Since this is a big week for holiday shopping, I decided I’d throw out some eco-friendly holiday gift ideas.

Being eco-friendly isn’t just about buying green products, it’s also about consuming less.  Instead of buying gifts for everyone in your family or circle of friends, draw names and have each person buy a gift only for the person they draw.  Drawing names allows you to put more time and resources into getting one person something they want and will use, as opposed to stretching funds and time trying to get a token gift for everyone on your list.

If you have a cabinet full of gifted body lotion, bath gel, and those nylon poofy things, you can get an idea of the kind of impact selective gift giving could have.

Set up a list of people and rotate every year.  Put one person in charge of assigning names and e-mailing everyone (or use Elfster to do the selecting and e-mailing for you).  Or, if you’re lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving together, you can literally draw names out of a hat.  We’ve been doing this for several years now, and it makes the holidays so much easier.