Eco-Mamas

De-commercializing the Holidays... A Swap

by Elizabeth Howard

Every year, earlier and earlier, the decorations come up at the stores. Ugh.

This year, on Halloween day at Target, I overheard one morose father contemplate giving out candy canes for Trick or Treat: the sales associates were stripping down the Halloween merchandise before the holiday had even started. Why? To make way for the lighted trees and green and gold wrapped Hershey's Kisses.

That's why I LOVE this article "12 Ways to Decommercialize Christmas" by Megan Kamerick, posted on Bankrate.com. She offers a slew of ways to take it all DOWN a notch. Number one on the list is my favorite, a "Yankee Swap" or what my Canadian family calls a "Chinese Gift Exhcange." Called by many other weird names-- White Elephant, Thieving Elves, and my personal favorite, Dirty Santa-- it's a gift exchange for adults: one gift each, a price limit, a certain amount of creativity and theft! How can you go wrong?

Just Beat It

One of the hardest things to deal with at this time of year is the pressures, most significantly, I believe,  the pressure of competition. For example, one woman ahead of me in line at Christmas Tree Shops was spending $300 on wrapping paper, stockings, their stuffers, and dozens of other throw-away pieces of junk. What for? A school Christmas party. At what point does (or has?) the "holiday spirit" become infected with something else entirely?

At the holidays, I feel there seems to be a sense that because we have the means, we need to somehow-- if not each other-- at the very least outdo ourselves. A better and bigger gift, party, tree than last year.

The decision to embrace a greener, more holistic lifestyle definitely means fighting all sorts of demons. And for American consumers at the holidays, the meanest demon of all is that one inside, something like "competitive goodness," which, if you are looking for it, often disguises itself as "giving."

Start a Recycling Program at Your School!

It's Back-to-School and what better time to kick off a great year by starting a school-wide recycling program! Check out these tips from Treehugger.com

1. Find out who else in your school is passionate about recycling and is willing to help!

2. Decide what can be recycled in your school district. Items such as paper, plastic, printer cartridges, batteries or clothing are all fair game.

3. Form a recycling club to be responsible for the program.

4. Determine who will get the recyclables to the transfer station. Some potential candidates include custodians, parents, volunteers or in many areas the trash company or town itself.

5. Decide where to store your schools recyclables until transport.

6. Find out how many classroom, lounge and cafeteria recycling containers will be needed, and then raise money for their purchase.

7. Have committee or club members make presentations to each classroom about the importance of recycling.

8. Weigh and measure recyclables and post this information for the entire school to see to encourage more recycling.

9. Hold contests and competitions between grade levels or classrooms to see who can recycle the most.

10. Find fun things to do with the funds raised by collecting bottle-return money!

11. Write to CTGreenScene and let us know how you made out!!!

Parents and School Librarians Take Note!

Thanks to this post on Treehugger.com, we've discovered that our wish for kids books that deal with issues of sustainability has come true.

"There’s a couple of new books out for kids that have just been released by the Eden Project, gotten some great reviews, and may be a terrific addition to a school library or home collection. After all, what better than a classroom or bedtime story with a positive message about protecting the environment?

The first is George Saves the World by Lunchtime, by Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts which features a boy named George, his sister, dog, and grandfather. The message to kids being that yes, you can help save the world through simple everyday actions such as repairing items that are broken and recycling regularly as his grandfather teaches him throughout the book.

The second book being The World Came To My Place Today. It’s been written by the same pair of authors with the same set of characters, but discusses where everyday household items actually come from. And with most kids today probably suspecting all good things come from stores while completely missing the connection with the environment that actually provides them, I suspect that helping kids understand their personal impact on the environment is tops on the list of teachers and parents everywhere. Happy Reading!"

The second book being The World Came To My Place Today. It’s been written by the same pair of authors with the same set of characters, but discusses where everyday household items actually come from. And with most kids today probably suspecting all good things come from stores while completely missing the connection with the environment that actually provides them, I suspect that helping kids understand their personal impact on the environment is tops on the list of teachers and parents everywhere. Happy Reading!"