
Well it is time for the annual holiday rush. Everyone gets in frenzy come thanksgiving and once December 1st comes the news has you thinking Christmas is tomorrow. This year don't get your priority's lost in the shuffle. Remember to think green and responsible this year when picking out presents.
Here are a few
green gift ideas for your friends, family, and kido's of course!
Reduce your footprint, get your
reusable bamboo utensil set. No more plastic ware! A handy carrier on the back lets you clip and carry a fork, knife, spoon and chopsticks . Perfect for a busy lifestyle and our precious planet. Give plastic bottles a second chance literally. Our RePEaT utensil holders give plastic bottles a second shot at a useful life and an opportunity to stay out of our landfills.

Made out of RPET (recycled PET plastic your #1 plastic soda water bottles), we like to call it "RePEaT" because it lets plastic reincarnate into something kinder and gentler. Contains Sustainable Bamboo Flatware & Chopsticks Your RePEaT set contains 1 fork, 1 knife,1 spoon, & 1 set of chopsticks made from sustainably grown bamboo.(
To Go Ware) This gift can be for all ages! My mom and husband take theirs to work, my nice takes hers to school for her lunch, my daughter takes her to preschool for her snack, and my sister keeps her in her car for the times when you wish you had a spoon or fork! Great gift for anyone and comes in variety of colors.
Also on the sustainable lunch topic get your
reusable lunch sandwich wraps. Instead of packing sandwiches in plastic bags, wrap, or foil, any of which just end up in a landfill, try the new Wrap-N-Mat, a re-usable plastic-lined fabric that closes with a Velcro tab and seals your lunch just as well as plastic wrap. Bonus: Once opened, the wrap-n-mat doubles as a place mat.(
Wrap N Mat). Also the reusable
snack bags are a huge hit. They are perfect for the little ones when you're in the car or out and need a snack. They are great for the lunch sacks of school age kids. All on sale now at
littlegreenbooties.com.These both make great stocking suffers , grab bags gifts and co worker gifts for under $20.00!!As far as toys, try to get
environmentally friendly toys made in the US or made without plastic. This is a challenge in the toy industry these days. Two great
green toy companies are
Plan Toys and
Green Toys. These toys are both made in responsible Eco Friendly manner and have no risk of lead in their products.
Green Toys are made not only made here in the US but also made from recycled milk jugs. They have everything from fun trucks to teas sets that make great gifts at reasonable prices. Recycled milk containers are used as the main ingredient in creating their toys. When you finish your milk and toss the container in the recycling bin, these milk containers are collected at your curb by a local recycling company, who then sorts them from all the other types of plastic. The milk containers are reprocessed into super clean fresh plastic. For you plastic geeks, the plastic material we use is called high-density polyethylene (or HDPE). This material is considered one of the safest, cleanest plastics around.

Green Toys also strives to minimize packaging, and all of the boxes use as little material as possible. All Green Toys products are packaged in recycled corrugated boxes with no plastics, cellophane or twist-ties, and are 100% recyclable. So, not only are they earth-friendly and ready for your recycling bin, they are really easy to open for those little fingers just itching to get at the toys!
They contain no traceable amounts of Phthalates or BPA. They are also designed without any external coatings,thus eliminating the fear of lead paint. Their new Recycle Truck is getting a lot of hoopla this year and was even featured on the
Regis and Kelly show. ! Supplies are limited so get your cool new Green Toys now ! (
Green ToysPlan Toys is the first company to manufacture toys using wood from rubber trees that no longer provide latex. There is no deforestation involved in the harvesting of rubberwood, as felled trees are replanted with new ones. Rubberwood is an eco-friendly, sustainable, high quality wood. The

paper used in our packaging is recyclable which further reduces waste and our plants use state of the art solar energy. Our plants use state of the art solar energy and biomass (fuel from biodegradable organic material). These toys have a LIFETIME GUARANTEE and are toys you will pass down to the next generation! (
Plan Toys)
Don't forget the book section when searching for your gifts. There are some awesome green books for everyone to read. Check out the
"Mindfully Green" section on Little Green Booties for some suggestions. Or hit the book store yourself and see whats out there. You'll be surprised at how the section is growing by leaps and bounds. A great one we read to our kids is
When Santa Turned Green. Santa has the kids to help him and the environment because the north pole is melting and global warming is messing up his workshop. This might keep him form delivering toys to all the children. Cute story- good point.
And don't forget the wrap.
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans throw out 25 percent more garbage than they do the rest of the year. That’s a million extra tons of garbage per week! It hard not to use wrapping paper, I love to make beautiful packages, with the big ribbon and bows. Wrapping paper and bows are a huge waste and are usually not recyclable.
Still there is a way to use
Eco Friendly Wrapping and still look like a million bucks! You can

use a reusable bag for some of those gifts. Try the
foldable pouch bag to wrap you present. First, its a bag they can use again. Second, it is a compact bag that folds and snaps up and fits in your car glove compartment or your purse etc... It makes a great gift bag because they are very cheap and they are reusable. All you have to add is a few pieces of tissue and some pretty ribbon. You can even spruce them up if you want. I made a little flower out of felt and used fabric glue to apply it for a birthday party my daughter was going to. It was very easy and once you have the felt and glue at home you can keep using it over and over.
One other good Eco Wrapping idea is to use your brown paper bags . Just add ribbon, some cool stamps, or have the kids help decorate package. When choosing ribbon use some of the fancy bows the florist use. You don't have to make any fancy florist bow, just an old school knot and bow looks great. If every family saved and reused just 2 feet of ribbon per year, enough ribbons would be saved to tie a bow around the entire planet!!You can also spruce up your brown bags with some greenery or even attaching an ornament.
Martha Stewart has some neat ideas on her site. It really adds to your package and the ribbon,bows, and ornaments are reusable over and over. After we open our presents on Christmas Day our family is always fighting over the ribbon because we all want to use it next year on our packages. It's funny to see some bows over and over again each year! You can get this ribbon pretty much anywhere, craft stores, Target, even at Walgreens. There is also the recycled wrapping paper option but it can be pretty pricey. One more wrapping hint,
don't use the shinny foil paper. It is
not recyclable.
Greening up your Holiday is not as hard as you think. Be responsible and remember not to get into the "rush or pressure" and all will be good.
Happy Holidays from Little Green Booties.