Save the planet and your wallet: Give experiences instead of gifts this Christmas | Opinion

Recently, my wife and I went shopping for a Christmas tree. Like last year and the year before, we sought a modestly sized 5-foot-tall tree, which would be appropriate for our one-bedroom apartment.

When we returned to our usual tree vendor, we were greeted by an unpleasant surprise — a $100 price tag for our usual bit of Christmas joy. An entire Benjamin Franklin for a small, sad-looking spruce. I texted my brother, wondering how much our parents paid for a tree 20 years ago in Bucks County when we were growing up. He replied: “ugh. inflation.” We left empty-handed.

Inflation has been the talk of this holiday season because the “things” we buy already cost more money than in previous years. The sticker shock may already account for the (slight) dip in Cyber Monday sales a couple of weeks ago. While this may be cause for some diminished holiday cheer, it also presents a priceless opportunity: Instead of digging deeper into our own pockets, this is the perfect year to embrace buying less and giving more.

I’m not suggesting we abandon gift-giving or cherished end-of-year traditions, but every moment we pause at a price tag, we can rethink how we give and celebrate. The reason: There are so many ways to do so that don’t involve buying new things.

Over the course of the pandemic, many of us have pared down and reorganized, getting rid of the clothing, toys, and gadgets we didn’t need or use anymore. This holiday season, what if we choose not to spend even more money recluttering our lives?

Choosing not to buy new things will also benefit the planet in countless ways. For every to-be-worn-once sweater no one purchases, we retain hundreds of gallons of water and minimize microfiber pollution. For every electronic toy no child breaks by February, no one has to mine the precious metals in the circuit board. And for every gift a recipient doesn’t feel compelled to return, we avoid a portion of the five billion pounds of waste from the return packaging and the products themselves.

We can avoid carbon emissions, too. Delivery services, pushed to their limits fulfilling two-day shipment requests, often don’t pack trucks to their full capacity to make it from places such as my Denver home to my Philly-area relatives on deadline. That means drivers need to make more trips.

Giving sparkling new gifts may be the norm, but there are so many other options for spreading good tidings.

Buy used. Buy refurbished. Give the gift of repair by mending a beloved piece of jewelry, or tuning up a bicycle, or replacing a zipper on a favorite coat. Embrace the sharing economy by offering up a membership to a bike-share program, tool library, or community-supported agriculture organization. Give the cooking classes or guitar lessons a good friend always wanted. Plan a vacation. If you have the time and skill, make a piece of art. Deliver the gift of your labor. If your mother loves to garden like mine, spend some time pulling weeds — or hire somebody else to help out if you’re far away.

The reality is that most of us barely remember the gifts we gave last Christmas. In contrast, shared experiences leave indelible memories. If you’ve taken a loved one tubing on the Delaware River or offered to watch their children for a weekend, you probably remember. If you’ve taken a few hours to paint someone’s living room or detail their car, they remember.

Fortunately, we collectively possess better tools to find services and sellers than ever before to come up with alternatives to buying new stuff. From local buy-nothing groups to virtual learning opportunities, there are countless ideas and resources to get you started.

Saving money while cutting back on waste can be the greatest present of all — not only to friends and family but also to everyone on our planet. It is the gift that will keep giving.

Alex Truelove is the director of the Zero Waste Campaign for the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a national partner of PennEnvironment and PennPIRG in the Public Interest Network.