Christmas; Green-style!

I road-tripped back to Houston to see my family, and to meet some new people who'll be entering my friend-family soon.  Four days, lots of home-cooked vegetarian food, dinner at my favorite Indian place, and tons of love later...

Merry Christmas from the H household!

This year my family really stepped up to my Green Christmas dream!  I'm so happy they did.  It was fun and everyone got a little crafty, even my bro (who knew!)

PSA: My mother would like everyone to know that she reuses her fake tree every year and all of her ornaments are reused.  She takes pride, well-deserved pride, in the fact that many of the ornaments on her tree are 30 years old and hand-picked for their sentimental value.

The following is a montage of awesome wrapping craftiness courtesy of the family!

Guess which presents are mine...

mom made bows from
leftover yarn

My bro accidently made a bow from
a Nazi article.  This
immediately sparked a
political debate!

Kuddos for reusing newspaper but try
to pay attention to the articles.  Mom
accidently used the Obituaries.  Hah!

Dad, the original crafter, used
a horrible pic of me and turned
me into an angel with cottonballs.
i'm keeping this one.

What to do with all those
address labels...

I took some packaging paper that World Market shipped to me with my order and repurposed it into wrapping paper.

This one got the paper grocery bag treatment as
well as a hand-made paper flower.  I teach
kids to make these flowers at work.

We also used a lot of reusable bags.... 

This bag has been mine since I was born.
Mom doesn't even change the nametag. I see it every year.
It is as much a holiday tradition in this house
as anything else we do.

This bag just appeared but my grandmother
made it for me when I was little.  Good
things come in small packages.

I got reusable bags on sale at OFFICE DEPOT.
I looked everywhere and couldn't find any.  Luckily,
mom knew where to go.  They were $2 or so each.
Go forth and stock up for next year!

Some of my gifts were even green Christmas gifts.  My cousin got me a calendar made from recycled products with beautiful tree images all over it.  The parents got me bamboo shades to lower my electric bills  :-)  My bro got me the gift of gardening....

Ah yes... one more hand-made Chrismas decoration to show you...

Handmade by grandma K 30+ years ago.
Everyone has one but this one is mine.

And last but not least, how to make your fake reused tree smell fresh and natural?

dad added his own "decoration" to our tree

Happy Holidays and have a safe reflective New Years Eve.  See you guys after my lovely cuddle-filled 3-day weekend I have coming up.

Kristi

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 2

In my last post I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 1, we learned about ways to decorate your home for the holidays without spending tons of money on decorations and contributing to overconsumption.  Instead you can make your own decorations with things you already have around the house or can find on the cheap.  I find that DIY decorations make the item mean that much more to me.  Anyone can go out and purchase cookie-cutter crap that looks like everyone else's cookie-cutter crap.  (How many house on a block can have that damn blow-up snowman!  My father used to make ALL our yard decorations from his own blood, sweat and imagination.  That's probably where I get my DIY-ness.)

Homemade and more fun!

Thanks for the DIY genes Dad!
ps, I don't want to talk about that dress!  It was my mother's doing.

Anyway, I digress... on to today's post - green gifts and gift wrapping.  The best ways to have an environmentally-friendly holiday season is to make your own gifts or buy them locally, and I don't mean at your local Walmart!  First off, if you need inspiration for why you should buy local, check my chica's blog poco sobre mi vida. 

Now I'm not perfect, some of my gifts did in fact come from chain stores but in my town, chain stores are almost all that exist.  So even though I had to shop at those big stores, I tried to choose gifts that would promote greener lifestyles or at least not hurt the environment (read: no gift certificates to drive thru coffee shops that dispense disposable paper and plastic constantly).  I just realiezed how hard this post will be to write without spoiling the giftees!  I will persevere!  For the kiddos, I got items that don't require electricity and aren't going to generate trash.  In fact, I'm the aunt that gives thrift-store clothing and educational toys.  (They're gonna hate me when they're adolescents and only want commercial goods.)  For the adults in my life, some are getting items that would replace disposable items that they use on a regular basis and some are getting vegan baked goods from my very own kitchen!

If I had at all planned ahead this holiday season, I would be gifting personally crocheted blankets and hats...  Maybe next year?  Maybe even some DIY decorations as gifts?  That would be doubly awesome!  Green gift-giving doesn't mean that the gifts need to be necessity items that they'd buy themselves.  You can be creative and get them something green that they never knew they wanted...  like the year I got my dad bat guano for his garden from a local cave who gave all proceeds of guano sales back to Bat Conservation International.  Yes internet, I gave my dad shit for Christmas!  And he loved it!  Got my mother earrings made from Scrabble tiles with her intials on them.  She loves Scrabble and earrings, and I guess her initials so that was a cute gift too.  See what I'm saying, think outside the box!

I myself have gotten lots of homemade gifts.  See how stoked I am with my new homemade knit hat in this video!?

