While you are searching for the perfect bottle to share, here are some ideas to consider for the gift wrap:

1. Wrap a bottle of wine and champagne into something fun and festive by wrapping them in funnies (which will also work well for eco box wine) or any scrap paper for that matter.

2. Make a wine bottle sleeve. This is for that sweater that you can’t donate because of the holes in it or the fact it shrunk in the wash. Simply snip off a sleeve and tie with a ribbon. If it is cold outside, this will keep the reds at a good temperature as you travel to the party.

3. Fabric gift bags make extra special gifts themselves. These adorable presents are “easy to make and encourage the recipient to reuse the wrapping, instead of tossing it in the trash.”

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Between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, Americans throw away an additional 25% of waste. That’s over 25 million tons of trash for the holiday season. Greeting cards, envelopes, gift wrap, cardboard boxes and all the trimmings that make our holidays festive really add up in the landfill.

Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to be festive and green at the same time. Ecopreneurs preparing their holiday marketing promotions can learn a thing or two from creative business owners like Von Glitschka, an independent graphic designer and illustrator in Salem, Oregon. Instead of sending a printed holiday mailing, Von created a fun promotion and made it available as a PDF file online. That way his recipients could choose to print and assemble the “4th Not So Wiseman” at home, or just enjoy it online without printing a thing. Not only do online promotions like this save a bundle on printing and postage costs, but they eliminate envelopes and paper cards, and thus, waste.

Von’s Not So Wiseman also comes along with a green message and a cute story by Kristen Fischer. The Not So Wiseman is not so popular because he brought coal as a gift for baby Jesus, but “Jesus just wasn’t down” with coal’s production of greenhouse gases. Now the 4th Wiseman serves as a reminder to be green and kind to the earth, because if you don’t, you deserve nothing more than coal for Christmas! You can download and create your very own 4th Not So Wiseman at Von’s blog, Art Backwash. Don’t forget to print him out on recycled paper!

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Against the Gods – A worldwide bestseller for the ecopreneur that would enjoy a very interesting, historical perspective on entrepreneurialism and the concept of risk. Google book describes it as a “narrative that reads like a novel, chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from the oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today. This is a richly-woven tale of Greek philosophers and Arab mathematicians, of merchants and scientists, gamblers and philosophers, world-renowned intellects and obscure but inspired amateurs who helped discover the modern methods of putting the future at the service of the present, replacing helplessness before the fates with choice and decision.”

Preview it at Google Books here

Triple Bottom Line – Andrew Savitz. If you have not already come across this book, now is the time. A must read for ecopreneurs, business managers, social responsibility managers, and consumers and investors. The Triple Bottom Line illustrates the connection between the financial, social, and environmental bottom lines of any operation and demonstrates that innovative and profitable solutions to the real problems companies face can come from sustainability. This book is becoming one of the essential pieces of literature guiding many of today’s top companies transition into a more sustainable business model.

Preview it at Google Books here.

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Spoon Catering was born. After experiencing overwhelming success, Melissa developed Spoon storefront and TableSpoon. Since I’m not part of the super swanky New York set all of this has limited interest to me (my narcissism is well established).

What comes next is truly delightful. (big payoff after the jump!) —>

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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.

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