Five Great Eco-Friendly Kids Gifts

Times have changed. You can't just wrap up a Barbie Doll, Tonka Truck or Lifesavers Storybook for a Christmas or Hanukah present anymore. Gone are the made-in-china, suger-laden packages. Children's gifts now need to be fair trade and eco-friendly, or you risk being banned from future kiddie birthday parties and gift exchanges (hmm, on second thought, maybe G I Joe with the Kung Fu Grip isn't such a bad ideas after all).

In the event that you need to buy a gift for friends or family you want to see again, here are some failsafe, beautiful items that are made locally in the Bay Area and eco-friendly to boot.


1. Point Reyes-based company Coyuchi has been at the forefront of producing beautiful, elegant bedding and bath linens of the finest organic cotton, and their baby items are trusted by the greenest of parents. They have your kid covered from crib sheet to receiving blanket to hooded bath towel, which you can even get embroidered with adorable animal motifs. All of their cotton, which is grown in India, meets strict fair-trade and organic certification standards, and the company gives back to the farmers, helping them raise funds to buy and build sheds for livestock. Read more & where to buy

2. San Francisco mom Grace Welch's stylish diaper pad is not only beautiful, it made the Green Parents' List of top ten products Baby & Kids product (among their rigorous criteria, items must be in compliance with the strict lead, phthalate, and heavy metal content restrictions of the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Read more & where to buy


3. Earthlust is a San Francisco company that gets it. If you're going to have a water bottle on hand, right along with the diapers and the cell phone, there's no reason to keep buying plastic bottles that literally take 700 years to begin composting. Earthlust's handmade bottles are made from high quality, food-grade stainless steel, and each time you reuse one, refilling it with your own fresh water, you'll help eliminate waste, one sip at a time. If you think that's sexy, check out the custom made, limited edition designs, with nature-inspired modern motifs and created with non-toxic paints. Read more and where to buy

4. Bye Bye Tonka, Hello Green Toys! Green toys are made in California from 100%-recycled plastic milk jugs. Once you chuck your jug, they've figured out how to turn it into the high-density plastic (HDPE) that's the safest to use for making toys. And besides no new petroleum-based plastics (or their waste byproducts) being produced, less energy is used than toys that are made abroad and shipped back to the States. Green Toys also meet our state's strict safety and environmental regulations and the packaging is made from recycled cardboard boxes, making the whole shebang a perfect lesson in recycling and lowering greenhouse gas emissions that kids will pay attention to. Read more & where to buy

5. New Mommy Diaper Dilemma - disposable or cloth? How to decide? That's where Bay Area-based Earth Baby diaper composting service comes to the rescue. Each week, Earth Baby drops off biodegradable diapering supplies (in SF, the peninsula, Oakland, and Berkeley), and picks up your bag of soiled diapers and wipes a week later for hot-compost processing into rich soil. A gift certificate for a new mom will be greeted with coos of pure joy. Read more & where to buy

For more great ideas for kids birthdays, travel, green living and food, visit Red Tricycle.