DIY Gifts for The Environmentalist on Your Holiday List: Podcasts and Videos

Have you ever met an ex-environmentalist? I haven't. Once you are one, you stay one.

Since you found econesting, I'd venture to say that you probably are an environmentalist that knows a few treehuggers. Right? Savvy environmentalists would say that they want nothing this holiday season. But, gifts are sometimes about need, not want. What does everyone need more of? OK, just take a guess...

The correct answer is...Education! (Did I mention that I was a teacher?)

Green technology and ecological news are constantly changing. For the uber-environmentalist on your list, give the latest and greatest environmental podcasts and videos.

Environmental Podcasts

The iTunes Store (Did I also mention I was an Apple fanatic?) has zillions of free podcasts that highlight every angle of environmental issues and inspiring green living ideas. Here are the Sierra Club's podcast picks.

Environmental Videos

The TED talks are chockfull of environmentally-themed topics. The videos are "Riveting talks by remarkable people." Outside magazine named the five best environmental movies of all time here.

Truly Gifted: It's DIY December!

You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right? But, have you heard about DIY December? Probably not, because I am introducing it right here, right now on econesting!

Last year, I created an ambitious holiday gift guide for Planet Green. It was called, Truly Gifted: An A-Z DIY Holiday Workshop For Everyone On Your Holiday List. It was my anecdote for curbing spending, raising my eco-consciousness and reconnecting with something I love to do: create handmade gifts for my family and friends.

The introductory post to the Truly Gifted series is the only post not showing up on the Planet Green site, so here's an excerpt:

"I did the unthinkable. I ventured into New York City on Black Friday. It was mostly a social visit, but it was hard not to get caught up in the shopping frenzy. You would never guess from the amount of people who braved the stores with their fellow throngs of holiday revelers that there was ever a weakness in our economy, or that our planet was overdue for an eco-consciousness-raising. I found myself tripping over a minefield of holiday stuff and compromising my personal eco-footprint right and left. After an exhausting few hours, I was happy to be tucked back into my nest. The experience reached my deepest resolve to buy less and make more.

Sure, you could go out and buy eco-friendly gifts for everyone on your list, or save gas and time by shopping online. But why succumb to more spending and unnecessary waste? Creating gifts for others allows you to share your great green intention of respecting the planet, by passing along to your recipients the awareness of treading lightly on the environment."

5 DIY Gift-Making Tips

1. Take stock of what you already have. Scavenge around and give homage to items and materials that are ecologically sound. These items are just waiting for their secret life to unfold so that they can be restored, renovated, recycled and reused.
2. Be thoughtful about the person you are gifting. Creating items by hand takes time (maybe not as much time as finding a parking spot at the mall). Personalizing a gift is a sure-fire way to get it right.
3. Choose materials that are recycled and renewable.
4. Not only is making your own gifts green, frugal and clever, a handmade gift allows the giver to express their love in a whole new way.
5. Giving a handmade gift is a truly satisfying experience. It has the ability to transform the way we think about the holidays.

DIY December

During the next few weeks leading up to the crescendo of all winter holidays - Christmas, I will provide an alphabetical array of green DIY inspiration for everyone on your holiday list. Since I wrote a post for every letter of the alphabet (absolutely exhausting, but fun), I'll be including excerpts and new information. The posts will have an eco-friendly DIY project for everyone on your list. How cool is that?

Revving to get started?  Here's a real easy project to get you in the DIY gift-making and giving mood: DIY Gift Tags Forget store bought gift tags, Lolly Chops provides stylish free patterned, downloadable gift tags to print out and personalize.

I'll be posting a blizzard of DIY projects. So don't forget to check back each day for greenest of holiday gifts you can make yourself.

Photos: Emma Innocenti via Planet Green, Lolly Chops

Mixed Blessings Of The Holidays

Having just written a popular Care2 post last week, How Grateful Are You? Take The Test, I thought I was ready to shift into a few posts about the winter holidays. Instead I found myself contemplating a peaceful way to get away from the clutches of the Holiday Creep. Now it's time to delve into another topic that tugs at some of us as we merrily inch closer to holidays ~ Holiday Traditions. It's a biggie around here. Do you have more than one set of holiday traditions in your home? If so, I believe that with compromise and understanding, the symbols and rituals of Christmas and Hanukkah can be interwoven to create new traditions.

When I wrote about this a few years ago, I Goggled around to find statistics about interfaith families. I discovered that approximately 25-35 percent of American couples are part of an interfaith relationship. This makes the winter holidays a uniquely mixed blessing.

I’ve always approached the issue of blending Hanukkah and Christmas from gut feelings. These include sharing the best of both faiths and the richness of a multicultural extended family. Around here it is not fraught with difficulty or resentment. We are all rather enriched by the integrity, sensitivity and respect we share about the subject. When my kids were young we talked about the acceptance of discovering new traditions by reinforcing the similarities instead of the dividing differences. We stayed connected to our respective holiday traditions and built new ones together. This year is a bit easier, as Hanukkah starts on Wednesday. Then in a few weeks the Christmas tree decorations can be hauled out (we're always a little late getting the tree up).

Here’s a mix of somewhat unusual and non-traditional ideas for bringing the symbols of Hanukkah and Christmas into your home. Does your family blend together holiday traditions?

Econesting Notes:

Please check back tomorrow because I have a surprise for those of you who have a long holiday gift list. I promise to offer a creative eco-friendly alternative. Stay tuned and...

Happy Hanukkah to those who light the menorah this week!

Photo: Life Magazine

Out My Window

I’m on a film kick. Last weekend I watched a few movies, and my last two posts were unabashed testimonials of a minor YouTube obsession. Bear with me while I share another visual beauty. This one comes via my husband, Ted.

Ted and I wholeheartedly embrace environmental issues, and we share our thoughts and ideas about the subject often. As with most marital relationships, we usually notice different things. Ted is an environmental planner and he sees important environmental concerns that many people glaze over (me included sometimes), like wetland delineation, signage, transportation issues, zoning changes and permit regulations to name just a few. While he is a champion at writing comprehensive plans for municipalities, his passion is sustainable community development. He sent me a link from Smart Growth with a documentary about vertical suburbs (yawn). It came as no surprise that I passed right over it. After a few prompts, I took a reluctant look and almost dropped my laptop.

Out My Window is an online documentary that gives a 360 degree view of apartments in different urban regions around the world. The director, Katerina Cizek hopes to bridge the realities between suburban and urban areas, and to raise awareness for proper access to public transportation, infrastructure changes (water and roads), and the cultural needs of the apartment dwellers. While the 49 stories from 13 different apartments come from diverse areas, a GOOD article says: “It often feels as though the subjects of Out My Window could be found in the same building in some global metropolis.”

For the interactive experience of Out My Window, CLICK HERE.

Crafting A Career

Have you ever thought you could sell your art or crafts? If you have a creative hobby that you love, cheap and friends and family are often telling you, "You could sell that!" - why not consider subsidizing your income or making a living as a "craft-epreneur"? Folks all over the globe are reinventing their careers by selling their art and crafts.

5 questions to ask yourself before quitting your day job to run off with the crafters:

Who will buy your crafts? How will you finance your start-up? What will your wages be? How much help will you need to produce at a profitable scale? How much will you need to charge to break even or better yet, make a profit?

CLICK HERE to find out where to sell your art without selling your soul, and what my friend, Juliet Harrison who sells her equine photographs, has to say about marketing art.