Greening The Holidays

Compiled by Chris Howard-Swan

WHY GREENING AND SIMPLIFYING THE HOLIDAYS MATTERS:
Number of extra tons of trash produced in the U.S. each year between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day: 5 Million

Number of trees cut down: According to the Christmas Tree Growers Association over 30 million natural Christmas trees become a part of our throwaway society each year. An estimated 10 million artificial trees are bought each year. The natural trees are cut, sold, decorated, and discarded all within an eight-week period.

Wrapping paper: Tons and tons of wrapping paper, much of it containing metal, goes through the same throwaway cycle. Reducing the number of presents bought will have a corresponding effect on wasted paper.

Holiday cards: Typically, Americans will send more than three quarters of a billion Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa cards, according to the National Greeting Card Association. If Americans sent just one out of every ten holiday cards electronically, it would save over 30,000 trees.

What about those energy and time drainers that are hard to measure like:
All the time wasted in lines at stores and in traffic;
All the stress;
All the non-perishable and non-consumable gifts never used or briefly used and tossed away.

Before, during and after: Decide how you want to feel when you think about the holiday rush.
Guilt-free holidays: Take the word ‘should’ out.

Write a letter to your family members requesting your wishes for a greener holiday.
Traditions are part of the holidays; create new traditions for your family.
Make a schedule for less stress.
Make a budget and stick to it.
Sending cards is a gift of a greeting, not an obligation.
Clutter-free gift-giving: something that isn’t necessarily a ‘thing’.

Waste and Clutter Free Gifts
The best gifts come in no packages. Waste and Clutter-free gifts are an experience, a promise of an experience, something that is consumable, something that can be planted, something that is edible, or the gift of ‘time’.

Some examples:

• Give everyone that may get you a gift the Gift exemption card

• Donations to a favorite cause or non-profit in the name of the recipient

• Savings Bonds

• Gift cards for long-distance minutes, gas, or groceries

• Gift cards for garden nurseries, restaurants, or coffee shops

• Spa and pampering gifts

• Gym or museum memberships

• Symphony or theatre show tickets

Free Gifts:

Gifts of time, such as a gift certificate for a home-cooked meal or a day of babysitting, special activities together, or to do housework i.e. a month of dishes. To create a voucher your gift recipient can "cash in," download and print these coupons or make some of your own: http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/images/resources/pdf/Coupons.jpg

Inexpensive Home Made gifts:
Record yourself reading your child's favorite book and give child the tape or CD.

Plant bulbs, amarylis or paperwhite, in a recycled pot a few weeks before and give a blooming flower.

Handprint poem http://craftscaboose.com/handpoem.html .

Home baked goods (bread, cookies, etc.), home made carmel corn, granola, bake good mixes, soup, sauce mixes, in a basket

Hand rolled beeswax candles knorrbeeswax.com.

Home made birdseed ornaments, wrapped in wax paper and tied with pretty ribbons

Home made cleaning products

Used Gifts:

Gently used items from Ebay, garage sales, resales shops, Freecycle.org Craigslist.com and other sources.

Suggestions for other holiday details:

Trees: Buy a live tree and re-plant it. Cut your own from a specialized tree farm, this protects natural forests. Recycle it after the holidays. The Sierra Club or a local nursery can give you advice about using a live tree for Christmas.

Wrapping and Cards: Make your own wrappings and cards. Decorate scrap paper or brown bags, or try potato printing on newspapers. Save and decorate shoe boxes, cookie and coffee cans to put gifts in, pieces of leftover material could be batiked, tie-dyed, or embroidered and used for wrapping gifts. Don't use foil or mylar ribbons - they never decompose. Avoid glossed, glazed or wax papers, they mess up the re-cycling process. Use cotton yarn, twine, or decorative shoelaces instead of plastic ribbon. If you do buy paper and cards, only buy those made from recycled paper. Save holiday cards and cut out designs to use as gift tags on recycled newsprint wrapped gifts to make them more festive.

Decorations: Make your own. Set aside time for the whole family to make holiday decorations and ornaments: colorful wall-hangings, pine cone wreaths, menorahs, advent calendars, garlands of flowers or colored paper, dried oranges with cloves, salt dough ornaments, dried nuts, seeds, or seashells. Visit thrift stores and garage sales in between holidays for recycled decorations. Freecycle.

Energy: Try making this a -- low energy -- Christmas by refraining from buying anything which uses electricity, by leaving the tree lights and spotlights in the attic and decorating with popcorn and cranberries.

RESOURCES:

Websites:

http://www.newdream.org/holiday/
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Simplifying_the_Holidays.html
http://www.simpleliving.net/main/category..asp?catid=42
http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/simplify-the-holidays-inexpens.html
http://www.greensangha.org/action3.html

Books:

Celebrate Simply, by Nancy Twigg

Hundred Dollar Holiday, by Bill McKibben

The Book of New Family Traditions, by Meg Cox

Unplug the Christmas Machine, by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli

What Kids Really Want That Money Can't Buy, by Betsy Taylor

Christmas on Jane Street, by Billy Romp and Wanda Urbanska