Green v. Consumerism at Christmastime

"In a world where people want to continue to aspire to middle-class consumption patterns, but they are also wanting to feel like they are responsible citizens who care about social and environment issues, how do they reconcile that? They go shopping for something that declares itself to be ecologically friendly."

Sadly, that quote from a UC Santa Cruz professor is true. It's from a Los Angeles Times article about retailers offering eco-friendly gifts for the holidays as a way to make money. The story says that according to a recent poll, nearly nine in 10 consumers identified themselves as "conscious consumers." Wow, that's a lot. More than I would have expected considering how few people I see using resusable bags at the grocery store (with the exception of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods shoppers, who have been on that bandwagon for a while now).

What's better for the environment? Buying gift wrap made from recycled materials or wrapping small presents in used sandwich bags you have lying around your house, cutting out the energy-using step of recycling the bags into other paper products? (I'm doing the latter.)

Buying presents I understand. It is Christmas after all and who doesn't want to do that? But I've been turned off by the Sunday circulars and TV ads that are pushing their great bargains on wrapping paper, gift bows and all that other crap. Sure, it made sense in the pre-global warming era to decorate our presents to the nines, but aren't we living in a more conscious time now (according to that poll, yes we are)?

Sure, use the wrapping paper you already have from years past, but let's not buy new bows and ribbon. And if you run out of wrapping paper, look around your house for something to use instead, like the Sunday comics, old paper bags and glossy pages from magazines. Have fun with it. If it's a clothing item, wrap it in the LA Times Image section. Heck, you could even use old pillow cases if it's a larger present (and then the recipient can cut up the linen into smaller cleaning rags for a gift that keeps on giving).

I've had fun wrapping my office Secret Santa present. I blogged earlier about how I planned to use paper bags to wrap my gifts this year, but would have to think of ways to make the presents look good despite my lack of artistic skills. So what I did was cut up a brown paper bag I already had, wrapped it in ribbon left over from a past Christmas and attached an old Christmas ball I bought this year at a thrift store. Then I wrote "Joy" in pen and, in a flash of brilliance, found a way to make use of those pesky circulars that inundate our mailboxes at this time of year. I cut out a cute bear from the Trader Joe's flier and glued it to the brown paper to make it look more festive. I knew any attempt at drawing something would look as bad as those terrible ornaments we made for our parents in elementary school (because my art skills haven't improved since then) so this was a way around that.

Let's think outside the proverbial Macys sweater box this holiday season to not just say we want to live green, but actually do it.

My Secret Santa gift, wrapped in a paper bag.