Oh, the children’s gift dilemma. Your kid is invited to a birthday party, and your heart wants to send them with a present that will delight the birthday kid without adding plastic to the landfill.

And the holidays are coming. Do we have to chuck out our sustainable goals to give joy to the kids on our list?

Whether you’re a parent or a grandparent shopping for a big ticket item, or a friend’s parent looking for a smaller scale party gift, this post is all about finding gift options that will excite at box-opening time without compromising the planet of their future?

This post is inspired by Phillipa May, a friend with two wonderful girls who have many birthday parties in their lives, so this dilemma comes up often. Pip doesn’t want to force her kids to be the ones with the homemade or second-hand gifts, but she deplores the idea of perpetuating the cycle of wasteful consumerism for a new generation. Her default options sound pretty great to me. She says she normally gives games, books, LEGO, or art supplies. I think she’s already ahead of the game, but she asked me to write a post with tips to help mix in more ideas.

True confession: I’ve bought plastic gifts way too many times. They’re easy, they’re affordable, and they’re cleverly designed to make kids clap with pleasure when they enter their possession. But the easy path isn’t the one I want to take this year. This week — and this Christmas season — my sustainable step is to be way more mindful about the gifts — and the messaging — that I give to the next generation.

Here are some ideas:

1. Experiences

One of our favorite gifts to give our little friends on their birthdays is an Experience Card — a coupon for a fun outing. Could be a movie, the aquarium, Grouse Mountain, a water park — we choose outings that sound fun for us, too, and sometimes give a few options. Our last two birthday friends chose the Bloedel Conservatory — a dome in the middle of Vancouver that has a rich tropical ecosystem of birds and plants and volunteers who love to show the kids the magic in nature.

Kids don’t care how much you spend, so no need to pick the high priced tourist traps unless you want to go there, too. Just show them a side of the world they don’t normally get to in the course of their regular life, and the adventure will be one of their most memorable gifts of the year.

2. Outdoor Play Gear

Any gift that gets kids outside (and off screens) is a win for the environment. Extra true if the gift involves exploring nature. Kids who spend time in nature are way more likely to grow up to protect it. Some neat ideas for all ages are:

Hacky Sack — So simple, so fun. My daughter and I have had a lot of laughs playing music and kicking our little ball around outside. We’re terrible at it. The more people who play, the more fun — and absolutely no talent is required.

Stepping Stones — They’re plastic, but they’re made by National Geographic — an organization that does a lot of good for the planet. Although branded for littler kids, these can be fun for all ages, and can be used both indoor and out.

Bug Catcher Kit — We’ve had endless fun with this! Highly recommend for kids who love to get up close with critters. (Again, an imperfect combination of plastic components from a company I’m happy to support, and a gift that helps foster a love of the natural world.)

Bug Magnifier — from Lee Valley.

Green Toys Wagon — Made with 100% recycled plastic.

Green Toys Gardening Tools — Also 100% recycled plastic, this is a high quality, durable brand I like a lot.

Outdoor Explorer Kit — A bunch of random tools to help kids feel like important nature warriors.

Slackline — There are many brands, but the one I linked to is made by Hape, a company with an excellent eco-footprint.

Spikeball is another fun one for older kids — and they use a lot of recycled plastic in their products.

3. Feed a Healthy Hobby

Is the kid on your list into sports? Science? Art? Animals? Cooking? Use their passion to find inspiration — something different that feeds into that hobby.

Two of my nieces are very into big cats, and their wish lists are full of big cat themed items. Last year, I just bought from their list. This year I used it as a jumping point for a Google search for “eco friendly big cat gift ideas.” Fine tuning the list a bunch of times led me to Fahlo — a company that sells bracelets and plush toys that come with animals the child (or adult!) can track in the wild in real time. The animals are being tracked by conservationist organizations, and ten percent of profits are donated to help them. It looks fun so we’re giving it a try. (I’ll update with feedback once the kids let me know if it’s interesting.)

