10 Sustainable Gifts for the Holiday Season

Trying to find the best and sustainable Christmas gift ideas for the person you really care is great but challenging a the same time. If you care about sustainability and make efforts to be more eco-friendly, the process would be getting more and more stressful. At the end you probably will have lots of Christmas gift ideas, but you would not be so certain if the fantastic gift is super beneficial for both your loved one and our only living space, the world. We have created a list full of hundred percent sustainable and eco-friendly gift ideas for this Christmas and for all special days coming up.

1.Vintage or thrifted finds/ a gift card from a vintage shop

Sweden is an excellent country to experience thrift and vintage shopping. From your early days in Sweden, you will easily observe that Swedes like to shop from secondhand stores and Loppisses (Swedish open flea markets) not only for their needs but also for gift shopping. Most of the items’ conditions are as good as new so you can buy your Christmas gifts from secondhand stores effortlessly and much cheaper! Wonder where you could go? Have a look at Erikshjälpen.

2.Mug/Thermos

Are you aware of that the coffee cups of the stores are not recyclable at all? In order to keep the drink hot, cups must have a plastic barrier. Therefore, mugs are our number one Christmas gift idea to buy for your loved ones to keep them warm on upcoming freezing months. In the same time you will be the friend who gives the fanciest and coolest item to carry with them all day, every day and everywhere. Furthermore, some coffee stores have special deals for who bring their own mug!

3. An Eco-Friendly Plant

Planting is one of best ways to get rid of all the tiredness and moody times of the Sweden’s winter. However, not all plants are innocent as we thought. Some of them have harmful effects on the world’s natural resources. Spider plant, peace lily and weeping fig are approved by NASA as eco-friendly and air purifying plants.

4. Book an Experience/online course/Concert

Sweden is full of activities and experiences. You can create an unforgettable memory as the wonderful Christmas gift this year. Here some ideas:

• Sustainable living workshops.
• A concert ticket to a globally famous singer’s concert in Sweden.

5. Food Containers

Swedes love to carry their meals with them to everywhere and it is a great way to reduce our carbon footprint. Food containers as a Christmas gift idea sounds nice and useful, right? With these food containers their food will always be in the perfect temperature and they easily get used to the life standards here!

• Introduce zero waste food apps to your family and friends.
• Check out Gram if you live in Malmö.
• If you live in Jönköping, have a look at Rekoshoppen.

6. A Book From Your Own Library

Can you give up one of your favourite books as a perfect Christmas gift this year? This gift will make think them that the very classical gift, book, should not be always bought but also, we can swap our entire library each other. In this way you can influence your social circle by reducing the paper production.

7. Homemade Tasty Goodies

Ordering food from the restaurants can be meaningful when you try to support your city’s local businesses but also, we should know that orders are increasing our carbon footprint day by day. You can give a chance to yourself in kitchen and prepare some healthy recipes for your friends, family. Glass jars and containers are perfect ways to serve your kitchen talents. Also, they can use them on their zero-waste shopping from now on!

8. A package which leads them to live more eco-friendly

Living a life that gives the least damage to the world has been a must for everyone for years and on. Small steps are going to form a way better world to live. Therefore, your guidance is much more important than you think. You can buy a gift card from your city’s very own zero-waste shops or you can pick a bundle as a starter kit. A bamboo toothbrush and toothpaste tablets, organic cotton tea bags and a tasty bulk tea or a DIY candle pack would be a perfect and useful gift. Don’t forget that you will both have such an award as you are now planning to contribute something has the utmost importance, you are one of the co-workers of the planet savers.

9. Organize a whole day with you!

Remember the best gift is a simple day which will be mentioned after years as “that day was amazing!”. Simply give your time to your loved ones. Besides, it is free and totally eco-friendly!

Don’t forget to wrap your presents with reusable fabrics like cotton. They may also use them to pack their gifts to others or just in their daily lives. Also avoid using plastic tapes. Instead of plastic tapes you can wrap up them with lovely Christmas colored ribbons!

10. Treat yourself or a newbie friend to an online course or ebook

Online courses are per definition sustainable. No shipping, no packaging and easy to access from anywhere. Newbie Learn has a number of ebooks and online courses that especially aimed to help newbies move to, settle in or understand Sweden, Swedes and Swedish.

• The ultimate guide to preparing your move to Sweden.
• Make a good impression at your new job in Sweden. 
• Swedish learning options.
• Moving to Sweden with pets.
• Get the salary you deserve. 
• Business behavior: accepted and expected behavior in the Swedish job market. 
• Beyond fika: The A-Z of Swedish habits demystified. 
• Working in Sweden: The A-Z guide. 
• Fear and Falukor: One year outside the comfort zone on the road to #BecomingSwedish. 

Curious about where to find zero waste shops in Sweden?

• You can take a look at Gram if you live in Malmö.
• If you live in Stockholm, have a look at Stockholm Zero Waste Guide created by the association Zero Waste Stockholm and Hushållet, the first zero waste shop in the city.
• Are you based in Jönköping? We suggest to have a look at Rekoshoppen, a shop and online store that offers wide variety of ecologic, sustainable and non-toxic products.
• Bikupan, a cooperative that sells ecologic, local produced and Fair trade products.
• If there is a zero waste shop in your area, let us know in the comments below or tag us in the social media!

Written by Nur Banu
Creative Content Manager at the Newbie Team

Nur is a lawyer with Privacy Law specialization in Turkey. She enjoys cooking vegetarian food in the most eco-friendly way, tries to participate in the solution for all types of sustainability issues and shares the moments in Sweden from the eyes of a newbie on her Instagram.