10 Inexpensive Gifts & 5 Ways to Help the Earth During the Holidays

Yesterday we posted the 7 Reasons Christmas is Not a Big Deal in Our House along with a video about consumerism and commercialism (check it out!). We wanted to also offer some alternatives to traditional gift giving and ways that we can all be more conscious about protecting the earth during the holidays. We got these lists from The Center for a New American Dream.

10 Inexpensive Gifts

1. GIVE THE GIFT OF TIME by creating your own gift card for a service (e.g., babysitting, carwashing, petsitting, chores, making dinner, organizing an outing).

2. GIVE A HANDMADE GIFT like a memoir of cherished memories with that person, a book of family recipes, a collage of pictures and mementos, or a calendar filled with the birthdays and anniversaries of friends and family.

3. OFFER TO TEACH A SKILL YOU POSSESS (e.g., knitting, photography, computer skills, financial planning, a foreign language, music lessons, canning tomatoes, cooking a favorite recipe).

4. CONSIDER LESS GIMMICKY, LESS COMMERCIAL GIFTS for children, such as arts/crafts supplies, books, a magnifying glass, or building blocks.

5. CREATE A PAPERLESS HOLIDAY LETTER on the computer and email it to friends and family. If you do send cards by mail, make your own cards or buy cards made from 100% recycled materials.

6. HAVE A WHITE ELEPHANT PARTY at the office instead of a traditional gift exchange, where each person brings a wrapped secondhand item in good condition, or do a cookie exchange.

7. DRAW NAMES IN YOUR FAMILY FOR GIFT-GIVING (for extra fun and surprise, make it "Secret Santas"), so that you can put more time and thought into one gift instead of having to give to several people.

8. SHOP FOR USED ITEMS for all or most of your holiday gifts (e.g., local thrift store, Craigslist, Freecycle, used products on Amazon or eBay).

9. SHARE THE GIFT OF MUSIC by caroling, and include visits to elderly neighbors or a nursing home. Or, gather friends and family for an in-home holiday sing-a-long.

10. GIVE BACK TO YOUR COMMUNITY by preparing care packages for the homeless, or volunteering at an organization to help those in need during the holiday season.

5 Ways to Help the Earth During the Holidays

1. ADOPT A "LESS IS MORE" ATTITUDE toward holiday decorating. Opt for natural trimmings such as clippings from local evergreens and holly bushes.

2. SAVE PAPER by wrapping gifts in newspaper comics, junk mail, paper bags decorated with markers, old maps, phone books, or other reused paper.

3. PREPARE YOUR HOLIDAY MEALS with as many seasonal, locally grown, and/or organic foods as possible.

4. REDUCE JUNK MAIL by removing your name from mailing lists of unwanted holiday catalogs. For more tips on how to do this, go to http://www.newdream.org/programs/beyond-consumerism/avoiding-advertising.

5. CELEBRATE BUY NOTHING DAY on November 25 (see http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd) and spend that day doing community service, visiting an elderly friend, or helping a neighbor.

Can you think of other inexpensive gifts or ways to help the earth during the holidays (or any time of year)?

7 Reasons Why Christmas Is Not a Big Deal in Our Household

There are a few reasons we don't really celebrate Christmas in our house (read the list below if you care to know them all) but the main reason is that we want to break the cycle of consumerism in our family. We are not complete Scrooges--we still hang out with friends and family--we just do not do presents.

Watch this five-minute video from The Center for a New American Dream and see what consumerism and commercialism are doing to our society and find out what you can do to help break the cycle in your home.

Reasons Christmas isn't a big celebration to the Mabons

1. We are not sure if it's really even Christ's birthday
2. Is Christmas a Biblical celebration? In first chapter of Isaiah, it says God hates the celebrations of a rebellious nation and in the second chapter of Colossians, it says that religious celebrations are just a shadow of things to come; the reality is found in Christ
3. Would Christ want us to make such a big deal out of this day and treat our fellow man in such a way (think Black Friday craziness)?
4. We don't really like shopping
5. We want to teach our children not to be tied to STUFF and we have noticed that they lose interest in the stuff that we buy them, anyway! They pay more attention to and have more fun with my old clothes, scratch paper, and empty cardboard boxes!
6. We should have the spirit of giving, joy, peace, and love EVERYDAY of the year
7. Instead of just getting together with friends and family and focusing on presents during this time, what can we do to help the poor, our neighbors, widows, and orphans (this is a real question we have for ourselves--we are not passing judgement on everyone else)?

11 Steps YOU can take to break commercialism and consumerism in your life (from the video)

1. Know why you are focused on material possessions (insecure, unhappy, etc)
2. Instead of buying something to cope, spend time with friends or family
3. Use "ad block" to hide advertisements on the internet
4. Press "mute" during commercials on television programs
5. Get active--don't watch so much television!
6. Work to remove ads from public spaces and from our children's schools
7. Promote intrinsic values (growing as a person, being close to one's family and friends, improving broader world)
8. Spend time with people you care about
9. Take meaningful work, even if it pays less
10. Volunteer for causes you care about
11. Advocate for policies that promote intrinsic values and push for broader societal change

What do you think about the video and/or the fact that Christmas is not a major celebration for us? Leave a comment below!

How to make Homemade Laundry Detergent in Less Than 5 Minutes!

We like to MAKE our laundry detergent for a few reasons.

• We want to save our money
• We want to be good to the earth that God gave us and making our own detergent causes less waste in the environment

If you would like to make your own powder detergent at home, you will need:
Blender (food processor)
Plastic container (to hold new detergent)
1 cup of ground up soap (equates to about 1 bar of Ivory or 1/4 bar of Zote)*
1/2 cup of Borax
1/2 cup of Oxygen Cleaner (Oxi-Clean or Arm & Hammer Washing Powder)

Mix all ingredients together.

Use 1 or 2 tablespoons every time you wash. This recipe will yield enough for 32 to 64 loads depending on how much you use each time, which equates to about $0.03 per wash!

We use this for ALL of our clothes including our infant's clothes.

*You can find Zote or Fels Naptha in the laundry aisle at your grocery store



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