(And if you aren’t thinking about any of this, apologies for that dark glimpse inside my brain.) And I was right! Here, Morris walks through the way she’s approaching holiday shopping this year and shares some great tidbits that anyone could use along the way. “To me, the biggest thing is trying to figure out what the values are of the recipient and how I can buy into those values,” she tells mbg. Would this person prize a made-in-America product? Or maybe they’re all about empowering BIPOC-run businesses? That can be the jumping-off point for your gift. “Making it special by figuring out how you align that purchase with the values is to me so much more interesting and meaningful.” This values-first shopping approach might also make it easier to shop for choosy people on your list. For example, one of my family members just moved to a new community that she loves. Knowing that she’d probably enjoy getting a gift from a local maker helped me narrow down what could have been a very broad search. Online marketplaces like Future Prosperity, which rallies against single-use plastic; Made Trade, which prioritizes small businesses and ethically made products; and Goldune, which sells bright, funky, and decidedly “not beige” sustainable products, are there to help you identify products that fit various needs and value systems. mbg’s Holiday Gift Guide also has some great ethical finds for the wellness lover in your life. As for the brands on top of Morris’ list this year, she is all about buying organic and has her eye on Under the Canopy for the home, Isto for menswear, and Saint Holiday for womenswear. Use the web as a resource here. “Sometimes it’s just a function of being your own Sherlock Holmes and Googling something like ‘businesses of color in Houston, cookies,’” she says. Opting for ground shipping will further reduce the emissions of your gift, but it could slow down its delivery. For this reason, if there was a year to normalize the “IOU present,” it’s this one. Write them a thoughtful note explaining that your gift is held up in the firestorm of 2020 but will be there soon. “That’s something that can be done totally digitally and reduces the likelihood this will end up in the landfill, and I won’t have the shipping component associated with my gift,” she says. With this advice in hand, let’s all go forth and track down some great gifts for everyone on our list—knowing at the end of the day, reusable face masks will still be very much necessary and appreciated. Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
