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An entirely different list of holiday gifts
December 15, 2008

I actually did this post last year. But it is probably still applicable this year. Last year I followed my own advice on a couple of the items. Will review at the bottom. Also added a couple of items for this year.

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Newsweek has done it. Treehugger has done it, And of course Oprah has done it. Not to be outdone, I have to do it too. Yes, I am talking about the holiday gift list, even though as you may have noticed I am not exactly proactive when it comes to shopping for presents. But ten days to go, I am putting together a list for people who don’t want to lose themselves in the labyrinth-like malls where ubiquitous bad clues (50% off signs) take you to all sorts of wrong places so the Minotaur can take your money and give you junk in return while tricking you into thinking that you or your loved ones REALLY need it.

So this year, do something different – give a present that does not require your loved ones to toss it to the are-you-kidding-me-who-can-I-unload-this-to pile right after opening your nicely tied box.

Best gifts come in small packages, or no packages at all

• Spa retreat gift certificate. Find a local spa you like and give a service as a present - facial, massage, makeover
• Private Yoga or Pilates lesson. A great gift for a post-holiday health kick-start
• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) delivery. Health, yummy, seasonal and local produce or fruit delivered to the home for a month or a year. Find a CSA around you, make a call and decide how much and how often. Yep, that simple.
• Cleaning service. A clean home without breaking the back. In fact, to go with the service, it is an excellent time to try green clean products.
• Theatre or concert tickets. You can give movie gift cards or concert tickets - classic symphony or metal band, your choice. Last year I gave a pair of opera tickets to my in-laws and they were a hit.
• Family membership to a local museum, zoo or aquarium. A gift to the recipient and to the community. Locally I can recommend Coyote Point Museum, Monterey Bay Aquarium, San Francisco Zoo, San Jose Happy Hollow, San Jose Tech Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
• Family menu subscription. Unusual but absolutely helpful. What’s Cooking plans meals and grocery lists every week, saving time and money. Best part? Every menu includes a part where children can help.

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Last year we gave our brother and sister in law two tickets to a San Francisco opera performance. It seemed that my brother in law preferred watching movies on one of his big screen TVs. Apparently his then fifteen year old son went with mom. Asked what he thought of it, our nephew said that he would’ve never gone if his dad had not forced him and his mom had not begged him. But he was sort of glad that he did. That was a huge success in my book - a teenage boy not walking out of an opera performance after ten minutes!

To my sister, I presented a spa gift certificate. She said it was a ridiculously pampering experience that she felt embarrassed while receiving the service. Hmmmm, good? bad? I am not quite sure.

We subscribed CSA for our other sister and brother in law’s family in North Carolina. Apparently they are still subscribers. Yay!

This year, with economy depressing everyone, including many non-profit organizations that rely on donations, I am adding donation to the list. It’s especially appropriate given all our nephews and nieces have STUFF burst out of their closets.

My husband is of the opinion that teenagers do not care about charity. I am not so sure. For our twelve year old niece who is horse crazy, we donated to the National Horse Protection League for her.

For our other niece who thinks of nothing when charging $500 to her mom’s credit card but is passionate about music and performing arts, we gave to her local community school of music and art in her name.

For our highly privileged sixteen year old nephew, who will embark on a semester of international exchange program in Costa Rica, we got him a membership to Nature Conservancy, an organization that works tirelessly to preserve the biodiversity in that country.

For our other nephew, who spent last summer surfing in North Carolina and California, we made a donation to “Surfrider Foundation for him. The organization was “founded in 1984 by a handful of surfers in Malibu, California” and now maintains over 50,000 members. It is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans.

Well, this is the way I see it: if my husband is right and our teenage nephews and nieces really don’t care for this sort of gifts, at least I know for sure that these organizations will enjoy the donation, especially during the current economic environment. On the other hand, if he is wrong, then everyone will smile.

Happy Holidays!

CindyW at Organicpicks

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