For the home:

• One easy option is a gift certificate to a local sustainable home center or online shop. Even better, you can go to one of these stores yourself and select eco-friendly gifts for the home, like Gaiam's organic cotton towels, bedding, and table linens or Bambu's bamboo kitchenware.

• Help with a lifestyle change. Give your friend a stainless steel water bottle or a set of portable, reusable utensils from To-Go Ware to help them reduce waste. Other eco-friendly gifts that help conserve natural resources include waterless car washing systems and water-saving showerheads.
• Give a sustainable gift that will become a conversation piece in your friend's home, like a recycled-chopstick lamp or wastebasket from Kwytza Kraft. Resource Revival is another great company that transforms used bike parts into stylish accessories, including picture frames, clocks, and CD racks.
• LED anything! LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lights are long-lasting and efficient, so they're great for reducing a household's energy use, especially when all those holiday lights are burning bright! You can get LED Christmas string lights, under-cabinet puck lights, flashlights, headlamps -- the list is endless now.

Just for kids:

• How about pebble-shaped crayons made from soybeans? Or give kids a fun, hands-on project. Buy organic seeds and plants from your local garden shop. Throw in some books on helping the planet, peaceful living, and gardening. And get your budding DIYer some kid-sized tools that really work in the garden or workshop, so they can help (even if just a little at first) and you can spend quality time with them away from TV and computers.
• With a little creativity, you can avoid shopping altogether. Make a busy box with random leftover project items or a dump truck from lumber scraps. My daughter still treasures the dump truck my husband made for her when she was two. She’s nine now, and wood-works all the time with him. Recently, they made a toilet for her American Girl dolls!

Lydia Corser
Columnist, Going Green Blog