DIY Gift For The Chocolate Lover On Your Holiday List: Chocolate Lip Balm

Ah, what could be better than slathering chocolate on your lips? Not much, and I bet if we dug around in the Environmental Working Group's, Skin Deep website and checked out what's in lipstick (lead, yikes!), we'd skip the lipstick and make our own. Why chocolate lip balm? Chocolate contains flavonoids. These act as antioxidants (like in dark vegetables). Antioxidants protect the body from aging. Anything that curbs aging and tastes good gets my vote.

Holiday Chocolate Lip Balm

What you need: 1 teaspoon beeswax 2 teaspoons pure Fair Trade organic cocoa butter 3 teaspoons organic coconut or olive oil 5-10 drops peppermint essential oil recycled containers

What to do: Slowly melt ingredients in a double boiler or in 30-second spurts in microwave. Cool slightly and fill recycled containers. You may need to adjust the ratio of ingredients to suit your liking.

DIY Gift For The Bartender On Your List: Pomegranate Cocktail

There's something I really like about Jamie Oliver. Foremost, it's probably because he's a champion for healthy eating. I believe he is sincere in his quest to infuse a healthy dose of real food into the school lunchroom. I also like him because he is the Naked Chef. While I think he may be trying to live down that title because of his work with kids, he swears that the reason he was given that illustrious name was because he wanted to see food striped down to its bare essentials. He says, "You didn't need to dress up ingredients or buy a load of fancy gadgets to make something really tasty." But, he did ham it up on many of the talk shows about cooking in the buff. Anyway, bartenders (and spouses, in my case) work double-duty this season serving up cocktails for spirited party-goers. Whether you prefer your holiday spirits on the rocks or hot mulled, Jamie's festive Pomegranate Holiday Cocktail is sure to thrill:

Be sure to check out all the Bartender DIY Projects - how to weave a basket of cheer, make a drinks tray, sew up some reusable cocktail napkins, make holiday stirrer sticks, and the Mother Earth Cocktail.

DIY Gifts For The Artist On Your Holiday List: Eco-Art Box

DIY is already a part of an artist's creative ethos. But it can be a challenge to find art supplies that are both healthy and eco-friendly. Artists welcome gifts that don’t add to the toxic soup they are often faced with daily. Why not give the artist on your holiday list all the makings for an earth-friendly, non-toxic art set? 3 Eco-Tips:

1. Read labels on art materials carefully. If a label says the product presents a health risk, chances are it will also pollute ground water when disposed of. 2. To determine whether a product is nontoxic, look for the AP (Approved Product) seal from the Art and Creative Materials Institute. AMI reviews art materials for toxicology. These products are safe for children and adults. 3. Take a whiff. Smell is a good indicator of toxicity. If it stinks, leave it out.

How to make an Eco-Art Box:

Turn an old silverware chest into an art supplies box, repurpose a fishing tackle box, or make a box from scrap wood to house art supplies.

Fill the Eco-Art Box:

Ecoartworks provides all the makings for creating green art: plant-based pastels, natural paint sets, hemp sketch pads, plant colored pencils, recycled sketch books, drawing books with onion paper, soy crayons and more. Include a copy of the Green Guide For Artists. This fabulous book contains non-toxic recipes, green art ideas and resources for the eco-conscious artist.

For more DIY gifts for the artist in your life CLICK HERE.

Truly Gifted: It's DIY December!

You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right? But, have you heard about DIY December? Probably not, because I am introducing it right here, right now on econesting!

Last year, I created an ambitious holiday gift guide for Planet Green. It was called, Truly Gifted: An A-Z DIY Holiday Workshop For Everyone On Your Holiday List. It was my anecdote for curbing spending, raising my eco-consciousness and reconnecting with something I love to do: create handmade gifts for my family and friends.

