This year, let’s shop small, eco-friendly, and/or sustainable businesses for the holidays!
Just like last year’s gift guide, this year we’re paying extra attention to what we purchase around the holidays.
Below I’m linking to products I use and love from small companies. Many are owned by women, small families, and/or people of color. They are dedicated to cleaning our waterways, using sustainable materials, reducing plastic packaging, supporting organic agriculture, and keeping people + the planet healthy. I hope you love them as much as I do!
In most cases I’m linking you to an entire storefront with a few specific items I love and use often mentioned in the description. There are also a few dog-related gifts mentioned here and there, since we shop for Peanut at many of these places as well! Feel free to use them and starting points for your shopping, as every brand I’m linking makes tons of great gifts.
As always, please feel free to shop from your favorite small, local business before buying anything that needs to be shipped to you! I also love a good thrift store haul for the holidays, so don’t forget to hit up your local thrift shop for some quirky, unique gifts!
Very few of the links below are affiliate links (and are stated as such in the description). Thus, I am making prettymuch zero dollars off your purchases. I would make a lot more money by linking you directly to amazon for everything, but I’d much rather have you support small businesses with a conscience than make a large commission off your purchases.
Let’s get shopping!
THE SMALL, ECO-FRIENDLY, SUSTAINABLE GIFT GUIDE
UNITED BY BLUE
They made last year’s gift guide several times, and are still a favorite in our household. All of their products are made sustainably/ethically/consciously, and for each item purchased they clean 1lb of trash from our waterways.
I own and love their: hiking socks, winter hats, camp mugs, and zero-waste utensil packs. Also a huge fan of their clothing (both men’s and women’s!) and their mini dog backpack is always clipped to Peanut’s leash for storing poop bags and treats on walks! Check out the gift collections on their site for gifts under $50, stocking stuffers, etc.
ONE MIGHTY MILL
One Mighty Mill flour is the only one I keep in my pantry (it’s milled fresh daily from local, organically grown wheat!). They’re on a mission to revitalize our food system, and I love everything they make.
Send a dozen bagels to a friend or buy them for your holiday brunch, stuff a bag of their outrageously good honey mustard pretzels into everyone’s stocking, or send some flour to the baker in your life. Head’s up: they mostly only ship to the east coast of the U.S., since they’re dedicated to keeping their products as fresh as possible without using preservatives, etc. Use code BakedGreens15 for 15% off your purchases!! (affiliate code!)
LUCE FARM CBD
This small family owned Vermont hemp farm does everything with the health of people + the planet in mind, and the quality of their products reflect that. This is, hands down, the highest quality CBD I’ve used, and is literally the only one I buy. Highly recommend for anyone in your life (including yourself!) who suffers from stress, anxiety, chronic pain, arthritis, headaches, etc. It’s certainly not a cure-all, but is an incredible way to help support your body!
They have something for everyone, depending on if you want to just take a few drops under your tongue, drink it with a cup of tea, rub onto your skin topically, etc. I use their full-spectrum extract + hemp honey the most. Peanut gets a few drops of their hemp extract for pets in her food daily!
PACKAGE-FREE SHOP
Have you shopped here before? They’re a zero-waste shop committed to making sustainable living affordable for everyone. If I need anything home/cleaning/beauty related I always check here first before hitting up amazon. It’s a great place to find eco-friendly alternatives to just about everything you need for your household. They also have a wide selection of zero-waste kits that would make such great gifts!
Seriously just peruse their entire product list because I love everything they sell. They even sell a recyclable/biodegradble vibrator soooooooo I’m pretty sure you can find a gift for anyone here!
BETTER WHEEL WORKSHOPS
This small, family-run business in Vermont makes of the coolest, handmade, laser engraved wooden drink koozies (aka woodzies!!). They source sustainable wood for all of their projects, and can literally engrave any design you want into the woodzie. I bought my sister the camper design for her birthday in July, and have my eyes on the paw print one for myself!! They come in two sizes and are literally perfect for any canned-beverage drinker in your life. I even love them for just sipping seltzer!
They also make beautiful rolling pins, laser cut solid wood earrings and luminaries. Highly recommend checking these out for beautiful, handmade wooden gifts this holiday season!
BURLAP & BARREL SPICES
These are literally the freshest, most flavorful spices I have ever tried. I met one of the owners a few years ago and have been buying their spices almost exclusively since. They parter directly with small spice farmers around the world to provide them with competitive prices and access to the market that has been dominated by giant corporations for decades.
