If you’re having trouble coming up with an idea for a Christmas gift that either won’t cost you very much or is for the person that already has everything, think about non-materialistic gift ideas.  This could save you a lot of money this holiday season and provide the recipient with something they normally wouldn’t expect.  So how can you turn your time and talent into gift?

Think about offering a service like baby sitting to somone who really needs it.  If you know an avid traveller, offer up some pet sitting time.  You could grant special favors like cleaning the house from top to bottom.  Or you could present a spa at home day where you provide a meal, massage, pedicure and a drawn bath with candles.  A popular thing to do is create a coupon booklet with several different favors so the recipient can “cash them in” whenever they want.  Maybe you have a special skill or hobby that someone close to you has admired.  You could spend a day teaching them everything you know about that skill or hobby so they can get involved themselves and maybe make a special project together.

Non-material gifts will save you money and save the environment too.  Have you ever put together a non-materialistic gift?  What did you give?  Share your stories!

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This year a lot of families are undoubtedly struggling with finances and trying to juggle the holidays.  While there are a lot of ideas to avoid the traditional gift giving retailers count on, there are ways to reduce your financial and environmental impacts.  If you are truly set on giving gifts this year consider these bright ideas.

Limit the number of gifts you purchase by drawing family members names for a gift exchange.  Sure one gift isn’t as exciting as receiving multiples but do you really need to spend that much money or receive that many objects?

Recycling or reusing items for a Christmas gift might make you bawk but think again.  Antique stores are often treasure troves of unique gift ideas for just about everyone on your list.  Think about the items finding another life instead of just being tossed into the dumpster.

A lot of retail items come heavily packaged which is a huge environmental waste.  As you consider purchases also consider their packaging and whether or not components can be recycled.  You can also buy items like gift cards or show tickets to reduce the overall impact at the landfill.

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It’s that special time of year where mad shoppers flood retail stores for the best deals and deck the house from top to bottom in holiday cheer.  The envionmental impacts of the holiday season can be astronomical though.  Over the course of the month I will post several tips and ideas on how to reduce your environmental impact and please share your ideas too.  Where it’s a recipe, homemade gift idea or some other way you work to “green” up your Christmas or Hanukkah please share it with me and I’ll post it right here on the blog!

Meanwhile, this weekend we decided to start decking out the house for Christmas.  We put all the fall decorations away and drug out the Christmas decorations and ushered in our seasonal tree.  Most years we do our part to keep our local forests healthy by getting a tree permit and head out into the wilderness to find the perfect one.  Since we’ve moved from Arizona, that tradition is going to have to go by the wayside for awhile so we choose to go with a farm raised Christmas tree.  Some sources say a fake Christmas tree is a much more environmentally friendly way to go but I tend to disagree.

A fresh tree has provided oxygen for our atmosphere and habitat for animals over the several years it has grown.  It’s providing income to a nearby farmer and it’s keeping our landfill from filling up with old fake trees that are simply tossed into the garbage when people are done with them.  A fake tree won’t decompose and break down since it’s made with metal and oil based plastics.  On top of that, there is a lot you can do with your real tree when you’re done with it.  If you need some ideas, just read my blog post from last year on Tree-cycling.

If you happen to live in a climate where you can plant a tree during Winter, you could also consider a living Christmas tree.  These were another popular option in the low deserts of Arizona and just about every home improvement center or hardware store carried them.  After the holiday you take the living tree outside and plant it in your yard or donate it to a park or school for their use.  The only drawback with living trees is that they can usually only survive indoors for a few days because they require a lot of light.

What kind of tree do you like and how do you make sure it’s a sustainable choice for you and your family?

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Just less than six days away, people all around the world will celebrate our blue planet and share their mindfulness to protect our only home. Senator Gaylor Nelson, realizing that conservation was a much needed movement even in the 1960’s, persuaded President Kennedy to tour the nation. He spoke about conserving our precious resources and it began to get the country thinking. However, the Vietnam War was overshadowing the environmental movement at the time. Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations called “teach-ins” had spread like a wildfire to college campuses across the nation. Senator Nelson realized a similar mass demonstration could be just the key to get people thinking about their environment.

