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Buy! How about an HTC Envy or a Ford Exterminator or an Amazon Crap Box? Buy Buy Buy! Paris global warming talks and Grinchy fables about joyous singing without presents be damned, Christmas cheer is built on coal fueled crap from China.

Putting aside carbon waste, there’s also economic losses- Christmas destroys an estimated 13 billion dollars in value per year. It’s called “dead weight loss” when you convert cash to something less valuable than the cash. If people want a pasta maker they’ll buy a damn pasta maker.

On the flip side, do you really want to give a used book with a carbon offset receipt for a bookmark? You Don’t Make Friends With Salad.

One of the better ideas is tear off tickets that go on the fridge promising thoughtful things for the recipient to use: “You do the dishes”, “Clean the bathroom”, “Go on a bike trip” (provided you don’t like bike trips), or even something elaborate like “plan a vacation for me”. Works as a gift from kids or spouses. Click for a template you can print and fill out with 8 gift slots, then cut along the solid lines.

Here are some other ways to put reduce, reuse, recycle to work at Christmas:

• For older kids, give them a check or open a checking account for them, then put the effort into selecting a joke gift or a regift to go with it.
• For acquaintances, make something like cookies or ornaments. Set up a little factory and crank out a bunch of them.
• Get something used at Interconnection or Ballard Reuse. At Interconnection you can buy a great PC docking station with a USB hub, speakers, monitor, keyboard, and mouse for under $100.
• Finally, there’s White Elephant Christmas or Secret Santa as options. If you’re going to organize something like that in your family, now is the time.

Share if you’ve got other ideas, or just wait until late on December 24th and you can go out to one of our three drugstores and pick up what’s on sale.