I admit, I don’t think I’ve ever done any shopping in Yaletown aside from the new Dollar Store I discovered but if you’re out and about downtown and need some of your Christmas gifts done up in pretty little bows, keep this destination in mind.
For six glittering days from noon ‘til six pm, volunteer elves – direct from the North Pole – will be at the Yaletown BIA office to wrap up your holiday presents by donation. All monies raised will be donated to the Empty Stocking Fund and Yaletown House, right here in the neighbourhood. [YaletownBIA]
Where: Corner of Hamilton and Drake [Google Map]
When: December 20-22, 2007 from 12:00 noon until 6:00pm
More Info: Visit the Yaletown Business Improvement Association website.
Update: Here’s another program on Robson Street with all proceeds going directly to A Loving Spoonful.
Where: Milestones on Robson Street
When: December 17 to 21 – 5pm to 9pm, December 22 to 23 – 12pm to 9pm, December 24 – 12pm to 4pm
While attempting to locate other by-donation gift wrap centres downtown I came across VancouverPlus.ca’s “Green Christmas Guide“. It offers up “Green Gifts” that you can purchase at various stores and also supplies some useful tips that would nicely compliment Keira’s pointers.
Dine by Candlelight – Instead of having your house lit up like a baseball field, turn off the lights and fire up the candles when it’s time to dish out the turkey and stuffing. BONUS: now you know what to do with all of those Christmas candles you have stashed away.
Turn off the TV – Do you really need to watch The Grinch again this year? Switch off the TV and engage in conversation with each other instead. Get the kids involved by swapping stories about your best Christmas or the worst gift you ever received. Another suggestion: buy a board game that the whole family can play throughout the day.
Recycle your wrapping paper – Instead of crumpling the wrapping paper up and throwing it all in a garbage bag, keep the paper to use for next year. You could also save for arts and crafts time with the kids. Another option: use gift bags or boxes that you can use over and over again. Cloth Christmas bags are also easy to use.
For more information and tips on having a “Green Christmas” visit VancouverPlus.ca.
4 Comments — Comments Are Closed
I purchased quite a few of the “greenest shopping bag” at Extra Foods this weekend for .99 cents each. Family members are getting their Xmas gift inside one of these bags. These bags are quite nice looking and are made from recycled plastic. They beat the $40 price tag of some of the trendy ones being sold out there. I like a bargain.
Ditto what Charlene says. These bags are great. You can use them for a lot of things other than groceries. In fact, I had a club function recently and we needed to get some sort of bag for all the hand-outs we were giving to our guests and members. We used these 99cent grocery bags, and they were such a hit. Everyone was impressed, especially our US guests. They thought this was a marvelous idea.
The TV is off most of Christmas day…but the stereo is on. You gotta have Bing, Frank and Dean singing the yule tunes in the background while you unwrap and chat.
A rousing game of mahjong is what the Tai-Tai usually tries to talk us into…and I usually want to hit the street for a quick game of hockey. I’d play mahjong with her, but she never wants to play goalie for me. ;-(
I love green shopping. I did get all those recycled bags (e.g. Safeway, Superstore, President Choice). Kudos to your readers for thinking about greening the environment, and to you for bringing this issue to their attention!