Lighten Up Your Holiday Shopping List

Looking for holiday gifts, wrapping paper and card ideas that send a message of caring for the earth and your community? Consider some of these sustainably festive finds, many of which can be found in retail stores as well as through the websites listed. For more information on a wide range of gift ideas, see "12 Top Products" and the articles it links to.

Holiday Cards, Paper Gifts and Wrap

According to the Greeting Card Association, some 2.6 billion holiday cards are sent each year. To help preserve forests, choose recycled-paper cards and stationery made from a high percentage of post-consumer waste (PCW) paper and/or tree-free fibers, such as hemp, kenaf, banana-stalk or bamboo, or even recycled blue jeans, dollar bills or green tea leaves.

*For greetings, Green Field (www.greenfieldpaper.com) sells "Peace" cards made from 100% recycled junk mail ( 8 for $12.95); Dolphin Blue (www.dolphinblue.com) makes old-fashioned, wood-cut styled prints of reindeer, mountains and snowflakes in primary soy-ink colors, on 50 percent PCW recycled and 50 percent recovered cotton ($64.36 for a box of 32). Syracuse Cultural Workers Tools for Change (www.syrculturalworkers.org) sells pretty, multicultural cards with peace themes (between $8.95 and $10.95 for a box of 12) in recycled paper and the packaging is biodegradable cellophane. Their 2004 Peace Calendar is 50% PCW.

For those who love New York, Psaris Productions sells boxes of recycled-paper cards with photographs of snowy city scenes, including red brick tenements, stoops and Greek Revival porches, yellow taxis and the Chrysler and Flatiron buildings, (12 cards for $11.95) at Hudson Papers, 212-229-1064 or House of Cards. The latter also carries

Kensington Cards's recycled-paper Japanese prints of bridges and mountains in snow, and screens of Japanese cranes on a gold background (10 for $9.95), and Pomegranate's recycled-paper cards for Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org) , with photos of leaves and frost crystals or Yosemite scenes (20 cards for $15).

*For giving, Acorn Designs (www.acorndesigns.org) offers terrific 100% PCW or 100% tree-free notecards in a wide range of bird, botanical and animal prints, which can also be chosen for the covers of spiral-bound journals. Real Earth, www.treeco.com, specializes in tree-free papers, including "Old Money" stationery gift sets and banana notepads. Vickerey (www.vickerey.com/paperie-recycled )sells pretty boxed greeting cards and journals with botanical and travel motifs, and Mudlark's bold, cheerful notecards from recycled paper in Marimekko patterns, including eye-popping red poppies, in reusable boxes( $12.50 for 25 cards; also at Hudson Street Papers, Quest 100% PCW printer-ready stationery sheets come in speckled-egg earth tones, $13.90 for 100 sheets, envelopes separate, at Paper Access (www.paperaccess.com).

*For wrapping, the mystique of brown paper is embodied in Kraft Mail-Away, 100% recycled and 20% PCW for a mere $1.99 per roll. You or a child you know can personalize the wrap by drawing or rubber-stamping on it. From Paper Access, above, which also sells sumptuous papyrus-like sheets of wrapping paper made of 100% kozo, made from the bark fast-growing Thai mulberry trees, or a hemp-kozo mix. Ecosource (www.islandet.com/~ecodette/ecosource.htm) has tree-free paper made from 40 percent flax, 40 percent hemp and 20 percent recovered cotton. "Mapwrap"(forestsaver.com), made from surplus New York City subway maps-let your package be your guide-- can be found at House of Cards.

Other options: Follow a Japanese tradition by using a square of cloth, called furoshiki, to wrap your presents-use reclaimed cloth, including old scarves, bandanas, shirts or pillowcases.

Food

To satisfy holiday hunger, no gift is more sustaining than food. In many communities, farmers' markets are open year-long, selling locally grown, seasonal produce and preserves.

