Green Options

So, I got the inevitable question from my wife this morning: “What do you want for Christmas?” My inevitable answer: “I don’t know.” As this game plays out over the next few weeks, my answers will change: “nothing” is next, something completey unsexy but totally useful will follow (she hates those), and, finally, I’ll say “Why not just make a donation in my name.”

But, I might mix it up this year: “How about a TisBest gift card?”

I heard about these cards just over a week ago, and love the concept: a gift card for charitable donations. According to their press materials, TisBest is

…a Seattle-based company that offers tax-deductible charity gift cards online in amounts from $10 to $5,000. Charity gift card recipients then choose to donate the funds on their gift card to one of 250 carefully selected charities organized into categories as diverse as: the environment, health, children, education, arts and culture and women’s issues.

I just returned from an editorial meeting for a local magazine for which I write. The topic of “Holiday Gift Guide” came up and…how the economy will impact many people’s ideas on what to buy for the holidays…or not buy.

In the process of discussing this “consuming” issue, we mom writers started talking about some of the favorite ways we plan to save money this year. One idea that really struck me was how much waste we produce by giving each other…and you know we moms are guilty, not very useful gifts.

These sustainably harvested yellow birch cards by Night Owl Paper Goods are as cute as can be!

Going clockwise from top, each card is more enchanting than the next:

Bird and Gourd is featured first above, followed by Terrarium Butterfly ~ A Botanical Delight, next is Strawberry Bunny, and finally Be My Honey.