I give in!

It's that time of year again. Yet another birthday has passed, just, so it's time to start thinking about Christmas. Not just a matter of where we'll be to celebrate it, but who do we invite to the not quite complete house, who (if anybody) do we go to see over the holiday and, most difficult of all, what presents do we buy?

The latter has been the greatest challenge over the past few years as we've become increasingly conscious of the ethics of what we buy along with their environmental impact. As I mentioned in my previous post, we are trying to avoid plastics wherever we can, but this can be more of a challenge when buying presents. For example, last year we were told our nephew would like a Ben 10 watch, but when we saw what a huge battery powered lump of plastic it was we decided against it. He still received one, not from us, and probably still enjoys playing with it, but we weren't keen on buying it. We opted for some classic books instead, sustainable and hopefully more mentally stimulating.

Other Christmas gifts are easier to find eco/ethical alternatives for, with Lush and Body shop great places to get the obligatory smellies, and bamboo socks from BAM http://www.bambooclothing.co.uk/ were well received last year from various members of the family.

This year we're looking for a few extra things for the house, and it's good to see more and more new sustainable products arriving. Along with the various eco gadgets and products sold on sites such as Ethical Shopper it's good to see the high street stores getting in on the act. For example we recently saw this chopping board http://www.johnlewis.com/12453/Product.aspx , a hygienic and sustainble alternative to the usual polycarb boards, this is made from 'Richlite', a paper based fibre board from the US which is also used to make worktops.

What would be really good to do would be make homemade presents, such as chocolates or sweets packaged in nice glass jars, homebrew, or even something crafted from one of our many bits of wood! But with all the work we're still doing on the house this is something that'll have to wait till next year. Maybe.....