everydaytrash

  Some asshole in Florida beat the real trash collectors to the tipping punch by leaving fake holiday notes on people’s doorsteps informing them of an address to which to mail holiday tips.  Shame, shame. 

[Tangent Alert]

I have to say though, it was a cleaver scam.  Back in the day, before I got (unjustly and unceremoniously) fired from my very first job delivering newspapers, my wise mother suggested I deliver holiday cards with the papers one morning to introduce myself (and inspire giving).  So I drafted a little note explaining that I was thirteen and saving up to buy my very own oboe.  It worked like magic.  In the space of the next week I made my annual salary in tips. 

Soon after, my grandparents happened to meet a famous oboist after a concert and happened to tell him all about their granddaughter’s quest to buy an oboe.  He let them in on another scam: oboists often pay for trips to France by buying a few oboes in Paris and reselling them in the states for a mark up.  He hooked them up with an oboist on his way to France, they recounted my sweet story and an at-cost oboe was promised to me.  My holiday tips covered one third, my parents came up with another third and my now-very-invested-in-the-quest grandparents covered the rest.  And shipping insurance. 

I have to say, though I haven’t played since college and the prized instrument now wastes away in a closet in my mother’s apartment, that oboe is to date the best appreciating investment I have ever made.

And it all started with a little holiday tip note scam.

In what should no longer be a shockingly quick transition, it is now officially holiday (read: Christmas) season. Construction paper turkeys and all things harvest have been stripped from store windows to be replaced with snowmen, candy canes and token symbols of non-Chirstian festivals. My family has been emailing around such specific wish lists that shopping for each other has become more choreographed inventory filling than thoughtful selection. Of course, wish lists guarantee that what we get is what we wanted, thus reducing holiday-related waste and, worse, regifting. [I’ve been trying hard to see wedding and baby registries as well as brand-specific Christmas wish lists as environmentally friendly and efficient and not just tacky and materialistic.]

Green-themed gift ideas fall into a similarly questionable category. On the one hand, the products recommended are recycled, Earth-friendly and what-have-you. On the other hand, suggested gift lists play into our stuff-driven culture and I, for one, am often tempted to treat myself to a slew of new purchases at this time every year.

Here are a few of the seductive links I’ve come across so far this season…

• Fabulously Green shares ideas for the modern home;
• Green Loop compiles sustainable fashion and organic creams;
• Cool Hunting starts what is sure to be a long season of helpful gift suggestions with a roundup of stylish wrapping papers (some green);
• Great Green Baby continues its year-round mandate of green gift suggestions, while Great Green Goods includes seasonal items such as menorahs made from recylced glass and pipe;
• The Grist holiday list takes an intellectual approach to the quest; and
• The Groovy Green Blog argues the virtues of a living Christmas Tree.

More roundups of roundups are sure to come as the holiday lists come drifting in.

Feeling like a dirty Capitalist? Purge on this buy nothing Christmas link or check out the recycled trees rounded up by The Temas Blog.