GreenDeals Daily

With Halloween upon us we'll soon be faced with the usual holiday-season onslaught of products, doo-dads and whatzits that will lose their luster by boxing day and find their way to the landfill soon after. Green your gift giving this year by giving non-material gifts - the recipients and the environment will thank you. These green gifts can be easily purchased months ahead or at the last minute and are perfect for everyone on your list: from the granola crunching hippie to the techie geek.

The old standby of non-material gifts is of course the charity donation. Choices like Heifer International and Oxfam allow you to give something concrete like a goat for a family in a developing country while sites like Just Give and CanadaHelps have gift certificates that leave the choice of a particular charity up to the recipient.

A new twist on the donation angle that's sure to be popular this year is carbon offsets. For less than $100 you can offset the carbon emissions of the recipient for a whole year. Organizations and companies like CarbonFund.org and TerraPass will even provide you with a bumper sticker so you'll have a small token to show for your generous gift. Be sure the recipient knows this isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card and that they should continue to do whatever they can to reduce their carbon output.

Online services can be purchased at the last minute but are sure to bring joy to the tech savvy folks on your list. Membership to Flickr Pro for the digital photography buff, Skype Pro to help stay in touch or Xbox Live for the gamer in the family are all sure to please. You could even give a dating site membership to a friend with no one to kiss under the mistletoe.

While some of us live our whole lives online (me included), offline services can make great gifts too! Be it roadside peace of mind from the Better World Club, movies in the mail via Netflix or Zip - these gifts keep giving year-round without leaving much in the landfill.

If you know someone with an ipod permanently grafted to their ear consider a gift certificate for eMusic or iTunes. For audio-book lovers with the same condition there's Audible.

You can keep your gift giving non-material and local by giving an organic food box subscription, cooking classes, dance lessons, wine tastings, spa visits, restaurant gift certificates or even a visit by a local green cleaning or landscaping company. Memberships to the local NPR affiliate, zoo, museum, art gallery or cooperative make great local non-material gifts too.

These are all great, but if you're like me and you start thinking about christmas gifts two months ahead of time you've got time to make something yourself. Consider art, knitting or woodworking if you're so inclined - or make your own potted plants from cuttings. If you're really cute you could probably get away with the old macaroni picture frame. Those with little time and less money should consider giving coupons for chores, massage, babysitting or a home-cooked meal.

Follow this advice and you may not have huge boxes under the tree but everyone will thank you for not cluttering their lives and the landfills with more junk. If you've had success with non-material gifts mentioned here (or not) we'd love to hear about them in the comments!