How To Green Your Holidays

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You can be festive and eco-friendly at the same time, if you follow these suggestions.

To complete this How-To you will need:

Heritage meat
Heirloom fruits and vegetables
Locally produced foods
Cloth napkins
Energy-efficient lighting
Consumable gifts

Step 1: Serve heritage meat

At holiday dinners, serve heritage meat -- meat from animals raised on sustainable or organic farms that comes from less common breeds. Heritage turkeys, pigs, and cows are just a few of the choices available. Most are antibiotic- and hormone-free, plus they're more flavorful.

Step 2: Prepare heirloom crops

Use heirloom fruits and vegetables in your side dishes. It will help preserve varieties not mass-produced by industrial farms.

Tip: Visit eatwellguide.org to find farms and markets near you that sell heritage and heirloom foods.

Step 3: Buy local

Buy foods and beverages that have been produced locally.

Step 4: Eliminate paper products

Eliminate as many paper products as you can: Use cloth napkins; mop up spills with dishcloths; wrap gifts in old newspapers or magazine pages; and send e-cards or recycle last year's holiday cards into postcards.

Step 5: Save energy

Save energy by using LED lights on your holiday displays. If you're giving a battery-powered gift, include a rechargeable battery and charger.

Step 6: Green your gifts

Green your gift-giving: Give consumables, like food or movie tickets, or a coupon for a personal service; make a charitable donation in your recipient's name; spruce up a thrift-shop find; or give something that helps the environment, like a grocery tote bag.

Tip: Buy your gifts locally to spare the environment the emissions used in shipping.

Step 7: Cut down on gifts

Cut down on gifts altogether by agreeing to give only to the children in the family; organizing a Secret Santa, where everyone picks just one person to give a gift to; or suggesting a group outing in lieu of exchanging presents.

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Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• HotHowTos
• holidays
• environment
• green
• earth
• eco
• friendly
• ecology
• christmas
• thanksgiving
• caring
• celebrating

[youhatemenoww]

wow....strange to see "1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th in the comments in the right order.

[g739]

i would be pissed if some one hadent even been bothered to wrap my present properly news paper fuck that

[dancinggymnast98]

Im not gonna lie...if someone gave me a 99 cent grocery store bag for Christmas Id be freaking pissed

[thecjdude9]

this would be the worst christmas evr

[thecjdude9]

this would be my worst christmas ever

[BulletproofCupid]

@dafranx norwegian? ^^

[BulletproofCupid]

not to sound ungrateful.. but if someone gave me only a reusable shopping bag, I'd rather they didnt bother.. :P

[WoaU3]

how to green your holidays...

You will need:

1. A home

2. Pot

3 Lungs

[WishingBabyX]

Uhmmm....How to green your holidays...How to do again....O I got an Idea! *Paint house full of green Paint* Thats better! *Check Howcast again* OH NO! I DID WRONG!

[dafranx]

What kind of foreign newspapers you like: French, Italian, German, Latin American, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Israeli, Turkish, Greek, Albanian, Croatian, what?

[electrogeek77]

I'd actually love it if someone did a good wrapping job with foreign newspapers!

[electrogeek77]

It works if it's done with care and creativity. But then again, those, along with taking pride in doing something yourself, seem to be lost amongst most people.