How to GET A Green Gift
How can we get green gifts, for ourselves and for our kids, when it’s our turn to receive?
On Wednesdeay The Green Parent asked, “Is it OK to come right out and ask for green gifts?” Sixty-one percent of you think is, while 29% think it’s tacky to ask for any kind of gift, green or not. The other 11% think it depends upo the age of the child.
So for those of you that think it’s OK to ask for a green gift, how do you go about doing it? Here are the best tips from Green Parents around the country.
No Gifts, please: Skip gifts altogether by suggesting “no gifts, please,” on the party invitation. Without the hassle of gifts, party goers can come together to celebrate the guest of honor without worrying about who gave the best present. The downside is that not everyone will abide by that request.
Gift Exchanges: Ask guests to bring a unisex wrapped gift of a certain dollar amount (say, $10,) and exchage gifts with a game so that every guest goes home with a gift. Books are a popular gift exchange item. Added bonus: eliminates the pressure to hand out wasteful party favors.
Donations: In lieu of gifts, ask guests to bring wish list items for a favorite charity such as books for the library, pet supplies for the animal shelter, or presents for children in a nearby children’s hospital. After the party, the guest of honor can deliver the donations and take a picture to include in thank-you notes.
Wish Lists: Wish lists or gift registries are another good option. Depending upon your situation, you can ask friends and family for specific gifts or donations toward one meaningful gift. There are even a few cool companies that can help you do this. Wishpot lets parents set up a wish list and add items from any store or charity to their list. DreamBank offers a similar service, allowing “dreamers’ to choose one meaningful dream that guests can contribute towards while also generating funds that are donated to charities. And ECHOage let’s party guests and well-wishers pool funds which can then be divided with half going towards the purchase of ONE memorable gift for the birthday child and the other half going to a charity of their choice.
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The exchange is a great idea.
For my daughter’s 7th birthday earlier this year, she followed our neighbor’s example and chose to have a party to raise money for orangutan rescue (she’s a big animal lover). We asked party attendees to bring a few dollars to chip in. We had cake and ice cream, games, snacks and play time — our only giveaway was candy from the pinata. Most children must have brought around $15 (we don’t know who brought what) and my daughter added some and we added some to donate $150. She was thrilled, and we played up the good points (which she agreed on) of not getting more plastic toys when she already has so many toys. When she received her adoption packet from the organization, she took it to share with her classmates so they could see the outcome, too. Family still gave her gifts, but the total was much reduced. She would like to do it again.
That’s fantastic! I used to work as an environmental campaigner and one of the campaigns I worked on was protection of orangutans and their habitat! Please give your daughter a big KISS for me for helping to protect such a beautiful animal!!
Helpful post. Last year, we did no gifts and my 5 year old didn’t blink an eye. This time, I think we’ll go with the exchange – that way we can skip any sort of goodie bag as well.
The orangutan rescue idea is, of course, better but we’re working toward that.
I have four kids so my last one does not need any toys. I always ask for books for his birthday. After he is finished with them, we donate them to the local library. Although this is concept is not very green in the fact that trees are cut down to make the books, etc but it does promote reading rather than tv watching. I love the organutan rescue idea.
Anna
http://www.green-talk.com
i printed some party invitations on my high resolution inkjet printer just to invite some friends ;*:
One year we tried “no gifts please” at my son’s Birthday and 3/4 of the guests ignored it and the other 1/4 felt uncomfortable. The next year we said “recycled gifts only”. This was really cool because we got a lot of used books and toys that other neihborhood kids had outgrown. Guests want to bring something… make it easy for them to clean out their closets!
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