In September 1969, Senator Nelson announced that in the following spring, he would sponsor a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment and invited everyone to participate. Word of the demonstration spread and on April 22, 1970 Earth Day was born. Today many communities around the world put on Earth Day events and most calendars come marked with the “holiday” already on it. There might even be an Earth Day event going on in your neighborhood. Just follow the link to an Earth Day website where you can punch in your zip code and find out what’s planned for your area.

Over the next few days I’ll post some easy tips to help you go green and celebrate our Mother Earth.

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So we’re just days away from another one of those fantastic consumer holidays, Valentine’s Day.  It’s always been a hard day for me to digest.  You’re an absolute schmuck if you don’t subscribe to the Valentine’s Day practice of getting your honey something special.  But at the same time, I hate feeling like I’m bowing into the pressure of some greeting card company sponsored holiday by showering my lover with gifts!  Hmm, what to do?  Give in because it’s always fun to give and receive gifts and besides, my girlfriend already knows I love her.  She hears me say it probably a dozen times a day but that’s another post.

Because Valentine’s is such a consumer frenzy, it’s hardly anything but eco-friendly.  But that seems to be changing a bit as the green movement gathers steam.  Sam’s Club has announced that they are now selling Fair Trade Certified roses.  These roses are sold directly from the farm to the store so there’s no middle man waiting for his cut of the profits.  However, these roses are grown in Ecuador.  That’s a major problem for me!  How much energy are we wasting just to get those damn roses to the United States?  Sure, we’re benefiting the children and villagers in Ecuador that work these rose farms but we’re doing little for the environment.  I guess it’s a good step but I’d rather buy roses at least grown stateside.  If there isn’t a rose farm in your neck of the woods you could purchase a different type of flower from a local grower.  After all, who said you need to bow down to the pressure of buying a dozen red roses for Valentine’s Day?  It’s over done!

Here’s some simple tips:

1)    Think homemade.  Make your own card this year by hand picking some scrap booking supplies.  It will mean a lot more to your significant other.

2)    Just like you might be conscious of the food your purchasing at the grocery store, be conscious of the flowers and chocolates your purchasing for Valentine’s Day.  Is there a small, local chocolate shop where you can pick up some cocoa delights?  You’d be supporting a small business and saving precious resources at the same time.  Is there a flower farm nearby where you can purchase locally grown flowers?  That too would save precious resources and support your local farmers instead of buying those awful roses transported all the way from Ecuador.

3)    Make a romantic meal at home using organic and sustainable produce.  If your community still has a farmer’s market going this time of year, see what you can put together.   You just have to spend a little extra time shopping instead of grabbing whatever is the first thing available on the shelves of your local store.

For the love oozing between the sheets, I personally enjoy TreeHugger’s guide on How to Green Your Sex Life.  They have all kinds of links to sustainable sex products and other fine things that might get you in the mood.  If you’re looking for some “hot” green underthings, you should check out Inhabitat’s Sustainable Skivvies Blog.  My comment was, who knew going green could be so hot?!

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While I can’t wait to put up the Christmas tree each and every year, I also can’t wait to take it down once it starts getting crispy and dropping needles all over the floor. Usually I’ll try and restrain myself from touching the tree until New Year’s (I feel obligated to keep the tree up until that time for some tradition unbeknown to me). But sometimes I just can’t help it. Once the tree comes down though, many wonder what they can do with the darn thing besides just throwing it out. The answer to that is pretty simple: recycle it!

The easiest way is through a curbside recycling program with your local city or municipality. If you haven’t already received info from your city on where to leave your tree or drop it off for recycling, you can check out the National Christmas Tree Association’s website. It’s as simple as punching in your zip code to find local programs. Some cities like Newburgh, New York have gone as far as making a family event out of tree-cycling by supplying hot apple cider, munchies and a bag for families to take home fresh mulch (courtesy the freshly chipped trees) for their garden beds.

