Green and Eco-Friendly Stocking Stuffers

These budget-conscious selections are the most fabulotastic treats and treasures you’ll find in these short-on-cash times, and will certainly please everyone from Norman Vincent Peale (if he weren’t dead) to Scrooge himself (ditto), or anyone in between. Whether you are shopping for your fave veg dog-sitter or your curmudgeonly carnivorous boss, you can’t go wrong with any of these frugal extravagances, and you’ll be a winner when the recycled gift-wrap comes off.

$10 to $19
1. The Better World Shopping Guide, $10. Now in it’s second edition, this pocket-sized book, which grew out of author Ellis Jones’ doctoral thesis, turns shopping into a powerful tool by ranking manufacturers in nearly 75 categories of consumerism from “A” to “F.”
2. Sjaak’s Organic Fair-trade Chocolate Snowmen, $10. Foil-wrapped, dark-chocolate snowmen with a crunchy peanut butter center, in a festive Christmas bag. Need I say more? The chocolate bomb; you’ll be loved.
3. Subscription to VegNews!, $15. Have you heard about our Holiday Gift Blowout? For a limited time you can gift a one-year subscription to everyone’s favorite magazine for only $15. And there’s a rumor that VegNews Gift Packs are just $40. Hurry; sales ends 12/25!
4. Green Festival Reader: Fresh Ideas from Agents of Change, $16. A timely and worthy collection of 15 speeches taken from the foremost activists and thinkers of our times, as delivered at The Green Festival, the “party with a purpose” that attracts more than 100,000 folks annually at its five events.
5. Look Two Ways on a One-way Street, $17. Another pocket-sized book, this one, from Candle Café/Candle 79’s co-founder Bart Potenza, dishes out the witticisms that its author has been inventing and collecting over a lifetime. A treat for anyone.
6. Bumble Bars, $19 to $23 a box. With 12 flavors, you can give a different bar for each day of Christmas! These whole-food treats don’t leave the recipient with a sugar high and are packed with nuts, just like the holidays. Order by 12/31 to take advantage of variety pack winter specials.

$20 to $35
7. EcoMetro Coupon Books, $20. If your giftee resides in the Twin Cities, Seattle, Portland or Eugene, Ore., or the San Francisco East Bay, these “sustainable living” coupon books are just what the Green Santa ordered. With a mixture of local and national savings, EcoMetro is also great for the carbon-offset traveler on your list.
8. Green Zebra Coupon Books, $25. Similar to EcoMetro, Green Zebra is for Northern California residents and visitors. Three books—San Francisco, Marin, and Peninsula—saturate the greater Bay Area with specials at organic restaurants, spas, attractions, and on eco-friendly products. Pick and rip.
9. CSA in the USA, starting at $28 a week. The Local Harvest website allows you to find the CSA (community supported agriculture) closest to your Aunt Bessie or Cousin Fred and sign them up for a weekly box of fresh, local, organic fruits and veggies. It’s the least you can do, and will help heal the world.
10. OrganicAthlete Membership, $35 ($15 for students). With a New Year on the horizon everyone will want to get in shape (again). What better way to win vegan friends and influence meat-eaters than to transform yourself in a hunk or hunkette? I mean, everyone deserves to give herself a gift, no?