explanation in depth that she understood. She was just about frantic for a friend of hers who she knew had received them for a birthday.

She’s less understanding about why she can’t have a Bratz doll, but a part of that is rather abstract and hard to explain to a 5 year old.

As you shop, think about the reputation of the product you’re buying as well as the store. Even good companies sometimes make mistakes. But a good store will quickly clear out anything that has been recalled, while cheaper stores may be slow to do so. Look for toys that encourage creativity and interaction, not ones that direct the child. Go green when possible, but if you’re stuck, sometimes you have to decide if it’s worth it to you anyhow. If the toy is durable, at the very least it could be reused by someone else.

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