A sustainable Christmas gift is truly used, consumes few resources, and makes a positive impact.

The best ideas: experiences, DIY items, durable goods, and gifts with impact.

Our favorite is a tree with a personal certificate. It suits everyone, comes completely without packaging, and continues to grow for years.

A tree from Click A Tree costs €5.95 in the tropics and €17.85 in Germany, each including VAT.

Here are 9 ideas. Concise, concrete, and immediately actionable.

No time to read, but already have the right idea?

Five questions help with the decision:

1. Will it be used? The most sustainable gift is one that brings joy and is used in everyday life.
2. Will it last? Quality that can be repaired beats disposable goods.
3. Where does it come from? Regional, fair, or second-hand saves transport and resources.
4. How much packaging does it need? Preferably little. Or none at all.
5. Does it make an impact beyond the holiday? The most beautiful gifts continue to grow.

A gift doesn’t have to fulfill all five points. Three is already a strong start.

Even for the Christmas tree in the living room, there are good ideas: sustainable Christmas tree alternatives.

These 9 ideas work for family, friends, and colleagues.

1. A Tree with a Certificate
A gift with roots. The recipient receives a personal certificate and sees where their tree grows. From €5.95.

2. Shared Time
A self-designed voucher for a cooking evening, a hike, or a game night. Costs little, remains in memory for a long time.

3. An Experience
Concert, theater, pottery class, or museum visit. Memories don’t need space in the closet.

4. Homemade Items
Cookies in a jar, herb salt, or a coupon book. It hardly gets more personal. Ideas can be found below.

5. Regional Delicacies
Honey from the beekeeper, cheese from the farm, juice from the region. Short distances, authentic taste.

6. Second-hand and Vintage
A beautiful book from an antiquarian bookstore or a vintage find. With history instead of plastic wrap.

7. Durable Quality
A good knife, a thermos, a tool for life. Better to buy right once than cheap three times.

8. Plants and Seeds
A herb pot for the kitchen or seeds for the balcony. A gift that blossoms in spring.

9. A Tree Subscription
New trees every month. A gift that grows all year round. For example, 2 trees in Thailand for €11.90 per month. Any other number of trees can also be booked as a subscription.

Even more inspiration for birthdays, anniversaries, and any other occasion: 20 sustainable gift ideas.

Anything made from a few good ingredients and that gets used up.

• Herb salt: coarse salt with dried herbs from the garden, filled into an old screw-top jar.
• Cookies in a jar: all dry ingredients for your favorite recipe layered, with a recipe card.
• Beeswax wraps: spread beeswax on fabric scraps. Replaces cling film.
• Seed bombs: form earth, clay, and native flower seeds into balls. Throw them in spring, they’ll bloom in summer.
• Coupon book: ten handwritten coupons for shared time.

Wrap with what you have: newspaper, fabric scraps, jars. Beautiful and waste-free.

Little time for crafting? A tree with a certificate can be gifted in five minutes.

Small gifts under €10 with a big impact:

• a tree in the tropics for €5.95, with a personal certificate.
• a packet of seeds for herbs or wildflowers.
• a jar of homemade herb salt.
• a beeswax wrap.
• a used favorite book with a personal dedication.

For office Secret Santa, the tree has an advantage: it’s guaranteed to suit everyone. And it provides a talking point.

Because it has a triple impact. For the recipient, for the environment, and for the local people.

• It suits everyone. Regardless of age, taste, or living space.
• It comes without packaging. The certificate is digital.
• It continues to grow. Pictures and updates from the project will remind them of your gift months later.
• It creates fair work. People in Thailand, Ghana, and the Philippines plant and care for the trees.
• It sequesters CO2. And creates new habitats for animals and plants.

If you plant in Germany, we additionally create 1 m² of wildflower meadow per tree. For bees and butterflies.

Click A Tree is a B Corp with top global ratings and an official UN partner for ecosystem restoration. We have already planted over 300,000 trees.

GPS coordinates are provided for every reforestation project. So everyone can see where their forest is growing.

In three steps. It takes about five minutes.

1. Select the number of trees on clickatree.com/machen. One-time or as a subscription.
2. Tell us the name to appear on the certificate.
3. We will create the personal certificate and send it to you by email. Print it out, put it in a card, done.

Certificates require 2 to 3 days’ notice. Therefore, please order by December 15th. Then your certificate will definitely arrive before Christmas Eve.

The recipient will then receive pictures and updates from the project. This way, the joy grows beyond Christmas.

From €5.95 including VAT. The personal certificate is included.

Prefer a gift that grows every month? Our Impact Packages by subscription:

Any other number of trees can also be booked as a subscription.

A small forest for the whole family? Ten trees in the tropics cost €59.50.

Looking for gifts for employees or customers? Then read our guide on corporate Christmas gifts.