Meaningful & Eco-friendly Christmas Presents

Meaningful & Eco-friendly Christmas Presents

Gifts that aren’t loud (both in appearance and sound) and actually support a baby’s healthy development. Here are our tips on purposeful eco-friendly Christmas presents for babies and toddlers. Including sustainable gift packaging!

Here at Bamboolik, purpose is one of our core values. Ideally, everything we do serves a (noble) purpose — and this value often mirrors in our everyday lives. Christmas time is no exception.

Most of us prefer fewer but useful and long-lasting presents under the Christmas tree. Contrary to heaps of useless crap (excuse our French), accompanied by heaps of crumpled up paper packaging.

Purposeful Christmas Presents for a Baby

Let’s be honest here. In most cases, babies up to one year (sometimes even older) don’t really care about the contents of their presents. They enjoy the tree, the colourful lights, the atmosphere, the sparkles, the candles (careful around them!). They’re thrilled to get things out of their packaging. Generally, babies like to play with anything they manage to grab.

In our team, we’re big fans of Montessori toys the most as they’re more than just toys. Thoughtfully designed to guide the child during play, they help develop psychomotor skills in a natural and healthy way. In addition, they’re usually made of natural materials (mostly wood), not plastic.

Our tip this year is Trihorse — a Czech-based producer of wooden Montessori toys, with values very close to our own. At Trihorse, they take pride in their production being local and we genuinely love their vision: to become a long-term partner of childhood stories at the most creative level and with focus on natural materials.

We recommend having a look at their FingerCar, a wooden vehicle controlled by one’s finger, or by an additional joystick, a pen or a marker. FingerCar helps develop fine motor skills and can ride on special toy tracks. The unique technology of FingerCar is protected by a European patent.

A gift that serves multiple purposes is the 3 in 1 Rocking Horse — a rocking horse and a baby table and chair in one. As the name Trihorse suggests, this unique rocking horse is the very first product of the company and the impulse that led to it being established. A truly meaningful Christmas gift!

Eco-friendly Gift Packaging

We see only one (and minor) drawback of FingerCar — it’s likely going to become the most loved toy. Which means you will have to carry it everywhere with you. To make it easy to find in your bag or backpack, we recommend putting it in one of our Wet Bags (size XS would be the most fitting), perfect for tiny toys. Contrary to the FingerCar, the Wet Bag can be machine washed.

Speaking of our washable bags — here’s our tip for eco-friendly gift packaging! A Wet Bag comes in handy in literally every household and for every member. It‘s perfect for gym clothes, school slippers, swimming gear, or as a washable bag for a lunchbox.

Get inspired how eco-friendly gift packaging can look like under the Christmas tree:

Send Out a Gift List to Your Family

You do your best to live a minimalistically and as an environmental enthusiast and then your baby gets many useless toys from other members of the family. In the worst case, they’re loud and made of plastic (the toys, not the family members).

If this bothers you, try the infamous List Strategy — send out a list of desired gifts to family and friends, ideally with links to where to get the listed items. We can’t guarantee your relatives will respect that but we do believe the number of gifts you don’t want will get smaller.

Gift Tips for Expecting Parents

The List Strategy is also helpful for expecting parents. Family members are usually eager to buy the first gift for the upcoming baby (especially when it’s the first in the family). Prepare a handy list for them or even better — tell them to get you a gift voucher and then it’s you who chooses what you want to buy.

→ OUR TIP: Every household with a baby can use waterproof changing mats, ideally reusable and washable (you’ll need at least two). Every baby also needs a snuggly baby blanket which can serve many purposes — can be used in a pram or cot, over the car seat, and elsewhere.

Purposeful Baby Gifts

Changing Mat	Baby Blanket

Eco-friendly Christmas Gifts for Women

And our last environmentally friendly Christmas gift tip: Reusable Cleansing Pads! They always sell like hot cakes every Christmas season and we completely understand why — it’s because they’re such a delight to use! Made of organic cotton of the highest quality, they’re practical and eco-friendly. One side of the pads is a bit rougher to give you a gentle peeling, the other side is super soft for the perfect cleanse of your skin.

→ Want to get more tips for purposeful Christmas gifts or would you like to share a tip of your own? Let’s discuss on our Facebook!