Facts:

I personally was raised with Christmas – trees, cookies, gifts, the whole darn deal. I liked it and as a kid thought it was mostly fun, but I never loved how hectic it was, and by the time I was in my early 20s I was sick of the whole planning perfect gifts mess.

By the time my son Cedar was born, his dad and I wanted to do something for the winter holiday season, but we couldn’t quite place what that was.

Since Cedar was born we’ve had years with Christmas trees and years without and even years with living trees. Years with big stressful get-togethers and years where we’d just chill with friends. We’ve had MANY years of trying to balance gift giving because we like the less is more idea, but just try getting people on board – it sucks. You say, please do not get me anything, and people just won’t listen.

What’s hard is finding a balance. You could be green by avoiding the winter holiday season altogether but that’s extreme and doesn’t really build any sort of tradition for kids. You could say screw green and have a big ol’ celebration with lots of bling – the other extreme. OR you can find balance. It’s finding a balance that everyone will agree with that’s hard because it’s not just your little household; it’s extended family, friends, co-workers, and more.

This year, I seriously want to make a change. I’ve managed to green up many areas of my life, but finding the perfect (or a good) green Christmas is one area where I could use some help. In a perfect world… we’d find some traditions to keep like organic cookie making day or giving gifts that are all green and homemade and personalized, and ditch the holiday traditions that aren’t working so well – i.e. extended family not listening when we say JUST ONE GIFT! Or maybe deciding to skip the Christmas tree forever.

In order to sort out my own family’s idea of the perfect holiday and to help readers along, I thought we’d get started early this year. It can take some time to plan a fun, meaningful, and still green winter holiday season. To get you (and me) going, following are some useful resources that can help anyone start planning a greener, more meaningful holiday season.

Two useful sites:

• Buy Nothing Christmas – an excellent kick off point. If you want to start practicing early you can ditch Black Friday and join up with Buy Nothing Day.
• The Simple Living Network

Two cool books:

• Green Christmas
• Celebrate Green

I’ve got some more resources coming up as well as some tips for a green and meaningful holiday season. For now you tell me – what are your plans this year for a greener holiday season?

[image via stock.xchng]

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Here’s the break-down, with links if possible so that you can learn more about these topics…

• 3% of you planned to serve organic meals
• 10% of you bought fewer gifts
• 3% of you made recycled decor
• 3% of you skipped the X-mas tree
• 10% of you made homemade gifts
• 1% of you of all vote sent e-cards
• 3% of you are recycling your gift wrap
• 1% of you are using reusable bags instead of gift wrap for gifts
• 6% of you said you’d be trying everything listed to stay green
• 23% of you were going to try most of the things listed.
• 38% of you were going to do at least two green holiday

No one said that they would:

• Use eco-decorations
• Give green gifts
• Send organic flowers

Those three above are the most expensive green holiday tips, so this might be why no one voted on them. Although, if you made homemade gifts, that’s green.

Now how did you do in the long-run? Was your holiday as green as you hoped? Are there things you regret doing? Or on a more positive note, things you’re proud you did this holiday season?

New poll up soon!

[image via stock.xchng]

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Winter Celebration Bouquet

As I’ve been whining about lately I’m home bound; totally snowed in. I’m whiny about it, because we don’t ever get snow here like this. It’s been nuts, and I know lots of folks who haven’t been able to get out to get their last minute gifts. I’m still minus stocking stuffers myself. If you’re in a fix, you can always look to Organic Bouquet.

Look now though, because you’ve got until Midnight PT Dec 22nd to order for a Christmas Eve delivery. Yeah that’s tonight. On the other hand, a nice eco gift from Organic Bouquet will likely be appreciated even the day after Christmas.

Here are some things I adore:

Holiday Beauty Bouquet

Peace Organic Cookie Tin

Life is Sweet Organic Holiday Chocolates – most adorable organic chocolates ever (look at the little leaves!) – lots to choose from.

The obsessively gorgeous Holiday Splendor Bouquet

Since I’m in the Pacific Northwest, I happen to know that you’ve got about six hours left to order for Christmas – I’d hop to it!

For those of you can actually get out of the house, I’ll be back at some point tomorrow with some last minute green gift ideas that you can organize at the local co-op or natural grocers.

