Alternative Holiday Gift Guide: Sustainable Food, Skincare, Accessories

Welcome to the month of the alternative holiday gift guide with sustainable gifts that run the gamut from clean skincare that gives back to a women’s collective in Togo, to small businesses that make fresh, West African sauces, to ugly produce that is helping eliminate food waste.

2020 was a difficult year for businesses, and here in New York City, most small business manufacturing had to pivot to producing sanitizers, face masks, and personal protective equipment (PPE) to stay afloat. 2021 saw businesses slowly re-open as vaccination rates and stimulus funding ramped up, but there are still small businesses struggling to recover from shut down 2020.

Hence, this is the year you move holiday spending from big retailers to small businesses for those non-appliance and non-equipment gifts. Browse through gifts made exclusively in New York City and support these manufacturing businesses making unique products that you can gift to yourself and others.

 

Alternative Holiday Gift Guide: Sustainable Food

Misfits Market

This produce box has been my saving grace in 2020 lock downs.

Not only is it convenient, but it is a great sustainable gift for anyone as all produce is organic, ugly fruit and veg rescued before it goes to landfill. There are even recipe cards in each box for cooking ideas on produce, for example, I learn to roast all squash varieties and add zucchini to my regular veg dishes.

These ugly produce are bought from farmers or supermarkets who reject an oddly misshapen carrot or potato, dooming them to trash. Click To Tweet

If you follow me on IG, you’ve seen the delish plant-based meals I make from my Misfits box, which also contributes to zero waste cooking and a plastic-free kitchen.

To get 25% off your first box, use discount code COOKWME-RU2WOU on Misfits Market.

Get this as an alternative holiday gift to YOU…and others too if you so wish. Lol.

IG: @misfitsmarket

 

Essie Spice

These are West African sweet and savoury sauces and spice blends with influences from Asia and the Caribbean, that pair well with ALL dishes.

Spice up your life (and tongue) with a Signature box set of these delicious spice blends in this alternative holiday gift guide.

Everything from sweet tamarind to mango chutney to an aromatic coconut-garlicky sauce...there is something for every tongue and taste. Click To Tweet

Video shows me using Coco-for-garlic to roast butternut squash from Misfits Market for a healthy meal. I made my own guac too. Lol

I love cooking – if it isn’t obvious by now – but also love experimenting with flavours, and with Essie Spice, I never would’ve considered tamarind sweet let alone used it in cooking.

Oh… Essie Spice is vegan too and I use them in roasting squash and other veggies from my Misfits market box. There is also a recipe section to get you drooling with cooking tips and ideas for spice blends. Essie Spice is Black woman owned and you’ll be contributing to a small business with a purchase.

IG: @essiespice

 

KeleWele

If you are from the African continent or Caribbean region, I don’t need to explain our love affair with plantain. One of the first foods I learn to cook is fried plantains at 8, under the watchful eye of my grandma, and my love for cooking begins there.

Being West African, plantain can be boiled, fried, made into pottage, fritters, pounded, desserts, flour for plantain fufu... Click To Tweet

… but, Kelewele has taken the plantain affair notches higher.

Kelewele itself is a Ghanaian food of hot, spicy fried plantains tossed in seasoning and nuts, but the brand is a love affair to ALL things plantain: Plantain pie, plantain wine, plantain lasagna, plantain tea, and my fave…plantain ice cream mixed with cookies n cream, brownies, and other goodies.

Kelewele is vegan, gluten-free and adheres to the Paleo diet if you are on it.

Finish drooling yet? No? Lol. Well, hop onto Kelewele menu and order something for your Christmas meals and remember that you’re not just contributing to a small business, you’re contributing to a woman-owned, Black business too.

IG: @kelewelenyc

 

Veecoco

Veecoco is a healthy vegan and plant-based cooking site with courses and easy videos on how to cook delicious and healthy plant-based meals from Italian to authentic vegan Thai cooking. Love baking but a diet change restricts you? There are plant-based and mouth-watering vegan dessert videos showing the right ingredients for pastry recipes so grab a free trial and practice away at delicious and healthy vegan and plant-based meals and desserts.

 

6 Top Unique & Sustainable Holiday Gift Guides For All Budgets

Sustainable Gifts: Home Goods

Earth Hero

Looking for an affordable and eco-friendly online shop?

This alternative holiday gift guide covers you not just for sustainable gifts for the season but for home goods items that do not cause health or environmental harm because they are compostable, chemical-free, vegan, cruelty-free, upcycled etc.