 So now on to green wrapping.  This is where the creativity and fun really come together!  The first thing to do when getting ready to wrap presents, no matter how you choose to wrap them, is to turn on Pandora and chill out to jazzy Christmas music.  See that?  You just did something green - NOT buying those holiday cds and wasting all that paper and plastic.  Plus, um did I mention Pandora is FREE?  Freakin' sweet!

Now I frequently wrap presents in newspaper.  I don't subscribe to a paper (too much paper!) but I do get those damn sales circulars so I save those around gift time and start wrapping.  I chose not to buy wrapping paper because its so unbelievably frivolous.  To buy paper that will just be pulled off in a few short days?  Ridiculous, even if you recycle that paper, ridiculous! There is enough paper in your home, use that and leave your pocket and the environment better for it.

In complete honesty, this is not my photo.  I got it from the blog C.R.A.F.T.

I also frequently use reycled cardboard boxes, cereal boxes are a favorite of mine.  I use recycled boxes for everything from wrapping gifts, mailing items, and for organizational stuff around the house.... 

Canned goods container made from soda can box.
Now I have more room in my pantry!

This Christmas I plan to use recycled boxes and home made gift decorations, or better yet, wrap gifts inside little reusable bags, like Chico bags or Baggu or something similar.  That way the wrapping is green and its the gift that keeps giving.  (One of my biggest pet peeves is plastic grocery bags.) 

For more wrapping ideas, check these blogs and sites...

C.R.A.F.T for lots of ideas
DIY Gift Wrap for alternatives to paper
Apartment Therapy always has great ideas!
So do their partners, Re-Nest!

To make this recycled bag wrapping, click here for instructions.  This is the best way I've seen to fix your environmental karma after shopping at a big box store. 

Happy wrapping, ya'll, and Happy Holidays!  See ya next year!

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 1

Ok, yeah its been a month since my last post.  Sorry, I've been sick, busy, and sick again!  No, my sickness is not due to Black Friday madness and the nausea caused by witnessing those extreme levels of consumerism.  My sickness was bacterial, then viral, and now both. :-(

Today's post is all about my efforts this year for a greener Christmas and holiday season.  This year I'm trying to make my own decorations, give greener gifts and use greener packaging.

So first, lets start with the self-made decorations...  Now I'm not Martha Stewart (evil!) so my DIY decorations most definitely look DIY.  Whatever...  its the thought that counts, right?

Cork Tree found on Etsy

I'd love to have made this one and have a Christmas tree but alas, I haven't drank enough wine yet!  This gives me something to aspire to for next year!

from Emma Lamb

Crocheted garland instead of that tin foil metal stuff that kills vacuum cleaners and probably the environment.  (sorry mom!)  I haven't made this yet but I'm thinking it'd make a great present for someone.
Here's the link if you wanna try making these yourself... 




The last time I made DIY ornaments I was 7 and was making a gingerbread man that my mother hides on the back of the tree every Christmas.

from Twig and Thistle

Then there is this super-simple pine cone garland.  I got my idea from Twig and Thistle and set out to make my own.  The best part of this DIY is the hiking to procure best pine cones!  I started this last winter, picking up pine cones around my apt complex while walking my dog.  I even got my niece and nephew in on the search.  Then while hiking up in Cloudcroft, my nephew and I found larger pine cones.  Many cones were discarded because I'm picky and only want pretty, unsmooshed ones.

I don't have a hole punch so I used a hot burned match to melt holes in my ribbons.  This was done on Thanksgiving Day and if you know me you know I'm drinking wine on that day.  (Not that I don't normally drink wine, but that day its practically mandatory!)  So I'm drinking my wine and realize that I really shouldn't be playing with fire and melting things while buzzed.  So I sacrificed; I quit drinking and sobered right up.  That's dedication!

Here's what I did with the cones, hot matches, superglue and sparkly ribbon I found on sale.

Not perfect but festive!

Made my own bows with superglue

from Kojo Designs

I also made a tea wreath, like this one.  For mine I used a pizza box lid, my stash of tea, clothespins.  I covered the pizza box with leftover shelf liner paper and painted the clothespins with sparkly nail polish.  It now hangs year-round in my pantry, tempting me with lots of great tea.

Sorry, no photo because I'm lazy and sick....

from New England Design
and Construction

For next year I'm thinking a tree made out of a tomato cage and lights!  So festive and I can reuse the cage in the spring.

And who needs the real tree for the real tree smell?  At Bath and Body Works, I found candles to do that job.  Evergreen, Balsam and Fireplace!  They are strongly scented so I don't even have to burn them, just leave them out.  My whole house smells like Christmas without dragging a poor helpless tree from its roots.  Although, who doesn't just love the opening scene from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation where they go out to cut down their own tree, carry it home on the roof of the car only to let a squirrel loose in their living room.  My favorite holiday movie!

Alright, happy holiday decorating!  Next time I'll discuss green gifts and green packaging.  It'll be epic!