Like a lot of people, I’ve been busy putting together Christmas gifts this week.  I tried to be conscious about the burden of giving people more physical things.  I also wanted to be less wasteful and reduce my impact on the environment.  Here are some of my approaches to gift giving a little more consciously this year:

1.  When gifting clothes, I focused on basics and quality, ethical brands; avoid patterns and loud seasonal colors.  This increases the likelihood that your gift will be worn.
2. I wrote a card using what I already had at home.  After decluttering junk I had sitting around for years, I realized how important it is to actually use up craft supplies you already own.
3. On my card, I explicitly encouraged the recipient to recycle, donate, or re-gift the gift once they have finished loving it.
4. I paired basic clothing gifts with luxurious consumable gifts in a care package to add something exciting to something boring.
5. Use free newspapers crumpled up for cushioning shipped gifts instead of bubble wrap.  And if you already have a subscription, you can use the cover of the New Yorker for small boxes or the comics page for larger boxes.
6. Be conscious of the size and weight of your gifts.  For someone who has no space, consider simple elegant delicate jewelry or subscriptions, like to audible for audio books.  It’s a great gift.  I’ve listened to more books with audible in the past one month than I read all year last year.

I think we can all be more reasonable with gift giving.  What’s your approach?  Would love to hear your thoughts.