We need to be conscious this time of year of how deeply commercialization of this season has prevaded our society and we need to try to steer away from some of it and make the holidays more of what they should be. A time for being together, for sharing and for loving. And that does not have to mean breaking the bank or hurting our planet. Here are some ideas that I hope help us all.

Keep it simple. One thoughtful gift means much more than a pile of wrapped packages of unwanted gifts. Draw names or share the cost of a gift with a relative or friend.

Make your own gifts: knit, sew, paint, crochet, bake or make recycled art.

Look for gifts that are: durable; not overly packaged; reusable; energy efficient; recyclable; and not made from tropical woos like teak, rosewood or mahogany.

Look for gifts that are made of natural components, like sustainable harvested woods, natural fiber, or glass.

When choosing toys for children, choose items that won’t impact their health.

Purchase gifts from local vendors or that were locally made.

Give a membership or donate in the name of friend to an organization they feel strongly about.

Give a gift certificate of your time for babysitting, housecleaning, meal preparation, pet sitting.

Help someone start a garden. Give them seed and tools. Help plant, weed and water.

Plant a tree in someone’s name.

Create a recipe book from your favorite collection.

Create a photo book or make a calendar for the coming year using your own photos.

For Children

Box of dress up clothes

Makings for hand puppets

Homemade bird feeder kit.

Teach a child knitting or some other favorite craft of yours. (This will last a lifetime!)

Write and illustrate a story with the child as the main character.

Create a photo album of the year with photos of the child doing fun things.

1. Turn off lights, computers, printers, monitors and other electronic devices, unplugging them from the wall when leaving your office or home for the holiday.

2. To reduce waste, only buy what you need or expect to consume, especially foods for snacks or meals.

3. When shopping, choose products that do not have unnecessary or complicated mixed material packaging which can make recycling difficult.

4. Use decorations that can be reused or go for the natural look with popcorn, pine cones, evergreen branches, holly and leftover ribbons.

5. For your lighting needs, try LED lighting. LED lamps are rated for 50,000 hours of use or more while standard incandescent lights typically only last for 2,000 hours.

6. When choosing your Christmas tree, why not go for a potted tree that can then be planted outside after the holidays? If you can’t do this, remember to recycle your tree after Christmas.

7. Reuse or make your own wrapping paper from newspapers, fabric scraps, magazines, reusable tins or paper bags. Try making gift tags from old Christmas cards. Save boxes, tissue and paper for other special ocassions throughout the year.

8. As you share the holidays with family and friends, be sure to use a digital camera for those special moments, and send the photos you love by email.

9. Instead of sending out paper holiday newsletters or greeting cards, send electronic ecards. If mailing is your only option, use 100% recycled greeting cards.

10. Buy local: The ingredients for the average U.S. meal have traveled 1,200 miles by the time they reach the plate. All of this travel requires petroleum for transport and for refrigeration. Buying locally grown food is better for the environment, and it usually tastes much better too. Choosing food that isn’t flown in from a tropical climate also saves energy and has a lower impact on climate change. When you shop at farmers’ markets, you directly support small family farmers, and choosing organic food reduces the use of toxic pesticides.

The term of going “green” or being “sustainable” is a new definition of an old concept.   We, in our human arrogance, tend to think that if we go green, we are doing what the rest of our society is catching on to.   In fact, our depression era grandparents and great grandparents were probably more sustainable than us, but they never wrapped it in green.  They used all three of the concepts of going green in their purest forms; Reduce (didn’t/couldn’t satisfy their desires), Recycle (they would re-use about everthing such as bread bags, clothing, etc.) and Renew (always giving back to what they took).  Through effective conservation, they can be one component of our model in going green.  Think about your own conservation practices that are already green for the next week.  It will be an enlightening moment!

In case you aren’t aware, chickens are pretty much like pigs with wings. Every night after dinner, the kids ‘slop’ the chickens with the table scraps. Not just veggies, but pasta (think about it, spaghetti looks a lot like worms!), meat and poultry bones, leftover bits of meat, you name it, they love it! Our oldest son said the other day that when they do start laying eggs, we’ll need a chisel to break the egg shells. No doubt. We even crush up egg shells to provide them with the grit and calcium they need. They are the first stage in our compost pile. After we mow the lawn, they get the clippings sprinkled around their pen. As we feed them our leftovers, they create, well…..which drops into the clippings. Every few weeks, we clean out their pen and put the ripe clippings in our compost pile. (You cannot put chicken droppings directly into your garden as it will burn your plants.) It’s an awesome recycling system!