Ethical Gift Guide - Tips for choosing the perfect gift

I had big hopes for my blog on Christmas - gift guides, ideas, food... I was full of ideas and super excited!
However, this time of the year is not only about Christmas: for us college kids, it's also about despair and wondering why we didn't start studying sooner.
So my plans went down the drain. I couldn't make time to think about Christmas, let alone write about it! And since it is this time of the year, writing about something else seemed to not make a lot of sense - which is silly, I realize now. I shouldn't feel pressured to write about something just because of the season - my surroundings should inspire me, not restrain me.

That being said, I did manage to write about Christmas this time, and hopefully this post will be helpful for those in doubt of what an "Ethical Gift" looks like.

When I was younger, I would get really excited to get my gifts - I couldn't wait! I was (and still am) very privileged to live in a family that could afford anything I wanted.

Now, I still love Christmas, but it does come with a lot of unnecessary stress. Because of my ethical concerns, Christmas gifting is limited and I often struggle to find not only what I want to give to my loved ones but also what I want to get from them... 

When I first began my journey towards an ethical lifestyle, I made mistakes. I tried telling my family that I didn't want anything, only to get gifts that don't make sense to me - it's not their fault, of course. They were only trying to make me happy. But they don't understand my choices, and so, it's easy for them to give me something that I don't believe in, and accidentally make me feel uncomfortable.

So on this blog post, I'll try to help you find the perfect gift for that crazy person in your life that is constantly giving you lectures on workers rights, animal cruelty and how close we are to be killed by global warming. And if you are that person - you are not alone. I'm just as crazy as you.

Know this person

And most importantly, know this person now - people change quickly, and what might have been the greatest gift a few months ago, right now might be something this person is trying to avoid. It's always good to ask, in my opinion, but if you want to keep it a surprise, try remembering if this person mentioned something that they needed or wanted recently. Maybe you've seen them buying a water bottle recently - why not give them a reusable bottle, or a water filter? 

If you are the ethical geek in the relationship, and you know this person wants something that doesn't align with your morals, I would try to make it ethical - for example, veganize the chocolate they love, try thrifting a shirt similar to the one they wanted. Games, books, movies, CDs - these things make great gifts and are really easy to find second hand.

Give what we're alive for

Think: If you could only keep one, would you keep the last gift your best friend gave you, or the most precious memory you have with them? I'm guessing you'd choose the memory. We created strong bonds with our material possessions, but we must remember that our affection should be towards people, not things. It might be weird to give an experience to someone, since it isn't physical (well, you could give a physical voucher, but that's a lot of unnecessary packaging we don't need, so why not leave that out? Nowadays it is possible to get virtual vouchers, and you can always pay for the experience upfront). Maybe it will be weird to show up "empty handed", but experiences are what make our lives worth living, not objects.

I recently read this blog post from Attainable Sustainable that gave me a lot of cool ideas for experiences to give to someone (although I must disagree with a few of those for moral reasons). Maybe in the future I'll make my own list of experiences that would make great gifts, but for now, here's another blogger's take on this topic (this one from Going Zero Waste).

Knowledge is power

This is related to the previous topic. So, I had never thought about giving classes to someone until I read this idea on a few blog posts from ethical bloggers. Now, if that isn't the best gift ever, I don't know what is. I confess that I'm sort of a knowledge geek, and there's so many things I want to know and so many skills I would love to have. Programming, acting, sewing, singing, gardening, dancing, every language in the world - there's surely something this person would be interested in learning. There are probably a few courses going on in your area, but if you can't find one that would please you, we are lucky to live in an age in which every piece of knowledge is accessible to anyone - thanks to the internet of course. There are so many wonderful online courses that would make such great gifts.

Books are also wonderful sources of knowledge: try looking for e-books or second hand books first. But if you want a specific book and can't find a second hand copy, I personally would buy a new one, especially if it is from a small writer and/or local bookshop.

Give what we all need

If you really are lost, and have gone through lists and lists of ideas and still haven't found something that would please the one you want to gift, then go for something we all need. I wish I was going to say love (which is way more important and should be given all year long!) but I'm talking about money. No matter this person's lifestyle, money is something that we all need to survive in this system, some more than others. Maybe this person is saving up for a trip. Maybe they want to buy something for themselves. Perhaps this money will be used in groceries. Or it might be that this person doesn't feel like this money is useful to them, so they'll just donate it to charity. Either way, sooner or later you can be sure that it will be useful, which is something that you can't make sure with anything else you might give this person. 

When giving money as a gift, most people go for envelopes. Well, you probably know what I'm going to say: unnecessary packaging!!!

If you feel weird giving someone money straight from your pocket as a Christmas gift (it does seem shady - not complaining though, money is money), why not putting it in a glass jar? You can even reuse the jar from that pasta sauce you just finished (after cleaning it, of course!), or if your artsy you can even make them a piggy bank! Now, not only you found a cute way of giving money to this person, you actually gave them a place to save it. On the book "Zero Waste Home" by Bea Johnson she also mentions origami folds for bills, and I found this impressive blog post with tutorials if you're interested in doing that.

There's so much more to ethical gifts than I could mention in this blog post! I want to write more about this but I don't know if I'll be able to do so. I haven't been as organized as I should, and even if I do make a few more posts on this, I don't think I'll be satisfied. I'll have to make up for it on the next year!

Anyway, I wish you a wonderful time, full of joy and love

Merry Christmas!

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