Alternative Gift Registry
Giving gifts...
...without taking from the environment?
Browse the Conscious Consumer Marketplace for ideas.
Can you imagine a gift registry where you could give and receive time spent together and where presents celebrate your and your loved one’s unique talents and tastes?
The Center for a New American Dream thinks an idea like this shouldn’t stay in the imagination – that’s why we’ve created the Alternative Gift Registry.
With the Alternative Gift Registry, you can give and receive gifts that complement your value system: the registry makes it easy to choose immaterial, homemade, second-hand, and environmentally-friendly gifts. For life events that typically emphasize acquisition of material goods, the Alternative Gift Registry is there to help you take a deep breath and choose what you truly want so you can stress less and celebrate more.
The economic and environmental impacts that go along with our life events can be huge. Think about how much clothing, furniture, and other equipment a baby will require in its first two years of life but never need again, or think of how much time, energy, money, and one-time-use products go into a single wedding.
We want to show our love and support during these milestone events by giving gifts. Registries make it easy for us to do this because they allow the recipient to communicate needs and offer gift suggestions. However, traditional registries are limited by what products are available at the store where the registry is made, and—of course—limited to material goods. How many new couples, though, might prefer cooking lessons over a new saucepan? How many new parents would be perfectly content to receive a used crib instead of a new one? By giving time, energy, talent, and pre-owned items instead of store-bought gifts, the stress, environmental impact, and financial burden of these events can be reduced and the meaningfulness of the gifts increased.
The Alternative Gift Registry is as flexible as individuals are diverse. Choose from a baby shower, wedding, bar or bat mitzvah, new pet, or use the “other” category for whatever else life brings your way.
Once you create your registry, you can add a picture, provide more details about your event, and then get started adding gift ideas. Write a brief description, even include a link, and specify how many you want. Gift givers will go into the registry, choose which items they want to give you, and send an email to arrange details once they’ve made their choice. It’s that simple, and you’ll enjoy the freedom to register at a variety of stores… or none at all.
Sound good but you don’t know where to start? We’ve included some handy checklists on topics like lessening the environmental (and financial) impact of your new baby, ideas for your kids’ play time that leaves expensive toys behind, or ways to have a green wedding without sacrificing what you really want. We also have sample registries to help you along.
Still stuck? Peruse the New American Dream website. Good places to start would be the Conscious Consumer Marketplace, Simplify the Holidays, Kids and Commercialism, or our online forums. Then simply set your imagination free and remember to relish the exciting changes in your life.