[Images via Organic Bouquet]

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1. Serve organic and local foods and drinks at your feast. Organic can cost more, yeah, especially if you’re feeding a crowd, but you can get more organic bang for you buck if you start at the top and work your way down. For example, an organic turkey is a smart organic purchase because of pesticides found in poultry. Buying specialty organic bread and rolls – not so crucial. Few pesticides are found in conventional bread products. Learn which types of foods you should buy organic.

2. Create a vegetarian meal: Skipping the turkey, ham, bacon bits, and whatever other meats you like at Thanksgiving, is a great way to keep your holiday green. (Tip via our feathered friend above).

3. Use real linens: Cloth tablecloths and napkins are an easy way to keep it green. Even at the kid’s table!

4. Stay put: Getting into your car, or worse, an airplane, to travel about the country is a terrible waste of resources. Stay at home and stay green.

5. Use eco-friendly tableware: Keep the lead off the dining room table and opt for earth-friendly dishes instead. Soon, I’ll post about some dishware options.

6. Place organic flowers on the table: Organic Boutique has their new Thanksgiving selection of flowes up, and they are beautiful. Take a look at their Fall Asiatic Lily Bouquet:

7. Participate in this month’s green challenge: Buy Nothing Day will reduce all sorts of after Thanksgiving issues – gas issues, consumer issues, and let’s not forget stress. Make this a more peaceful Thanksgiving.

How are you greening your holidays? Let me know in the comments, or vote in our poll (sidebar to the right).

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

[turkey pal via stock.xchng; flower image via Organic Boutique]

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We’ll be wrapping up the poll during the first week of May, and based on your poll answers, there’s a good chance we’ll incorporate more green and natural gardening advice here. However, what I wanted to point out is that we already have one very good blogging friend who just happens to have a blog about nothing but natural gardening. In fact, I believe I’ve pointed this put before, but in case some of you missed it…

In case you think I’m kidding, here’s just some of what blogger Linette offers.

• We’ll start with my new favorite post – Anything Can Be A Container Garden
• Caring For Shamrock Plants
• Cowpots: Biodegradable Pots for Seedlings
• Making Minted Sugar
• What Is Bee Colony Collapse Disorder? How Could it Affect You?
• A Passion For Passion Flowers
• My Top 10 Favorite Herbs, Their Uses, and a Recipe
• Create a Haven For Toads In Your Garden
• Controlling Ants Naturally

And so much more – all the natural gardening tips and tricks you need! 

While we will try to work in more gardening info here, we’ll never be as complete a resource as Mother Earth’s Garden, so I suggest that if you want a beautiful natural garden that you check it out, bookmark it, and visit often.

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I was thinking of not using dowels at all but fallen tree twigs and some left-over hemp twine I have. Don’t you think that would look great? I do. Of course, you’ll fill this with organic flowers. Kids would have fun with this project too I bet.

If you’d like to make this project you can find the video how-to at Lowes Creative Ideas.

Is there a craft project you’ve turned green? One that did not start out that way.

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Of course our green audit this week involved greening your bathtub & shower. We also looked at bathroom H2O habits and the stuff in your bathtub.

Biodegradable Resting Spots – a tough topic for some of us, but something we all do eventually need to think about, so why not think green.

Bouncing rubberwood!

Green E-cards for Valentines Day plus last minute organic flowers.

You still have time to win vinyl art and snag some tree loving goodies for a discount!

Renting DVDs from Netflix: Is it green? – hmmm, you tell us what you think.

We had all sorts of items you could make (or grow) this week. From recycled plastic bag flowers to Solar Lights to earth-friendly garden pots, to your own coffee plant and some really popular homemade sugar body scrub – in fact, look for more homemade body care recipes from now on – now that we know you like them.

Books for animal lovers and for tiny tree huggers.

How to lesson the impact of food take out (hint, it’s not very earth-friendly).

Peggy introduced our newest series Hug This Animal – something you’ll want to look for on Fridays from now on. Did you miss the polar bears?

Green youth resources from the EPA and Earth Day.

Our Quick Tip was how to stay up to date with Tree Hugging Family - a post you can use so you don’t miss any of this upcoming week’s posts.

It was a super busy and fun week. Hugs to all our readers who left great comments and e-mails. Stick around for what’s coming next at Tree Hugging Family.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family