Earth Hero is where I get practical home goods like bamboo toothbrush, compostable bags, and instead of gifting the predictable, big-box retailer pair of socks, why not gift Solmate socks made with recycled yarn from cotton and polyester? The patterns are colourfully mismatched and one-of-a kind that stand out in a sea of boring monotones.

Furthermore, there are gift boxes for all personalities to choose from – fur baby box, new parent etc – so have fun picking unique and sustainable gifts for the people in your life.

Browse Earth Hero sustainable platform for practical, affordable, and eco-friendly products.

IG:@shopearthhero

 

Bees Wrap

Are you still using aluminium foil to wrap leftover food and baked goods? Tsk, tsk, tsk…

Switch to Bees Wrap reusable food wraps that are not only healthy but save money and kitchen waste. Bees wraps are vegan and coated with jojoba or coconut oils to keep food moist and prevent spoilage but it is also pliable and assumes the shape of food. There is also a beeswax coated wrap available.

For that leftover pandemic banana loaf and upcoming Christmas leftovers, wrap them all in a reusable food wrap for a zero waste kitchen lifestyle. Avoid wrapping seafood, meats etc as they transfer smells; wash wrap with mild dish soap and air dry in kitchen.

IG: @beeswrap

 

Alternative Holiday Gift Guide: LOOP Reusable Box

What better sustainable gift to give that conscious person in your life – or maybe you – than a LOOP box?

LOOP reusable box is a waste-free, product delivery and reuse model that delivers food and household products in reusable and durable containers to be returned when empty. When you’re done with the contents, you request a take-back of your LOOP box for FREE and a courier service picks it up from you.

This model reduces single-use plastic waste from conventional products and keeps material in use as the containers are thoroughly sanitized upon return before being refilled with same product. I was fortunate to receive a complimentary LOOP box at its debut in 2019 and it is present in EU countries as well as in most U.S. cities.

How’s that for a truly sustainable gift this holiday season?

 

Alternative Holiday Gift Guide: Clean Skincare

Alaffia

No doubt many people will be getting cheap skincare as gifts, poor things. If you’re guilty of giving said acne-inducing skincare to unsuspecting kith and kin, desist, I say!

How about you use this alternative holiday gift guide to gift a natural, shea-based brand that not only banishes ashy but is socially responsible. Alaffia has natural, synthetic fragrance-free skin and hair care made with shea butter, lavender, lemon and African black soap in Togo, West Africa. They also have lovely and colourful handwoven baskets that remind me of childhood in Nigeria, but most important is their Alaffia Foundation.

The Foundation supports empowerment projects in Togo: maternal care, environmental sustainability, education and eyeglasses, and customers have the option to donate to one or more of these projects at point of purchase or anytime.

IG: @alaffia

 

HanaHana Beauty

I discover this consciously, clean skincare brand recently and I will be ordering something soon because their whipped shea butter and exfoliating body bar is catching my attention bigly.

Furthermore, Hanahana supports the women cooperatives in Ghana where their shea butter is sourced, by paying double the shea butter price, organizing health and vaccination drives, community classes and so much more!

You can be sure that this sustainable gift purchase is going to a brand with a socially responsible outlook that also keeps your skin well exfoliated and moisturized.

IG: @hanahana_beauty

Sustainable Gifts: Thrifting

The last in this alternative holiday gift guide is clothes thrifting as sustainable gifts.

Do you know that the fashion industry is highly polluting due to textile waste and chemical contamination on the environment? Click To Tweet

If you plan on gifting a fast fashion clothing item, please consider thrifting pre-loved items from online platforms like thredUP, Poshmark, and Depop, and no, you’ll not be taking clothes from people who cannot afford brand new.

Trust me, there is so much textile waste from fast fashion and people abandoning perfectly good clothes that just need a new zipper, that it’s ridiculous. I thrift skirts and blouses that need hemming and patchwork by a good tailor and they are like brand new.

Being indoors a whole year now, everyone has the time to declutter, so consider this a treasure hunt as you’ll definitely find unique pieces online as part of your alternative holiday gift guide.

@thredup

@poshmark

@depop

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Hope you enjoy reading through this alternative holiday gift guide and do more to be conscious consumers who choose to support brands and small businesses that are socially responsible.

Remember that this gift guide is not just for the holidays; use it as reference for any celebration that requires a unique gift and watch the eyes of the recipient light up at NOT receiving another boring, plastic gift.

Let me know in the comments what you like and tag me on IG if you happen to buy something because I’m about to begin ordering some too.

Don’t forget to pin, share, and comment. See you on the social streets! xxx

 

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