Formulate a Plan for the Holidays
Halloween was AWESOME! The kids had a blast hosting a party for some of their friends and then trick-or-treating last night. But now it's over and we're all suffering from severe sugar hangovers today.
Despite the pounding headache and upset tummy I still managed to spend the morning packing away the pumpkin and ghost decorations until next year and I'm already starting to think about the upcoming Holiday Trifecta. I want to start planning now so that I don't get caught up in the festivities (like I did with Ethan's birthday) and end up making poor eco-choices.
So, starting today I will be researching all sorts of holiday ideas from free-range turkeys to recycled Christmas cards and organic New Year's bubbly. Most importantly, I will have a serious tete-a-tete with dh to make sure we are on the same page when it comes to holiday gift giving (ie: less is more, homemade is best, LIMIT THE PLASTIC CRAP!).
Some famous dude said "He who fails to plan, plans to fail". I do not plan on failing this year.
That being said, I'd love to hear your suggestions!
Savings:
None yet, will calculate each change as I actually implement it.
Difficulty Level: 3 out of 5
The planning stages are always the most difficult for me. It takes time and effort to plan and there's no instant gratification that comes along with the planning. However, if I try to "just wing it", I know I will not have the Green Christmas I am hoping for.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Day 108 - Half the Fun is to Plan the Plan
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4 comments:
Here's a few we do every year that might help. I tried to stay away from the obvious.
1. Buy a bulbed tree and plant it in the yard right after New Years. Can't get more green than that and they make the house smell sooo good.
2. We always reuse gift boxes and bags.
3. Santa NEVER wraps gifts. We've given him strict instructions not to waste our natural resources on us.
4. Buy gently used plastic toys from second hand places so you are actually recycling and the kids get some of those lovely offenders.
5. I've never been able to do away with them but you might try eliminating christmas lights. If you can do that, put them on a timer so they are only on for a short period each day.
6. Make a list for gifts and stick to it. I usually search the internet 1st to find prices and then I plan which stores to visit. I actually saw a lady one year that had her Xmas money for each person in a separate envelope and once the money was gone...that person was done.
7. Take a nature hike for pine cones and neat leaves. They make awesome gift decorations.
8. Use last year cards as this years gift tags. This is one of my faves cause you get to look at the old cards again and reuse them.
Happy Xmasing!
Jenn
Thanks, Jenn! Those are all AWESOME suggestions! I love that Santa is so eco-conscious!!!! We did #7 last year and made all of our presents from stuff found on nature walks. It was a ton of fun! This year, I'm thinking we'll make homemade cookie mixes and put them in canning jars with recipes.
The gift tags from last years cards is a classic! Great idea, and kid friendly.
One very 'spare' year, I decided to 'regift' myself, and chose the one thing I already owned and loved and I 'regave' it to myself.
It made me appreciataive of what I already had, and was quite economical :) One year I got all my favorite stuffed animals again, with big bows on them!
My mother would wrap the top and the bottom of boxes seperately, so that the lid could be lifted off, no tearing involved. I still have boxes wrapped that way, and keep decorations and 'tag making' materials in them!
I have a wreath frame, to which I have attached a certain # of pine cones, but then I fill in the rest of the wreath with pine tree prunings, or here in the desert, I gather grasses and 'weeds'. It's really quite pretty and colorful!
Do you remember making thanksgiving 'turkey' decorations from apples? Use the apple as the body, and skewer raisins on toothpicks to make tail feathers, and a neck. http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf60841167.tip.html
Here's a pictue and a link, but I would forego the olives. Not kid friendly, necessarily :)
I know this isn't what you are looking for, but it's something to consider when talking to your kids about the meanings of the holidays. I say this because I know kids aren't as fooled by parental pretenses as the parents have fooled themselves into believing they are for the convenience of the traditional lies.
Thanksgiving is tantamount to the native Americans' last supper, a prelude to the genocidal terrorism settlers practiced to make America safe for white people. The Santa Clause lie has become the epitome of the Great American Thingathon for kids already spoiled beyond belief with behavioral bribes. Gifts mean little when expected as a matter of course.
Letting ones children grow up to learn these truths from other than their parents results in that seemingly inevitable adolescent disconnect, distrust and practice of their own deceptions as justified. Just sayin'. I know, I know, bah-humbug. But you are in the planning stages and these are things for ecology of the mind.
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