Parenting

An ethical Christmas gift guide for parents and children

14 December, 2016

We are celebrating Christmas with Tim’s extended family this year, and we’ve decided to do a Secret Santa pressie giving thing to take the pressure of having to buy for seventeen million people. So we all get a name and we buy for that person only. It has all been meticulously organised by my amazing sister in law, and part of it included doing a wish list so that the presents were actually valued and appreciated, rather then spending, collectively, hundreds of dollars on jokey gifts or those wire scalp massagers. (Every year!!! They are pretty lush though. In a weird way.)

I have never made a Christmas wish list as an adult. And we’ve never done them with the girls either. We’ve always just been super chill about pressies and bought for each other almost entirely from second hand shops or the local Fair Trade market.

Doing this year’s wish list made me realise that we are not normal in this regard, and that actually it is WAY better getting people stuff they actually WANT!! Especially if it is ethical in origin.

So here’s some ethical gift ideas for parents and children. This is all stuff that we have had in the past and appreciated, or stuff that we would proudly buy, and many of them link to affiliate ethical companies that I am working with, so if you click through from here I get a percentage. (Thank you so much for all your support of this blog by doing that. I feel like it is win win for all three of us, me, you and the ethical company, and I hope you feel that too, rather than any exploitative thing. I wouldn’t link to anyone I wouldn’t personally buy from, promise. Aye Carumba, sorry, enough analysis!!)

If you don’t feel the the need for any more gifts on your list, please stop reading and go and enjoy something else!! Like this rendition of Oh Holy Night. The last thing I want to do is make people hanker for something. Happiness is on the inside, not what’s in your stocking etc etc. (Unless there are birdprint leggings in that stocking. I don’t care what you say. Happiness. Harhahahaha. )Ethical gift guide

Ethical gifts for parents

1- A subscription to the Green Parent Magazine, the most amazing magazine that I write for. If you use the code LULAST they will give you £5 off – that is a whopping third off the price! Click here for that.  This gift idea is one available all over the world, not just UK.
Green Parent Subscription Discount code

2- Imagine a pair of shoes that met an intensely high standard of ethical and was completely and utterly out of this world BEAUTIFUL?! Can I introduce Po Zu? I am *so* excited at the prospect of slipping my smelly old feet into a pair of these stunners. They have men and women’s shoes, boots and sandals. And they are completely gorgeous. Also available worldwide.
ethical guide guide

3- I love the range of clothes at Spirit of Nature – many are fair trade or handmade in Britain. I can’t get over these BIRD PRINT LEGGINGS – HELLO! – and this poppy dress. Too beautiful.bird print leggings ethical gift guideethical gift guide

4- When Tim did his Christmas Wish List he wrote “Socks”…
ethical gift guide

Behold the most beautiful collection of ethical socks! Buy them all!

5- You can’t beat a nice pampery lot of body stuff either aye? There is a great mens’s range at Green People. See all the goodies in here.

ethical gift guide for men

6- Make Up, sweet Make Up. This here is the tinted Burt’s Bees lippy which I have worn since forever and LOVE. But there is also an enormous range of eye popping red colours, and smouldery eye shizzle and foundation and it is all cruelty free, often organic and often free from the harshest chemicals. Check it all out here.

ethical gif guide

7 – LOOK. Organic clutch. And all the clutches on there. Oh my golly.ethical gift guide

8- You can’t go wrong with a brilliant book, can you? The non fiction I absolutely loved reading this year includes Holly McNish’s Nobody Told Me, Naomi Wolf’s Vagina, Bloom’s Endorphin Effect and Amy Bank’s Four Ways to Click. I recommend them all HIGHLY! I might not agree with every single word, but they all gave me an awful lot to think about and improved my life in a number of ways. (That’s a whole other post, I think!)

Ethical gifts for children

9 – I love the stuff from Green Science – like this solar plane! Amazing.ethical gift guide

10 – Ramona is so into organs at the moment. This week Tim went to the butcher and asked for an eyeball. “Why?” said the butcher “for my daughter. she just, you know, wants an eyeball.” They bought home two pig eyeballs. First she put it in her mouth to see what it felt like. Then she drew it. Then she dissected it.

In lieu of this hands on experience, perhaps a Human Organs science kit would suffice?! Ha.
ethical gift guide

11 – This cute little farm made out of recycled plastic. I love this toy brand for doing this. I love them. I really do.  It is such a great effort when humankind has such a problem with plastic. Ugh. Click here for this.ethical gift guide

12 – Gorgeous sustainable balance bike. In my experience balance bikes are the IDEAL vehicle for non biking kids. They can whip along with the big kids and have so much fun. There is a big range of colours here.
ethical gift guide

13 – In my list of non-toy great gift ideas for kids I mention how much someone enjoyed getting a green house when they were a kid, and then her Grandad taught her how to grow veggies. How amazing is that? Well, here is a little mini green house plus all you need to get your own seedlings on the go.
ethical gift guide

14- One of the books I think should be on every family’s shelf is A is for Activist. Such a great way to introduce important world changing social movement vocabulary to our children! You can get it here.
ethical gift guide

15 – Here is something. My children LOVE nail polish. I don’t wear it and to be honest wouldn’t want to draw attention to my worried-down nails. In an ideal world I wouldn’t have it in this household where we try and monitor our use of unhealthy chemicals and minimise the emphasis we put on beautifying our bodies, but alas and alack my children can not get enough.  So I am super stoked to find this selection of nail polishes that are cruelty free, and free from the harshest chemicals. Click here to check them out.
ethical gift guide

So there we go.

My theory is that Christmas is all about love, so if we can buy stuff that shows we care for the people who get the gift AND the people that made the gift AND for the planet then we are doing really well!! 

Would love to hear what is on your list x x

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  • CookiesSix 14 December, 2016 at 10:52 pm

    Bloody LOVE it! We like to do a charity shop xmas, as well as trying our hardest to keep whatever buying we do ethical. I do so love the idea of a family secret santa though, to keep the buying down!

    Off to share this post…

    Oh, and I am about to add yet ANOTHER book to my collection: A is for Activist! 🙂

    • Lucy 14 December, 2016 at 11:06 pm

      Yay! So glad it was helpful/ you liked it 😛 Happy Christmas wooo!

  • Karina 16 December, 2016 at 4:40 am

    Yes, couldn’t put it better myself!

  • James 9 January, 2020 at 10:25 pm

    Thanks for sharing this post.
    Many of us get out of hand gifts and consumerism, we must think well before buying …..