Actually, Hagelauer figures if the kids were a little older, this might be tougher. But her 16-month-old son, Noah, won't have any idea that the train table under the tree is a hand-me-down from one of Hagelauer's friends.
As for Ella, 4, Hagelauer figures this is the perfect time to create a new tradition for her, and not have her come to associate Christmas just with presents.
To be sure, lots of eco-groups have enthusiastically published "green" gift guides. The problem is that, with the few exceptions where you can adopt an acre of wilderness or sponsor a tiger or some such, it's often just something else to buy.
Even the windup flashlight/cell-phone charger is . . . stuff.
And stuff has environmental consequences.
Aside from its own stuffness, which might include tropical hardwoods or petroleum-based plastics, it has to be transported, packaged, and often marketed by a store with all its lights on and the heat cranking.
A litany of resource consumption and pollution accompanies each step, including disposal at the end.
According to Annie Leonard -her 20-minute documentary about consumption, The Story of Stuff, is almost a cult classic in eco-circles - the average U.S. person consumes twice as much as he did 50 years ago, which is about when our national happiness peaked. We spend three to four times as many hours shopping as our counterparts in Europe do.
"Shopping is not a solution," posits the Web site www.buylesscrap.com, which suggests charities instead. "Buy (Less). Give more."
Economists (and store owners) may complain that anti-consumerism will make the economy spiral even lower.
So to stimulate the economy without perpetuating the horrors of stuffdom, why not give a gift certificate for dinner at a favorite restaurant or a sporting or cultural event?
