I really enjoy giving gifts, but I've always been aware of the expense involved in giving gifts to everyone I love. Perhaps that's why, even as a child, I used to give my parents and sister vouchers for massages (where I was the masseuse) and manicures (where I was the beautician).
As I get older, I give away scarves I've knitted myself (I'm not very good at that), homemade cookies (I am good at that) and the gift of my time or a service (for example, cleaning my husband's car, or going to a museum with my sister).
What these gifts have in common is that they're sustainable, something that interests me more and more. If you want your gifts to be sustainable, I recommend the following:
1- Give a gift that the recipient will actually use: a gift that will be forgotten in a day or two, just taking up space in the storage room, is not sustainable (even if it has certifications, is fair trade, and biodegradable).
2- Give quality gifts: Fast fashion is very tempting, especially those super cute accessories that are often of poor quality and quickly fall apart. If you like to give jewelry or accessories as gifts, look for quality (with certificates of legality, ethical commerce, etc.) and/or vintage pieces that you can reuse.
3- Forget about wrapping or reuse wrapping paper: Those boxes with ribbons and decorations are lovely, but the reality is that all that wrapping paper ends up in the trash—some of it can't even be recycled—after just a few seconds of use. If you like to give wrapped gifts, you can use newspaper, paper bags, ribbons, string, flowers, or other things you have at home to give your gifts a special and creative touch.
4- Give the gift of time and experiences: for me, the best gift. A coffee, a dance class, tickets to a concert... why not give your loved ones the experience of doing something together ?
5- Give food as a gift: it could be cakes or cookies, but you can also give a collection of interesting spices to someone who loves to cook, or the recipe for your favorite dinner (and all the ingredients to make it) to that person in your life who wants to cook but doesn't know where to start.
What's the best gift you've ever given? And the best gift you've ever received?