It doesn’t cost more to be green, and you can even save money if you do it right. It may take a little creativity during the holiday season, when you are giving gifts and hosting friends. Here are our ideas, products, and savings to start your holiday season off brightly.

Give memories not stuff
One of the founding principles of Chinook book is to give the gift of an experience, activity, or event instead of purchasing an item. We recommend:

• Restaurant gift certificates
• Theater or museum tickets and membership
• Tickets to the Japanese Garden or Chinese Classical Garden
• Yoga classes or gym membership
• Euphoria Dance Studio classes (coupon 50% off)
• Cross-country of snowshoe rental at Otto’s Ski Shop (coupon 2 for 1)
• A hike with The Mazamas (coupon Free) or TrackersNW (coupon 15% off)
• A skate session at Department of Skateboarding (coupon 2 for 1)
• Introductory climbing lesson at Portland Rock Gym (coupon 2 for 1)
• Donate to Sisters of the Road to support food and care for those in need. Donations before December 31st will be matched 50 cents to the dollar. This Portland agency is seeing increased need but fewer donations, and needs assistance this winter.

LED lights
LED lights may cost a little more but they last 20 times longer and use a fraction of the energy. This year they come in indoor & outdoor models and a wide variety of colors and  sizes. We even saw a snowflake shape. While shopping we spotted a Phillips LED package that said you could save $80 in energy use in just one season. Ask at one of our hardware stores with coupons.

Wrapping paper
There are a number of great options for wrapping your goodies, including recycled content paper, reusable bags in heavy paper or fabric, or go grab and reuse the colorful Sunday comics with leftover ribbon. You can make simple fabric bags with fabric scraps and bobbles from other projects. For creative inspiration and supplies shop at the art supplies reuse center SCRAP (coupon 25% off).

Farmers market flowers and wreaths
Support local farms by purchasing wreaths and seasonal flowers from farmers markets. The Portland Farmers Market is open through December 20th at the PSU location and features a gift station on Saturdays where shoppers can bring purchases to be wrapped for free.

When possible, select organically grown flowers. To send organically grown flowers and wreaths online, use OrganicBouquet.

Image: Creative Commons Flickr/Aunt Owwee

Locally made crafts

• Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale December 14th
• Portland Saturday Market open through December 24th (coupon 50% off)
• Made in Oregon Store (10-15% off)

Recycled content/soy ink cards
Mail your greetings on cards printed on recycled paper using soy inks. This is a great example of something you can make yourself with leftover materials instead of purchasing new.

Soy, beeswax, and bamboo candles
Burning non-petroleum based candles is better for indoor air quality and avoids introducing synthetic additives into your home.

• Make your own beeswax candles with colored beeswax from the Spring Creek Store (coupon $5 off).
• Bamboo candles are available at The Monkey & The Rat (20% off).

Fair Trade or Direct Trade decorations

• Artisinal crafts from Ten Thousand Villages (coupon 20% off)
• The Monkey & the Rat (20% off)
• Mirador Community Store (25% off)

Hostess gifts
When selecting a bottle of wine to bring to a host home, look for certifications including Organic, LIVE (low input viticulture and ecology) and Oregon Certified Sustainable (OCS) Wine. Salmon Safe Wine is a certification issued by Oregon Tilth to protect water quality and fish habitat.

• Dagoba Organic chocolates (coupon $1 off)
• Equal Exchange fairly traded chocolates, teas, and coffee (coupons 50c-$1 off)
• Zhena’s Gypsy Tea (coupon $1 off)
• Organic India Tea (coupon $1 off)
• Stash Tea (coupon 65 c off)
• Numi Organic Tea (coupon $1 off 2)
• Organic free trade olive oil from Indigo Traders (coupon 20% off)
• Or give Chinook Book with all these coupons

Give Chinook Book

Chinook Book, now in the ninth edition, is our guide with coupons, maps and resources for living green. All businesses featured in print EcoMetro guides and on ecometro.com need to meet our EcoMetro criteria. The central goal of the EcoMetro criteria is to provide meaningful guidance to consumers on purchasing products and services having reduced environmental impacts.

View all the coupon and retail locations for Chinook Book.