25 Green Days of Christmas

Day 5 --

No Gift Cards

I am in Safeway. No, don't even think about it. I am not buying food. I am buying bus tickets.

The woman in front of me is buying six dozen cupcakes that look as plastic as the boxes they're in and a man with a banana and a pear that looks hard enough to hammer nails is in line behind me. The checker starts wrestling a plastic bag onto two of the boxes of cupcakes but it keeps catching around the cupcake wells. The woman is looking for her credit card. I start looking for something to count.

I don't look far. The check out stand is filled with rows of plastic gift cards for every retailer ever incorporated. Thirty six different big names to be exact. "What happened to personal checks?" I ask myself. "What about plain old cash for Christmas? Why more plastic?"

"Yes, I know a recipient might go out and purchase a bottle of absinthe now that it's legal instead of a sweater or a book, but so be it. It's a gift. Let them do what they want. What's going to happen to all that spent plastic?"

My tirade is getting into full steam and the gentleman behind me clears his throat. I watch the woman competently manage her cupcakes without the bags that are now wrangled on the counter and move forward. Plastic bank card in hand.

"Thirty seven," I say silently.


Day Six --

Green Dimes

I know I am not the first person to suggest this service as a great green gift but it's new to me and I'm excited about it.

Green Dimes stops junk mail. Seems impossible doesn't it? All those value pack coupons, credit card solicitations with 0% interest. All those catalogs! And Green Dimes makes them stop. Who wouldn't love this?!

Green Dimes also plants trees. The sign up cost is worth just that; stopping the junk mail is nearly an afterthought, a bonus, a dream that might come true.

I signed up a few weeks ago but it's too soon to realize a difference.

My secret guilty pleasure is Green Dimes only stops the catalogs I ask them to which means I can continue receiving Garnet Hill and Crate and Barrel, which makes this gift perfect for everyone, light green and forest green people alike.

We all make a difference.