College Life
Green-ify Your: Holiday Shopping
Contributed by Elizabeth Nicholas, Harvard Eco-REP
December 2008/January 2009
When the Christmas lights go up, Peet's unveils the gingerbread latte, and shop windows fill up with holiday party dresses and the coziest-looking sweaters, the hippie-chic ethos of summer living can feel like eons away. But although winter and snow don't offer the most obvious outdoorsy opportunities to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle, the holiday season can still be navigated in a simultaneously sustainable and stylish manner. Here, your one-stop-shop guide to eco-friendly holiday shopping.
Nowhere in Boston is better than Beacon Hill during the holidays. Charles Street—the commercial hub of residential Beacon Hill—is festooned with garlands and lights from the first weekend in December on, and the gift shopping is first rate. Best of all, Beacon Hill is easily accessed on the T—three stops inbound on the green line will put you right at the foot of Charles Street in less than ten minutes. Taking public transportation instead of a cab is not only environmental, but also economical—a ride on the T will cost you two dollars, a cab ride can top out at over twenty.
Holiday Boutique, at 53 Charles Street, is a shining mecca of everything pretty, chic and sophisticated. There is simply not a single thing in the store—from the stacks of finely woven multi-ply cashmere wraps and cardigans to the diaphanous single-shoulder cocktail dresses—that any girl wouldn't be thrilled to get as a gift or treat herself to. If you're looking for a gift recommendation, Holiday Boutique carries an incredibly fragrant and long-lasting soy-based candle product, wrapped in beautiful recycled shiny paper and bows. I can personally vouch that before the candle is even lit, it will give off enough sweet wafts of fragrance to fill up an entire room with a light scent—"Mistletoe" from Holiday Boutique's holiday collection is currently filling up my own.
Across the street, the Flat on the Hill carries a full range of environmentally oriented products. From Green Yummy Mummy—a tome for the Hill's abundance of chic, motivated young mothers—to more soy candles, lip balms, and variations on the Anya Hindmarch "Not a Plastic Bag", the Flat on the Hill offers more than enough fantastic environmental goodies to entice even non-environmentally conscious shoppers into supporting it.
To top off a long day of holiday shopping, dinner at Figs is highly recommended (42 Charles Street, www.toddenglish.com). With low ceilings and dim lighting, Figs offers unpretentious flatbread pizza with every sort of locally grown, organic topping imaginable. Splitting a pizza and a few glasses of red wine at Figs is the perfect ending to a day that can be both sustainable and stylish.
If you are interested in branching out beyond Boston for your holiday shopping, or if the frigid weather makes the indoors seem more alluring, there are numerous fantastic eco-friendly websites that are sure to put smiles on the faces of your lucky gift-ees. For the hipsters in your life, local Boston brand Autonomie Project carries a kickin' line of 100-percent vegan, organic, eco-friendly, Fair Trade Converse look-alikes, which negates the negative environmental impact of Converses while still keeping the cool quotient.
For those interested in a slightly chicer form of EcoTherapy, new line Brook There, by Boston local Brook DeLorme, carries a full range of garments in organic bamboo, soy or cotton fabric. Her designs are all sweatshop-free, made in Portland, Maine, and available online at brookthere.com. And for those impossible-to-shop-for friends and relatives, a word to the wise: Everyone likes baked goods. Organic treats usually end up a little less than tasty, but eco-conscious EatPastry truffles, candies and cookies are dairy-free, made with French and raw cooking techniques, and use only the most wholesome of ingredients, and still manage to taste like they've just come out of the display window at Hi-Rise, Burdick or Finale. Best of all, they come wrapped in beautiful recycled boxes and biodegradable cellophane, making them the perfect gifts when you don't know what else to give. They can be found online at www.EatPastry.com.
A final word on wrapping paper. One of the most egregious environmental sins of the holiday season, untoward amounts of wrapping paper frequently end up in landfills in the end of December and beginning of the new year. Www.paperorganics.com offers a vast array of one-hundred-percent recycled wrapping paper rolls and accessories to make your packages look good while you keep on doing good. Best of luck with your shopping, and happy, happy holidays!
