10 easy, green, cost-free ways to put the “Happy” in the Holidays
1. Gather the gang and sing holiday songs together (or sing along with the radio). Have a holiday parade in the house or in the neighborhood.
2. Have an “elf toy shop.” Spiff up toys, books and clothing that your kids no longer play with and donate to charity.
3. Read a holiday book by the fire in PJs while sipping hot cocoa or cider.
4. Coat pine cones in peanut butter and roll in birdseed. Hang from trees and watch the birds gather. (They’d thank you if they could.)
5. Go on a silent nighttime stroll in the snow with lanterns or flashlights.
6. Decorate your holiday tree with symbols of actions your family members commit to taking in the New Year to make the world a better place. Or create a symbolic family “gift” to place under the tree for the world.
7. Using collected holiday greeting cards, make “recycled” thank you notes. Use them to let friends and family how grateful you are for them, no matter whether you (or your kids) received gifts or not.
8. Instead of decorating the table in advance of a holiday meal, ask your guests to bring items to help decorate. After everyone has arrived, decorate the table together. Share stories about the items that were brought.
9. Have a backwards holiday meal with dessert first! If family members usually sit in particular seats at the table, switch these up, too.
10. For New Year’s Eve, create a new family tradition. It can be silly or sentimental. (Corey’s grandmother started the tradition of jumping off of a chair “into the New Year.” Who knows if she expected this tradition to catch on and spread amongst the family, but it has stuck and now New Year’s wouldn’t be the same for us without it.)
For more meaningfully green ways to celebrate the holiday season, check out our articles in the December issues of Mothering magazine and Kiwi magazine, or our book, Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family.
