In the meantime, try to buy products with a minimum amount of packaging or toxic byproducts that can leach into the environment. Cut all plastic rings and other items that could and probably will end up in the path of wildlife at the end of the line. Rinse out any recyclables with food remainders that could draw an animal to stick its head inside the jar (it happens).
See a short overview of plastics and wildlife
8) Devote Holiday Free Time to Your Habitat
Throughout the month -- and including some gigs on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve -- local organizations are always looking for extra hands to clear trails, pull non-native plants, and generally improve and maintain the habitat of local parks and urban spaces. Check out this rundown of local groups that accept volunteer contributions of time and effort.
9) Avoid Products Made of Tropical Woods
Rainforest Relief has a good primer on which tropical woods to avoid, and also a set of guidelines for avoiding endangered woods.
10) Grow at Home or Join a Community Garden
You know the mantra of modern times, from slow food to organics: it's a boon to the environment when we keep it local -- as close as possible but within a 100-mile radius is better than the alternatives. Best option of all, if you have the space and haven't yet, plot your own garden of herbs and vegetables -- or develop a small-space garden with at least a few plants that will render some organic food for the table.
The San Francisco Garden Resource Organization has a list of community gardens where residents without outdoor space can get their hands in the dirt on a community plot of land. The Berkeley Partners for Parks has a similar list for Berkeley. The City of Oakland offers a few places to community garden in the city.
The holidays are also my favorite time to visit Bay Area Farmers' Markets since December markets tend to incorporate more Christmas and craft items like locally-made soaps, candles, jewelry and other only-in-SF stuff.
11) Give Passes and Memberships
From Muni passes to San Francisco museum memberships, these gifts are among the best ways to reduce the immediacy of packaging and wrapping -- and provide year-long experiences for the recipient.
12) Eco-Friendly Gifts
Things like reusable bags can be had for a small price at almost any grocery store these days. But a lot of people don't have reusable produce bags . . . or a reusable Obama shopping bag . . .or an effective sink top water filter or shower filter . . . or a Swiss-made SIGG water bottle . . . or a solar-powered laptop bag . . .
13) The Paperless Office Card
GroupCard has a paperless option for the circulating office, group, or community card. It's an e-card you'll want to open, given the personality GroupCard's tools allow you to infuse -- from font choices to personal cover images to users' ability to upload their own photos to insert inside the card.
14) Tree-Free and Recycled Papers
Non-tree papers that are virtually indistinguishable from tree papers, and recycled paper products, have been on the market for eons. It's fairly easy to find hemp paper these days, even in mainstream office supply stores. Another lesser-known and renewable paper fiber is kenaf. The company Vision Paper specializes in kenaf products. And the website EcoMall lists some sources of alternative papers.
15) Compostable Food Service
When in need of paper plates or other disposable dishes, consider buying a variety of compostable dishes, cutlery and trays. San Francisco based Green Home has a selection of compostable food service products in their online catalog. Local health food stores and larger venues like Whole Foods also carry some corn-based forks and knives as well as Biobag trash bags and other compostable products.
Bay Area cities with curbside composting: San Francisco | Alameda County Cities | San Carlos
SF Environment has a list of local sources where you can purchase compostable bags and products.
For home composters, Colleen Vanderlinden (About.com: Organic Gardening) has composting information and tips.
16) Creative Re-Use Resources
This, of course, doesn't mean re-gifting, although everyone including Oprah has mentioned that etiquette-charged issue this year. In terms of re-use, you may have seen notices for the Scrap Workshops in San Francisco -- in the context of creatively using recycled materials for art projects. In the East Bay, East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse offers a variety of resources for the same purpose.
Genuinely creative recycling of used materials takes those pieces and molds them into an entirely different object, whether it's an art piece, original wrapping, homemade books, or household items. One example, New York based Scrapile, is a company of two designers who specialize in taking discarded scraps from the woodworking industry. They then create their own original furniture pieces from those scraps.
The website Imagination Factory has a trash matcher geared toward kids, with an alphabetical list of trash items and ideas for how to use those things in art projects.
Wrapping paper and cards can be made from almost any existing paper, from newspapers and magazines, to paper bags decorated with natural items -- even from the previous years' wrapping and greeting cards.
Another great option is to avoid the gift box altogether, and package the gift in such a way that the parcel becomes part of the gift -- as in a photo box with photos or another gift inside, glassware, pottery or any other item you know won't be tossed as wrapping or junk.
There's a great UK-based website called How Can I Recycle This? where readers post queries about a certain item and ask others to respond about how to recycle that object or product. Some items may only be familiar if you've spent time in the UK. But the ideas are inspiring irrespective of the actual item.
If you have friends and family who are already amenable to more green and reusable ways, About.com's Erin Huffstetler has a blueprint for a cereal box gift box, inverted with the print to the inside. Know your audience when eco-wrapping. And adjust your reusable methodology as needed to taste.