Lee Valley has some fun toys and tools to support a whole range of DIY hobbies, from art to science to building to gardening. I’m bookmarking this page to do my Christmas shopping.

One of my favorite things my niece ever asked for was an ant farm. I was delighted to buy her that creepy gift that got her scientific brain firing on all cylinders.

Our carbon footprint doesn’t have to be zero — just be as sustainable as possible when shopping, knowing that your purchase is helping support a hobby that’s healthy for the body, mind, or both.

4. Family Entertainment

What’s better than an X-box? (Or whatever the hip gaming console is this year.) A real life game table that brings a family together in active, screen-free play. Foosball, air hockey, and ping pong tables can be great holiday solutions for all the kids in your family at once.

To make it as sustainable as possible, I would forget about the Amazon and Wayfair options (which tend to cost less upfront, but not last as long or be able to withstand rough play), and go for a table that’s in the mid-range of cost, which are much more durable. Game tables made in the EU have to adhere to rigorous environmental standards — and they tend to be built to last — so for the most sustainable choice overall, I would look for something manufactured in Europe. There are also some very well-made American pool tables. (This is my husband’s industry, and I’ve soaked up some random knowledge by listening to him — I’m very happy to get way more specific if you have questions.)

At our house, we love active competition, but don’t have the indoor space to devote to them, so we have outdoor pool, foosball, and ping pong tables. When my daughter has a playdate that gets too wild for our indoor walls, I send them outside to roar off their crazies at the foosball table. (And I often join them, too!)

5. Plants or Plant Kits

This might not be exciting for all kids, but my daughter has recently become obsessed with plants. Whenever we go anywhere (Costco, the grocery store, Home Depot), she falls in love with a new plant and very often chooses to spend her allowance money on it. She has a propagation station set up in our dining room, and spends a lot of time trying to figure out how to grow new plants from cuttings. When she looked after our neighbors’ cats recently, they gave her a philodendron as a present. She was way more excited about the plant than about the money she’d earned.

When her friends come over, she takes them on a tour of her greenery. It’s surprised me how many of them are (almost) as interested in the plants as she is. If you think your little friend would enjoy plants too, a fun gift could be a plant kit that includes seeds, soil, and pots. Succulents or herbs are great options that are easy to care for.

This herb growing kit is GMO-free and uses bamboo markers.

This kid-oriented one looks fun. It’s not all the way sustainable (there are plastic paint containers) but it lets the kids paint their own pots and grow their own flowers and herbs, and encourages a hobby that’s eco-friendly in the long term.

You could DIY a kit with this seed starter from Lee Valley, along with a bag of soil and a bunch of seeds for them to try.

There are also some fun ideas on Plantsome — including reasonable prices on rare plants that your little gift recipient probably doesn’t already have.

For my daughter specifically, I’m shopping on Indoor Farmer — a Canadian site that has great customer service, and Mossify — a sustainable innovator in bendable moss poles (for her monsteras and other climbing plants).

You could also just visit your local plant store and play. Build your own kit, or choose a plant that looks interesting. My daughter’s friends are always intrigued by her sensitive plant — both easy to care for and a fun conversation piece. You can often find them in grow kits like this one that are marketed for kids.

This cactus garden looks fun and kid-friendly, too. (I’m bookmarking this one for my nieces for Christmas.)

6. Eco-Friendly Toys

There are companies out there who have a transparent supply chain with sustainable materials and packaging, and ethical treatment of their workers. Reward them with your wallet! (Hint: This is actually the easiest of all the options, since it just involves making a purchase.)

