by Sarah Lane

Giving a seasonal gift, whether for Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, might appropriately be intended for various reasons:

• to express love,
• to spread joy, and
• to share abundance with those in need.

It is often, however, done for the following reasons:

• to fulfill an obligation,
• to meet an expectation, and
• to fill a void.

In a world teeming with excess and yet, at the same time, bursting with want and need, in a world choking on plastic and suffocating from carbon emissions, we need to work toward eliminating those last three reasons and grope our way back to love, joy, and sharing. And that kind of gift giving is accomplished through

• less quantity,
• less monetary and more personal investment, and
• greater reflection.

One way to get there is through homemade gifts that require an investment of time and effort but that are also useful or beneficial in some way, that are not simply additional contributions to clutter and waste. Another way is through some sort of service, an investment of personal time. And another is to spend some money in ways that are significant, either through their personal relevance to the recipient or through their positive effect. Giving an aspiring writer a nice pen, giving a good friend a meaningful photograph, or giving someone who loves animals and works in a shelter a contribution to the shelter are examples of these kinds of gifts. The Nature Conservancy shared with us their Top 5 Green Gifts which also fall into this category:

Adopt an Acre – in the US or aboard:
http://adopt.nature.org/

Plant Trees in the Atlantic Forest, each tree is just $1
http://adopt.nature.org/plantabillion/brazil/gift.html

Adopt a Coral Reef
http://adopt.nature.org/coralreef/

Help Save the Northern Jaguar (NEW THIS YEAR)
http://my.nature.org/gifts/jaguar.html

Give the Gift of Clean Water
http://my.nature.org/gifts/water.html

With any gift giving, at any time of the year, the most important element is thought; if you think deeply about the recipient and who they are and what they truly want or need, you’ll discover they need far less stuff. What they need and want most of all is to be seen by you, which is exactly what our planet needs too.

© 2009 ProgressiveKid

Image by Kasia 2007, Creative Commons license.

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