The introductory post to the Truly Gifted series is the only post not showing up on the Planet Green site, so here's an excerpt:

"I did the unthinkable. I ventured into New York City on Black Friday. It was mostly a social visit, but it was hard not to get caught up in the shopping frenzy. You would never guess from the amount of people who braved the stores with their fellow throngs of holiday revelers that there was ever a weakness in our economy, or that our planet was overdue for an eco-consciousness-raising. I found myself tripping over a minefield of holiday stuff and compromising my personal eco-footprint right and left. After an exhausting few hours, I was happy to be tucked back into my nest. The experience reached my deepest resolve to buy less and make more.

Sure, you could go out and buy eco-friendly gifts for everyone on your list, or save gas and time by shopping online. But why succumb to more spending and unnecessary waste? Creating gifts for others allows you to share your great green intention of respecting the planet, by passing along to your recipients the awareness of treading lightly on the environment."

5 DIY Gift-Making Tips

1. Take stock of what you already have. Scavenge around and give homage to items and materials that are ecologically sound. These items are just waiting for their secret life to unfold so that they can be restored, renovated, recycled and reused.
2. Be thoughtful about the person you are gifting. Creating items by hand takes time (maybe not as much time as finding a parking spot at the mall). Personalizing a gift is a sure-fire way to get it right.
3. Choose materials that are recycled and renewable.
4. Not only is making your own gifts green, frugal and clever, a handmade gift allows the giver to express their love in a whole new way.
5. Giving a handmade gift is a truly satisfying experience. It has the ability to transform the way we think about the holidays.

DIY December

During the next few weeks leading up to the crescendo of all winter holidays - Christmas, I will provide an alphabetical array of green DIY inspiration for everyone on your holiday list. Since I wrote a post for every letter of the alphabet (absolutely exhausting, but fun), I'll be including excerpts and new information. The posts will have an eco-friendly DIY project for everyone on your list. How cool is that?

Revving to get started?  Here's a real easy project to get you in the DIY gift-making and giving mood: DIY Gift Tags Forget store bought gift tags, Lolly Chops provides stylish free patterned, downloadable gift tags to print out and personalize.

I'll be posting a blizzard of DIY projects. So don't forget to check back each day for greenest of holiday gifts you can make yourself.

Photos: Emma Innocenti via Planet Green, Lolly Chops

Mixed Blessings Of The Holidays

Having just written a popular Care2 post last week, How Grateful Are You? Take The Test, I thought I was ready to shift into a few posts about the winter holidays. Instead I found myself contemplating a peaceful way to get away from the clutches of the Holiday Creep. Now it's time to delve into another topic that tugs at some of us as we merrily inch closer to holidays ~ Holiday Traditions. It's a biggie around here. Do you have more than one set of holiday traditions in your home? If so, I believe that with compromise and understanding, the symbols and rituals of Christmas and Hanukkah can be interwoven to create new traditions.

When I wrote about this a few years ago, I Goggled around to find statistics about interfaith families. I discovered that approximately 25-35 percent of American couples are part of an interfaith relationship. This makes the winter holidays a uniquely mixed blessing.

I’ve always approached the issue of blending Hanukkah and Christmas from gut feelings. These include sharing the best of both faiths and the richness of a multicultural extended family. Around here it is not fraught with difficulty or resentment. We are all rather enriched by the integrity, sensitivity and respect we share about the subject. When my kids were young we talked about the acceptance of discovering new traditions by reinforcing the similarities instead of the dividing differences. We stayed connected to our respective holiday traditions and built new ones together. This year is a bit easier, as Hanukkah starts on Wednesday. Then in a few weeks the Christmas tree decorations can be hauled out (we're always a little late getting the tree up).

Here’s a mix of somewhat unusual and non-traditional ideas for bringing the symbols of Hanukkah and Christmas into your home. Does your family blend together holiday traditions?

Econesting Notes:

Please check back tomorrow because I have a surprise for those of you who have a long holiday gift list. I promise to offer a creative eco-friendly alternative. Stay tuned and...

Happy Hanukkah to those who light the menorah this week!

Photo: Life Magazine