Some brands I admire on are:

• Wooden Bricks: Check out these wooden bricks from Once Kids that are compatible with LEGO.
• PlanToys: Wooden toys made from rubberwood and non-toxic materials.
• Brio: They make wooden train sets (compatible with many other companies, like Hape and Thomas and IKEA) and a whole range of FSC certified sustainable toys.
• Green Toys: Creates toys made from 100% recycled plastic, including playsets and vehicles, all designed to be safe for children and the environment.
• Melissa & Doug: The the first global toy brand to be completely carbon neutral in its production.
• Tegu: Wooden building blocks made from sustainably sourced hardwoods and non-toxic finishes. I love these — they feel nice in your hand and they click together magnetically in a clever way. We’ve had a set of these since my daughter was born, and she STILL (at almost 9) loves to play with them.
• Hape: Eco-friendly wooden toys and games, focusing on sustainability and educational value.
• BeginAgain: Eco-friendly wooden toys designed to encourage hands-on, imaginative play and learning.
• Eco-Kids: Art supplies and toys made from organic and sustainable materials, promoting creativity in eco-conscious ways. They have neat things that you don’t see everywhere.

Looking for a stuffie? Stuffed Safari has a section on their website devoted to sustainable stuffies across several brands.

7. Handmade Gifts

This isn’t in my wheelhouse, because I’m not crafty enough to make something I’d consider gift quality. But if you have a talent for sewing, or stuffy-making, or any kind of art or craft you could conceivably sell at a craft fair, you could create a gift with way more magic in it than anything you could buy at the mall.

8. Art and Craft Kits

There are some really neat craft kits out there. Some ideas are:

Make your own beeswax candles — from Eco Kids.

Nature Lanturn — from Play Monster (another good company with a sustainable business model)

Flower Press Kit — We enjoyed doing this a couple years ago — and it creates nifty art to hang on the wall.

Soapstone Carving Kit — My daughter has been ogling this kit since she was way too small to do it well. At 8, I think she might be finally ready!

Adult Quality Art Supplies — My daughter’s friend loves to sketch. Rather than order her a kids sketch kit from Amazon (an easy go-to from times past), we went in person to Opus Art Supplies, gave them our budget, and a very cool sales clerk helped us choose some watercolour pencils, a watercolour specific sketch pad, and a couple of multi-coloured pencils for fun. The whole experience, including supporting a local business, felt much more satisfying than clicking BUY on an item with plastic packaging that traveled here from far away.

9. Board Games and Card Games

Some favorites around our house are:

• The Fairy Game — A cooperative game for ages 5 and up where players team up to help the good fairies defeat evil Mr. Winter. This was my daughter’s favorite game when she turned five, and we still sometimes play it today. (It’s fun for adults, too.) Its manufacturer, Peaceable Kingdom, uses soy based ink on eco-friendly cardboard. Sustainabilty was never so much fun.
• Sneaky Snacky Squirrel — high competition for ages 3 and up. This was our house favorite for 2 years before The Fairy Game swooped in to replace it. (And we both still enjoy playing it sometimes for old times sake.) The company that manufactures it, Educational Insights, is conscious about packaging, and uses way less plastic than traditional board games.
• Clue — Great for deductive reasoning skills.
• Battleship
• Exploding Kittens — Hilariously fun. There’s also a 2-player edition that I have yet to try.
• Monopoly — There’s even a Go Green version now, with wooden houses and game pieces. (The original game is more fun, sadly.)
• Catan — We also really like Catan Junior, which is complex enough for adults to enjoy and not as cutthroat as the original version.
• Ticket to Ride — and Ticket to Ride Junior
• Hedbanz — Fun guessing game for kids. A favorite of my daughter’s.

10. Subscription Boxes

This is too expensive for a friend’s birthday party, but it makes a great parent or grandparent gift. One of my daughter’s and my all time favorite gifts was when my parents gave her a subscription to Little Passports Science Expeditions. It wasn’t entirely plastic-free, but their packaging and messaging made it clear that they used as little excess as possible to make each month’s lesson work. Often, the box it arrived in was a key part of the experiment itself.

My mom also sent a really cool Mail Order Mystery, where my daughter received letters with clues and puzzles that she pored over for ages until she managed to solve the puzzle JUST before the final letter arrived in the mail.

And More?

Do you have more ideas to add? A sustainable-ish gift that your child has loved, or that you often give at a birthday party? This list is an organic work in progress. I’ll add to it over time and keep it as a reference — for myself and anyone else who’s interested!