Celebrate your Anniversary with Eco-Friendly and Experience Gifts
Congratulations on your anniversary! You have had another amazing, difficult, beautiful, challenging year together. It is clearly time to celebrate.
So why would this happy occasion be a time to worry about the environment?
For some people, even remembering the anniversary can be too much work! So just getting a gift at all is enough right?
Well, I hear you, but this is actually the PERFECT time to switch up your gifting and help the Earth. You have enjoyed your past together? Awesome! Show gratitude for the life you have by taking care of it, and that includes the Earth.
So, I am slowly but surely coming up with anniversary presents for every year from marriage. So no matter what anniversary you are coming up to, I have got you covered.
More importantly, this list represents a shift in mindset. Where we put more thought and less stuff into our gifts, and we gift with confidence that what we give is enough. This is the guide I follow:
Buy Less. I buy one great gift, not five fine ones.
Buy Experiences. The longer you go in marriage, the fewer things you want and need. But you can never have too many memories and adventures together. That's what makes things good.
Buy Secondhand. We were raised to think of secondhand as less than. But it isn't true. Gifts can be so much more meaningful (and environmentally-friendly) if it already comes with a history.
Buy Local. If you are going to get it new, support the communities you belong to and the Earth by buying Made Near You (for us, that means Made in America, but closest to you is best). This cuts down on excessive shipping waste and does good where you are.
I will help you come up with ideas for all of these things. Because shifting your gifting has the potential to change the world and your life for the better. That's a lot of pressure for an anniversary gift, but it also creates an opportunity to do something meaningful for both of you.
This list, to me, is more than a silly collection of gift ideas all tied to an arbitrary list. I am trying to prove here that you can ALWAYS find a greener, healthier option. Always. Give me a theme, a request, anything, and we can find an experience gift, a secondhand gift, or a local gift that they will LOVE. It's always doable, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
So, let's get to it.
1-Paper
2-Cotton
3-Leather
4-Fruit and Flowers
5-Wood
6- Candy and Iron
7- Copper and Wool
8-Bronze
9-Pottery
10- Tin
11-Steel
12- Silk
13-Lace
14- Ivory
15-Crystal
16- Silver
17- Furniture
18- Porcelain
19- Bronze (again?)
20- China
Getting through these anniversaries, slowly but surely. What is the best anniversary gift you ever gave or received?
8 comments
The best anniversary gift I've ever gotten was a necklace with my birthstone. I do like the idea of an eco-friendly gift, it gives the gift a little more meaning.
ReplyDeleteWe don't do traditional gifts but these are good ideas
ReplyDeleteAwesome ideas, personally I love the ones with paper and bronze. Eco friendly gifting needs a lot awareness.
ReplyDeleteAwwwh such great ideas! I'm all for Eco friendly! And saving money too! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you added "a change in mind set". The best gift I ever received was a framed coloring page my daughter made for me with my mother in laws help a few years ago. I still have it hanging in my kitchen where I see it a thousand times a day.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing. i am all for eco-friendly. i have gift bags that people gifted me that i always regift. Dont spend any money and reuse them. Best of both worlds.
ReplyDeleteWe LOVE eco-friendly gifts around here! We're coming up on our 10th anniversary this year.
ReplyDeleteThese are some great ideas. I would like to have an excuse to get creative every year.
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