*Look for the USDA Certified Organic label. This means produce has been grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, using methods that conserve soil, buffer watersheds and preserve wildlife corridors. Organic produce has 2/3 less toxic pesticide residues on average than food that's conventionally grown, and antibiotics and hormones are not permitted in organic meat, poultry and dairy products. Organic seasonal apples, pears, vegetables and gift baskets can be ordered nationwide from companies such as Callie's Organics (www.calliesorganics.com) and Diamond Organics (www.diamondorganics.com) Gift boxes and baskets of baking mixes, cereals, beans, nuts, pasta and more can be ordered from The Women's Bean Project, which helps low-income women develop work skills (www.womensbeanproject.org), Eden Foods (www.edenfoods.com) or Fiddler's Green Farm (www.fiddlersgreenfarm.com).

*Take your hosts a bottle of organic vodka (www.rainvodka.com) wine (www.theorganicwinecompany.com or www.organicvintages.com) or a six-pack of refreshing Wolaver's organic beer (www.wolavers.com).

*Deck your halls and tabletop with organic balsam wreaths and centerpieces from Darthia Farm (www.darthiafarm.com), which also makes succulent cookies, cakes and organic fruit jams, or dried flowers from The Women's Organic Flower Enterprise (www.homelessgardenproject.org/wofe.html).

*According to a recent study, populations of the great predator fish in the world's oceans have been reduced by up to 90% in the past 50 years-a good reason to give sustainably harvested fish. To grace a holiday table, order wild Alaskan smoked salmon, from healthy populations, from Alaska Smokehouse (www.sendsalmon.com) or Wild Alaska Smoked Salmon (www.smoked-fish.com)

*To savor after the meal: For coffee lovers with a sweet tooth who are also sweet on nature, there's certified organic, fair-trade (fair wages and conditions for workers) and "shade-grown" coffee and cocoa (providing habitat for wildlife beneath forest canopies). Look for Equal Exchange's Organic Breakfast Blend (www.equalexchange.com), Grounds for Change Sumatra Roast (www.groundsforchange.com). Certified organic, fair-trade chocolate is available from Green & Black's (greenandblacks.com) and La Siembra Group's Cocoa Camino (www.globalexchange.org).

*To spare paper, trees and wildlife habitat, give or get a French coffee press (www.crateandbarrell.com) or a reusable gold coffee filter (www.vtbeans.com) which work without disposable paper filters.

Toys

*Perfect for babies and young children, Foundlings organic-cotton stuffed animals include elephants, turtles and whales (www.huggaplanet.com).

*Natural beeswax crayons, paints and play doughs, papermaking kits, weaving and spinning kits are available at Rosie Hippo's Toys and Games (www.rosiehippo.com).

Clothing, Bed & Bath

For deliciously soft socks, camisoles and children's clothes, Maggie's Functional Organics uses only organic cotton and manufactures its products in worker-owned cooperatives (www.organicclothes.com; 800-609-8593). Under the Canopy sells sheets and towels from organic cotton colored with low-impact dyes (underthecanopy.com) For baby and children's clothes: Garden Kids sells organic cotton infant wear, baby blankets, pajamas and beautifully made clothing up to children's size 8, all of it sewn according to fair-trade standards in the U.S.A. (www.gardenkids.com; 541-465-4544).

The knitters on your list will adore organic or greenspun (no petrochemicals in processing) wool from Vermont's Green Mountain Spinnery (www.spinnery.com).

Splurges

If someone special covets a piece of wood furniture, look for the label of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which can trace the "chain of custody" from, say, a bookshelf to the very tree it came from. FSC sets standards for sustainable forest management, including restrictions on logging of old growth trees. Recycled or "reclaimed" wood is another ecologically sound option certified by the Rainforest Alliance's Smartwood program, and can be found in a variety of home furnishings, from dining tables and chairs to beds, desks and dressers. Companies include The Wooden Duck, (www.thewoodenduck.com), Heartwood Industries, (www.heartwoodindustries.com) and The Joinery, (www.thejoinery.com). Or buy an Envirowood porch rocker, Adirondack chair or footstool made from recycled plastic bottles and containers (www.mastergardening.com).

The Green Guide also recommends heading down town rather than to the mall and choosing gifts from your community's local vendors—the bookstores, the stationery shop, the toy store or elsewhere. Local businesses keep wealth in a community and will make your home town stronger.