If you're still looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy-for person in your life and dread the crowds at local malls, the Nature Conservancy of Canada is offering a meaningful and usual gift: adoption.
Its Green Gifts program is in its 28th year and offers the symbolic adoption of a species or landscape in Canada.
Nine species are up for adoption. Some are designated as threatened or endangered, like the swift fox, monarch butterfly, or Blanding's turtle.
If something more iconic is to your liking, consider the Grizzly Bear, the Canada Lynx, or the Snowy Owl.
If the recipient happens to hate animals, you could adopt them grasslands, the most endangered and least protected landscape on the planet. The conservancy said over 80 per cent of Canada's native Prairie grasslands have been lost to human activity.
Also up for offer are the Great Lakes Region, the Boreal Forest, the Canadian Rockies, or the East or West Coast.
"This type of gift extends way beyond the holiday season," said NCC President and CEO Catherine Grenier. "It's an investment in our collective well-being and future and celebrates the myriad of benefits that nature provides year-round, now and for generations to come."
Gift recipients will get a full-colour certificate, a 2024 NCC calendar with photos of protected species and properties, and a ten-page booklet about their adoptee. Paperless fits include a digital certificate, a digital landscape or species booklet, and an information video.
The giver can get a charitable tax receipt as a bonus for tax time.
The program has raised $3-million, supporting the conservancy's conservation work.