More holiday tips and resources

OK, you’ve downloaded our Simplify the Holidays brochure and looked into Alternative Gift Fairs. Here are some other ways to have a more meaningful, less stressful holiday:

Creative gifts

Give the Gift of Time: You can avoid piling on stuff by giving loved ones gifts of time. Find out how in Good Gifting: Spend Time Instead of Money.

Think outside the transformer box: Why not give loved ones the gift of energy? With rising energy costs, you can help friends and family and help out the planet by buying renewable energy credits as gifts. And while you're thinking about energy, check out our Winter Energy Saving Tips.

Socially responsible gifts: For stuff with a more socially responsible edge, try our own Conscious Consumer website, OneWorld’s holiday gift guide, or the new Eco-Shopper website.

Give the gift of belonging! Give Gift Memberships to the Center for a New American Dream, and help your friends or family members to shift and reduce their consumption patterns to improve their quality of life and protect the environment.

Or Buy Nothing at all: Join people from dozens of countries around the world who are taking a break from the holiday consumer frenzy. Celebrate Buy Nothing Day with family and friends! For contacts in your area, visit the Adbusters Media Foundation website.

Reducing waste

Hap-E holidays: Wanna show someone you are thinking of them this season without the paper trail? Send a New Dream holiday e-card

Groan. Not another 20 catalogs: Our Junk Mail pages make it easy for you to reduce the strain on your mailbox and the planet’s forests by getting off mailing lists.

Holiday Wasteline: The following websites offer advice on how to cut the holiday waste:

Recycle your tree (and everything else): Earth 911 will tell you where to go in your area to responsibly dispose of all your holiday trimmings.

Inspiration

No really, you are not alone: Read our past polling about how Americans long for a simpler holiday season. Rejoice in the fact that you are not as out there as you thought you were.

Get more holiday tips and inspiration