This next idea may sound silly but it has some great benefits to the feathered friends hanging around your bird feeders this time of year. Simply take your tree outside and place it in the garden or backyard near the feeder. The tree will provide some shelter for the birds braving the winter cold. If you don’t have a bird feeder out yet, you can also turn your tree into a giant feeder. Hang orange slices from the branches and spread peanut butter onto pine cones and sprinkle with mixed seed. Don’t forget to remove all the tinsel before doing this! The birds will eat the tinsel which is very harmful.

If you happen to have a pond on your property, you can also sink the tree to the bottom of your pond. It’s a great habitat for fish and provides them with nooks and crannies to feed in. This year don’t just throw out your Christmas tree, recycle it!

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As we move from the Christmas holiday into the New Year, you might be thinking about hostess gifts or party favors to dole out at all those New Year’s parties your headed too. If you’re over baked goods, why not consider whipping up some homemade liqueurs and cordials. I home-brew my own beer and have been happily handing out a pale ale I brewed this summer. Beer and wines require advance planning though, so unless you have some ready to be bottled up, I suggest homemade liqueurs. The tasty and sometimes exotic concoctions you find lining the shelves in the local liquor department can usually be made at home with little effort.

I have about three very old paperback books that are filled to the brim with just about any liqueur recipe you could think of. Any fruit, nut, herb or otherwise worldly flavor can be steeped into just about any neutral spirit. The main player is vodka but there are also recipes dealing with whiskey, brandy and other liquors. Most recipes consist of making a simple syrup to sweeten the liquor and the addition of something to flavor it like vanilla extract, chocolate extract, etc.

Tracking down usable recipes can be a quandary though since homemade liqueurs seem to have been little more than a passing fad during the cocktail heydays of the 1930’s through the ’60s. While there aren’t many liqueur recipes spread about the internet, you can find plenty in a book that’s currently offered called Cordials from Your Kitchen . That should have plenty of recipes for any aspiring homemade-liqueur maker to dabble with. I found my small collection of liqueur making books at used book stores and thrift shops…places you can easily find things several years old that people don’t want anymore. All you have to do is find some nice bottles to dress up your liqueur and you’ve got a great gift to hand out while wishing a prosperous and happy New Year. Below are a couple of great recipes you can try out:

Ginger Honey Liqueur

A spicy, full-bodied liqueur. Try it warmed up on a cold winter night.

• 3 tbs. finely minced, peeled fresh ginger root
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1, 3-inch long cinnamon stick broken into pieces
• 2 whole cloves
• 3 cups brandy
• 3/4 cup honey

Combine ginger root, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, cloves and brandy in a large jar. Stir well to mix ingredients. Cover tightly and let steep in a cool, dark place for 1 week. Shake jar occasionally. When steeping period is complete, strain and filter the liquid. You can use filters found for filtering wine at your local home-brew shop or you can just use a coffee filter. Combine honey with the filtered brandy mixture. Pour into bottles and cap tightly. Let age at least one month before serving. Recipe found in The Village Pantry’s Treasury of Homemade Liqueurs by Janet Reda.

Pear Liqueur

A tasty treat with flavors of the winter season

• 1/2 lb. mature, ripe, firm pears
• 2 apples, peels only (any variety will work, but Red Delicious works good)
• 1 clove
• 1/2″ cinnamon stick or pinch of ground cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2 coriander seeds
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1.5 cups vodka or brandy

Cut the pears into strips (don’t pare) and place in a jar with all the other dry ingredients including sugar and the two apple peels. Add alcohol to cover. Steep two weeks, shaking the jar every two days to mix the ingredients. Strain and filter. A coffee filter works great. If you’d like the liqueur to be sweeter, add simple sugar syrup in small quantities (about 1 oz. to 4 oz. of liqueur) to establish a sweetness ratio. Then add to the whole bottle accordingly. When the recipe tastes perfect and you’ve recorded it in your recipe book, purchase more pears and make larger amounts for cooking, drinking and gift giving. Mature pear liqueur about 2 months. Recipe found Homemade Liqueurs by Donna and Mel Meilach.