Green&Blue’s Sustainable Christmas Gift Guide 2022
Give a Christmas present to a nature lover with our thoughtful gift ideas for Christmas 2022. We’ve stepped away from the conventional ideas of buying sustainable gifts for her, or gifts for him, and have picked a range of Christmas present ideas that will purposefully lead you to ethical Christmas gifts that do away with all the waste that the festive period generates and give our nature the best chance to thrive long into the future.
We want to help you to buy a gift for not just the outdoorsy types and the garden lovers, but also help you to buy all those difficult presents that get left to the last minute so that you can show people you care with a thoughtfully chosen gift!
Christmas gifts for Gardeners
Gifts for gardeners are always popular! But a garden isn’t a garden without wildlife so think about welcoming nature with a stylish and impressive BeesBlock bee house. It can be placed as a showpiece in the garden, built into a wall in a greenhouse or retrofitted into the house or placed within flower borders. If they don't have a flower border, give some Seedbars or Seedboms to create a wildflower meadow.
If your garden-loving loved one has more of a bird interest, help them to identify birds and solitary bees with our Little Book of Bees, BTO Bird identifying book or give them a home for a bird with our range of Bird houses and Swift, Sparrow and Bird Block bird nesting boxes.
Christmas gifts for Outdoorsy types
At Green&Blue we all spend a lot of time outdoors either in the garden, allotment, at the beach, coast or in the woods! Our team are physically active and nature loving, but they don’t just want sports kit and clothing, so we asked them what they’d like to be given if they were asked ‘what do I want for Christmas’! The answer was: bird identifying books, Beevive bee revival kits, BeePots to adorn the outdoor party space and taking part in some urban bombing with wildflower bee seeds.
What do I buy for difficult people?
Which of these two is the most difficult person to buy for at the time of year when you have to buy for everyone all at once? The person who says ‘don’t buy me anything’ or the one who already has everything that you can think of?
Gifts for the person who wants nothing
For us this is an easy gift solution, but we know the pressure is on at this time of year! Buy something that is interesting, sparks curiosity and learning, and connection with nature.
A wide range of bee houses of all shapes and sizes to suit all budgets, a donation to the nature reserve that we help to support with Cornwall Wildlife Trust to help preserve wildlife - or a bird identifying book!
Gifts for the person who has everything
Unique gifts that are unexpected, which can educate and interest while doing a useful job. Give the person who has everything something that connects them with a more back to basics ethos - but impress them at the same time! BeePosts, Bird Baths, Bird tables are our showstopper presents if your budget is £100+, but if the idea is more important than the price why not gift a BeeCell or a donation to Nansmellyn and contribute to the greater good on their behalf?
Stocking fillers
Stocking fillers for the young or the young at heart! Who doesn’t like to have a stocking full of curiosities on Christmas morning! Bee Cells, wildflower seeds, Beevive, Beepot Minis, books! There’s plenty to keep minds interested while waiting for the mid-afternoon dinner. Our Bee Cells make a fascinating entry point present for children (solitary bees are safe to encourage around children as they don’t sting) to get them to become bee experts and guardians and you can plant a bee garden together!
Buy a gift for nature itself - zero waste gifts with a positive win for wildlife!
Some people give gifts to charity in place of cards at Christmas, it saves carbon, trees and aching hands. If you’re looking to spend your hard earned money this Christmas on something different, and to reduce time and tape spent wrapping instead of drinking hot chocolate, you would do well to place your resources in nature for the benefit of all!
Make a positive impact in 2023 for nature with a gift to set it off to a good start! Here are a couple of gift selections for species themselves!
Give a gift to Birds
Welcome a bird to your home at Christmas! By providing a regular meal, shelter and a drink you can support them with a headstart for not just them but also their young next year! Your local garden songbirds, migrating Swifts and sparrows would love a stylish, long lasting place to call home for years to come so why not put up a bird house or supply them with their Christmas dinner (all winter long!)
Give a gift to bees!
Give solitary bees a home within yours! There’s no better present to gift to all human and animalkind at Christmas than a more secure future full of pollination and potential to help slow the biodiversity decline! A solitary bee will benefit from your donation to them by rewarding you with somewhere between 6-8 babees in a single bee cell - all you have to do is install it and ensure adequate season-long bee friendly planting so that they have nearby food to support them!.
Support a nature reserve, donate to Nansmellyn
Nansmellyn Marsh is one of the few remaining areas of untouched reedbed in Cornwall and is home to an amazing array of wildlife. Avoid the postal chaos and give that Christmas card money to the kingfishers, otters, cirl bunting and reed warblers instead.
Thoughtful thank you gift ideas
Gift Bundles for ethical Christmas gifting
Overwhelmed by needing to buy gifts for teachers, secret Santas, presents for your hosts over Christmas? Foxed wondering what to buy as a joint present for a family? Squirreling away Xmas gift ideas for couples?! How about a gift bundle to make it easier? We’ve put together three different ones (or build your own!)
Bird lovers gift bundle
A complete bird feeding and watching set for bird lovers, feed and identify garden birds - this combination of a feeder, bird identifying book, bird plant seeds and fat ball bird food will get bird lovers up and running learning about our common UK garden birds.
Bee lovers gift bundle
A complete bee garden set for wildlife lovers to help them house, feed, rescue and identify solitary bees. Consisting of a Beepot mini planter and bee house, bee friendly wildflower seeds, a bee-rescuing keyring and the Little Book of Bees they can find out all about our essential pollinators!
Guerilla Gardeners gift box
Give a pollinating gift to a nature lover, whatever the amount of space they have to create homes for wildlife. Three BeeCells with a Kabloom Beebom seed bom will keep a twitchy and bored 10 year old boy outside and out of trouble during Twixmas giving them the opportunity to go renegade with a grenade full of flowers, scatterbombing wildflowers and mini bee homes in their neglected area of choice, and channeling their inner Banksy/Chris Packham with nature friendly ‘graffiti’.