5 GIFT IDEAS FOR NATURE LOVERS
With Christmas fast approaching now is the time to consider what impact your festive season will have on our natural environment. The thought of buying and receiving so much “stuff” can be overwhelming – especially for us nature lovers who know the impact “stuff” can have on our planet. But we are here to tell you that the season for giving doesn’t have to be about “stuff” and giving doesn’t “have” to have a negative impact on the planet. Here are our top 5 tips on how you can delight someone this Christmas AND be kind to the planet.
1. Making memories: give experiences
You can definitely have too many pairs of socks, but you can’t possibly have too many happy memories. Make someone’s year brighter by gifting them a voucher for an experience that suits their personality and tastes. Here are just a few ideas:
- Freediving course for the ocean lovers.
- 1-Day Sunset Kayak – no equipment or buddies required!
- Encourage adventure and facilitate a new activity by doing an Adventure Race!
- For the foodies try a Food foraging workshop
- Budding photographers will love a photography workshop in some of the most beautiful scenery in the world – New Zealand!
- And of course, nothing beats a night of big screen entertainment delivered at a film festival – trust us, we know! Tickets to the 2020 Ocean Film Festival World Tour are on sale soon, and can be bought for loved ones anywhere in the country! Sign up to the mailing list so that you’ll get notified FIRST!
This Christmas, why not give your loved ones the gift of an experience they will never forget (or throw away)
2. Made by you with 💗
The thought, time and love that goes into a hand-crafted gift won’t go unnoticed and making your own gifts allows you to personalise each and every present to the receivers tastes. This Christmas, tap into your resourcefulness and give the gift of creativity.
Here are a few crafty ideas to inspire you:
- Grow your friendship and shared love of nature with a plant. If you have succulents in your garden or street verge, they are super easy to propagate from a cutting. Here is an easy how to. Pot in up-cycled glass jars using gardeners’ twine for decoration. Write the care instructions and history of the cutting in the card and your loved one will have a constant reminder of you all year round.
- Up-cycle an old shoebox and fill it with your favourite memories together. It could include photographs, letters, maps, travel souvenirs or anything else that holds sentimental value.
- Practical gifts that are fun and thoughtful will make a year-round impact. These easy, yet useful gifts come one great online tutorials that even the least crafty of us can follow Beeswax wraps, crochet dishcloths and home-made bath bombs
3. Be present – give your time!
Memories are best shared with friends, so this Christmas why not make time for your friends and family and gift them vouchers to do fun things with you in the year ahead. This gift is especially valuable to family members that you don’t get to see as much as they would like. We promise this one will be a real hit with your Grandma, your dad or little sister. Ideas include:
- Make the recipient a voucher that they can redeem throughout the year to an event of their choice – your shout!
- Give your adventure buddies a voucher to a day hiking with you: you handle the logistics, pick them up and play guide for the day.
- When you book those tickets to the Ocean Film Festival in 2020, book one for yourself as well and have an early dinner beforehand with your friend!
- Create a list of trail runs/bike ride/hikes you want to do with your Dad/sister/friend in 2020 and gift him the maps and trail notes so they can look forward to your future adventures.
4. Planet friendly products
Handcrafted, eco-friendly, sustainably sourced and goods made from recycled products are all great ways to share your love of nature and support those brands making planet friendly products. Some of our favourites include:
- Pretty much everything from The Natural Co – think all-natural, eco-friendly, non-toxic, sustainable products for your home or your body. Check out their gift ideas and sets!
- Jack Wolfskin Ecosphere range of outdoor clothing – each garment is made from recycled PET bottles.
- Wild & Bear hat – for every hat sold 10 trees are planted.
- A self-watering pot is perfect as a low waste, low maintenance gift for those green thumb friends of yours.
- Native Creative are a beautiful way to adorn your walls! This sustainable, New Zealand-made artwork that bring a piece of nature inside with their fabulous designs onto bamboo.
5. Give the gift of knowledge – curated by you
Share your love and knowledge with your personally curated inspiration for their year ahead:
- Pay it forward with a copy of your favourite book as a thoughtful Christmas gift. Explain on the inside cover how the book changed your life and why you think they’ll love it too.
- If you read your books digitally gift your loved one a reading list of your favourite books and buy them an Audible or Kindle subscription.
- Create personalised playlists that they can listen to whilst running, hiking, mountain biking etc. Include your favourite tunes as well as songs that remind you of them and time you’ve spent together.
- Research the area around where they live and give them a suggested hiking/trail running/ocean/swimming/biking check list in their local area – pretty much whatever nature-based activity they are interested in. Pencil in some dates for you to do them together in the year ahead.
If you want to take things one step further and go completely waste free this Christmas but don’t know how to broach this with your friends and family, you might like to share this beautifully worded message we recently received from the team at Seed & Sprout.
*top image of happy Adventure Racers thanks to Spirited Women Adventure Race
