Green Epiphany

In the spirit of the 12th day of Christmas, an epiphany - what to do with those unwanted gift cards! Useless extra pieces of plastic though they may be, you can exchange the ones you don't want at Swaptgift, Plastic Jungle, or Card Avenue. You can even donate the card to charity at Gift Card Donor.

Discardia and Green Gifts

I would like to submit an agenda item to the County Board of Supervisors declaring Discardia a government holiday. Dinah Sanders, who is the brainparent of Discardia, says, "Discardia is a new holiday. Why do we need a new holiday? Well, not exactly need, not as such, but this is a very good holiday." The next one happens Dec 21-Jan 8.


Discardia is the celebration of stuff-purging. It is the seasonal remedy for Affluenza. It involves:
1. Giving away the stuff you don't like or use.
2. Thinking about ways to buy less in the future.
3. Thinking about ways to give and ask for better gifts. This is especially timely for all you Christmas celebrators and New Years resolution makers out there, as Discardia coincides with Christmas and New Years this year.

The Heifer Project is pretty cool. You can give honeybees and knitting kits and goats.

You can also make stuff, including mix CDs and cookies, or a coupon book for fun things you will do with that person in the future. Check out the other post on Green Holidays for other green gift ideas, or look here at EcoArtware for inspiration!

Green Holidays

Depressingly, it is time for winter holiday talk. I am adding to the millieu of pre-Halloween Christmas/Hanukkah discussion. Luckily, Ramadan has already passed for the year or we'd have another monotheistic religion on our hands to deal with. (Ramadan and Eid seem pretty green in my brief experience of them - you eat less, eat with your hands, and walk cookies over to your neighbors - no waste!)


Sustainable forest/recycled Christmas cards from Owl.
Sign the self-righteous Buy Handmade pledge today!

Laura and I were excited to read about this, even though THE HOLIDAYS are still aeons away.



TreeHugger.com has an eco-friendly Gift Guide for Christmas and Hanukkah. As one who recently begun to relish wrapping presents in brown grocery bags, I am excited by this guide to buying the gifts themselves. Find out about fabric gift bags, recycled glass ornaments, and natural beeswax Hanukkah candles. See what you think!