Much like my purchases from the Package Free Shop, I prefer to replace my current spices as they run out versus making one giant purchase and overhauling my entire spice shelf. Over the past few years we’ve transitioned our spice shelf to 99% burlap and barrel spices as we’ve used up old jars of other brands, so it never felt like a big investment. So, buy a few for yourself or someone in your life who loves to cook, and then you can slowly transition over time!
At this point we have almost all of their spices, but these are my starter recommendations. For baking/sweet: cinnamon, cardamom, ginger. For cooking/savory: smoked paprika, Zanzibar black peppercorns, silk chili, cumin. They also sell their spices in sets if you want to give a collection of them as a gift!
HARPER IMAN DOLLS
heads up: these are sold out and won’t be back until January! Do I think it’s worth waiting for one and giving a belated gift? 100% yes.
I don’t even have kids and I’ve been eyeing these dolls for years. This Black-owned, mother-and-daughter-run business makes the sweetest handmade dolls. They’re on a mission to add much-needed representation to the world of dolls. Every one of their handmade dolls represents a skin tone, body type, age, and/or hair type that’s nearly non-existent in the mainstream doll world.
I know it would be a late gift, but honestly this would be the most special doll for any little boy or girl to receive. If not for Christmas, add these to your birthday gift list for all the little ones in your life!
LA LA EARTH
La La Earth is a small, one-woman-show type of business. It’s run by Lauren Murphy out of her home apothecary in Vermont, and I just love all of her handcrafted products.
I’ve been using her facial toners, serums, and moisturizers for a few years, and always stock up on a couple of jars of her wild mushroom maple syrup each spring (literally down to my last drops of it in the fridge from this spring’s purchases!!). I love all of her beauty products (the honey + ghee lip balms would be so cute in stockings!) and reach for her nutritive salts in the kitchen all winter long!
This is another shop worth exploring in it’s entirety (she has a small, ever-changing, seasonal list of items available) and selecting something special for yourself or your loved ones!
SWEET SKINS ORGANIC CLOTHING
A friend recommended this small, Black-owned, hand-sewn organic clothing business to me this year and I’m so grateful to have found them!
I have a dress, a few tops, and leggings, and they’re all so soft and wonderful. They’re certainly more expensive than running to old navy, but in the small, ethical, handmade organic clothing realm, they’re super affordable.
GROUND UP PDX
Two words: NUT. BUTTER.
This small, women-owned nut butter company makes some of the tastiest nut butter I’ve had. They have such fun flavor combinations (salted eggnog! gingersnap! coconut cardamom!) and even make cute little gift packs so you can sample three different flavors without going all out on the full-sized jars.
They also work to empower womxn overcoming adversity in their community by offering them flexible hours and a training program that allows them to gain skills in production, sales, and fulfillment.
I’ve loved every flavor I’ve tried and highly recommend adding them to your shopping list for all the nut butter lovers in your life!
SECOND & THREAD CO.
This is another one-woman-show business that I can’t get enough of. Megan’s hand-embroidered ornaments and decor and SO special. I’ve been eyeing her work on Instagram form months now, and finally grabbed a few ornaments for our tree this week!
I love the simple, minimalistic design of her work. I don’t know anyone who does embroidery anymore, so it feels extra special to know she makes each piece by hand with love.
GOLDE SUPERFOOD LATTES
It’s true: I’m a sucker for a high-vibe, earthy, wellness-focused brand. Golde delivers on all three and also makes some majorly tasty latte mixes. I love the cacao turmeric and matcha turmeric blends the most.
There are other bigger brands selling similar wellness lattes, but I keep coming back to these ones for their quality and taste! Bonus that it’s a small-Black woman owned business, so I feel even better about buying from her versus the big companies!
BRAVE AND KIND BOOKS
Looking for books for kids of any age? I love the diverse selection of books at Brave + Kind! Their curated collection of books are all geared towards mindfulness, inclusion, and representation of a diverse collection of races and cultures.
They also have a great selection of books to start teaching kids of any age about anti-racism work, and even some resources for parents as well! Books are broken down by age/type, and are very reasonably priced- highly recommend shopping here versus amazon or the giant bookstores!!
That’s it! I hope you enjoyed this small, eco-friendly, sustainable gift guide! There are so many small businesses I love, but I tried to keep this list short and sweet and full of products we actually use and love! If you have a favorite small business you love supporting, feel free to leave a link to their website in the comments below so people can explore further!