Re:think the Holidays - Re:connect with Family, Friends, and Nature

This year, don't 'buy in' to the consumerism and materialism of the holidays.  Slow down. Relax. Start a new family tradition. And enjoy the real happiness of the holidays – quality time with family, friends, loved ones, and giving to those less fortunate.

Gift Giving

Give something truly meaningful this year.

• Donate to your favorite charity. Like Revision International. Begin a family tradition to raise money for your favorite charity. Like Revision International. You get it.
• Support local businesses. It keeps money in your community and reduces the environmental impact of transportation. Support your local retailer first – even if online stores are cheaper.
• Search for socially responsible and environmentally friendly gifts, and make sure that you aren't supporting unfair labor and poor environmental practices. Look for businesses that have been certified by either Green America, or Redirect Guide. Find local craft and gift fairs. Global Exchange has an excellent Fair Trade holiday shopping guide. Fair Trade certification is one indicator that workers were paid a fair wage and work in good conditions.
• Give a gift that will literally save someone’s life.  Heifer International provides livestock to rural and impoverished people around the world, to improve their diet and their economic potential. The gift is forwarded to the community through eggs, milk, and offspring. Oxfam's 'Unwrapped' program provides basic essentials like mosquito nets, medicine, water purification systems, and more.

New Traditions

Make it personal. Make gifts. Make memories.

• Sponsor a family for the holidays. With unemployment still at record highs – and so many jobs that pay less than a living wage – many families cannot afford presents for children, or essentials like clothes. Sponsor a family through your school, church or synagogue, or here:The Denver Rescue Mission or The Salvation Army Angel Tree program are great options.
• Get outdoors. Take a hike or make an outdoor excursion with your family. There’s no need to go far – maybe to an overlooked and forgotten city park or wildlife refuge.
• Have story time. Turn off the TV and all of the lights (LED’s get the exception), light some candles, and read a good story out loud.
• Interview a member of your family or your community. Storytelling used to be the glue of communities, a way to pass down both lessons and norms. Grab a pen and paper, or a voice recorder if you have it, think of whom you want to interview, and go for it! StoryCorps is a great resource.

Greening your Tree

• Purchase a living tree, and plant it in your yard after the holidays.
• Get a permit to cut down your own from the Forest Service. Thinning trees helps manage public forests.  Plus, a permit costs less that $20 and makes for a fun outing.  In Colorado, view this website (info at the bottom of the page).
• If you get a real tree, look for an organic tree and purchase it from a local farmer.  After the holidays, don’t put it in the trash! Look for composting and recycling programs that create mulch for gardening and landscaping.
• Avoid fake trees, but if you insist, buy a used one.  As 85 percent of fake trees are made in China, and contain PVC – a toxic plastic – and sometimes lead, don’t contribute to the new manufacture of these. Look for a used one at a local thrift store or on Craig’s List.

Ornaments and Decorating

Buying new should be your last resort.

• Look at your Goodwill or thrift store for holiday decorations – they receive tons of unwanted decorations every year.
• Have a decoration exchange with your neighbors.
• Make your own decorations out of reclaimed and reusable materials.
• If you buy new ornaments, make sure either local artisans, or cooperatives in less-fortunate communities craft them and receive the economic benefit.
• LED lights use up to 90% less energy than older lights, and can save you an average of $50 per holiday season. Look for recycling exchange programs such as Ellie's Eco Homestore, or donate old (working) lights to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

Wrapping, Packaging, and Waste (oh my!)

From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent. Added food waste, wrapping paper, packaging, ribbons, bows - it all adds up to over 1 million tons A WEEK added to our landfills:

• Wrap your gift in another gift such as a scarf, display box, reusable bag, tins, etc.
• Reuse your waste to wrap gifts. Items such as the Sunday funnies, clippings from holiday magazines, hand panted paper bags, sew bags from leftover fabric, etc.
• Create a treasure map leading the gift recipient on a quest for an unwrapped gift.
• Instead of ribbons and bows, use items that are biodegradable or find items you have to repurpose.
  • Look to your backyard for finishing touches on your gifts. Sprigs of berries, branches, leave and pinecones make great gift toppers.
  • Get creative and hand make a personal topper out of dried flowers or hand cut snowflakes.
  • Turn last year’s greeting cards that you didn’t have the heart to recycle into gift tags. Cut the card in half and use just the front. This way you can still keep the thoughtful notes that count!
• 2.65 BILLION Christmas cards are sold each year in the U.S. Send an electronic card instead.
• Boycott buying gifts with unnecessary amounts of packaging that can’t be recycled.
• Regift or repurpose. If you get a new phone or computer this holiday that you don’t really need, give it to an organization that will gladly put it to good use. CollectiveGood is one of many organizations that distribute electronics to those in need.

Food

Most of us show a little less restraint around the holidays and eat whatever is around. And boy is there a lot of it! If you’re not concerned with your waistline, at least be concerned for the planet.

• Buy your produce from local family farmers who practice sustainable and organic agriculture.
• Skip the holiday turkey or ham, and eat a meatless meal. 99% of the meat in this country is factory farmed, which means deplorable conditions for the animals, and a very unhealthy choice for you and your family. Not to mention that the production of livestock contribute 51 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Travel

If each family reduced holiday gasoline consumption by 1 gallon (about 20 - 25 miles), we'd reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,000,000 tons.

• Limit your holiday travel by making fewer trips to the store. Plan to do all of your shopping at once.
• If you’re traveling to see family, think about taking a bus, or the train. Flying adds an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere, so driving is actually better. If you must travel, calculate your CO2 emissions, and plant the appropriate number of trees to offset that carbon.

Our planet is in peril. We are reaching critical thresholds that are irreversible. Simply denying the problem won’t make it go away, nor will waiting for someone else to fix it. Actions that only treat the symptoms but not the cause won’t cure the illness because they don’t fundamentally change the way we live. 

There is hope, because the cure is both simple and attainable. We are the cure – as individuals, and as members of a larger community – we are all part of the solution. Together, we are empowered by our individual abilities, and strengthened by our collective action.

We provide the resources you need to make a difference.

Become educated.  Become inspired.  Take action.