This post is a part of A Greener Christmas Guide, a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the holidays with a lighter impact on the earth.  For more of this series, please visit A Greener Christmas Guide.

Every year at this time, my hometown in the United States starts a huge campaign that urges citizens to BUY LOCAL with five exclamation points.  I’m not really sure what that means, and everyone in town seems to have a different idea.  So is it:

I’m pretty sure the city’s reason to urge local shopping is the economic benefit of a few bucks, which is good.  They don’t really mention the green effects of shopping locally… which makes any of the above answers even better.

When you buy locally, you’re reducing vehicle emissions and your carbon footprint because it’s more efficient for huge semis and trains to transport our stuff than for all of us to drive 60 kilometers.  When the products you buy are made locally, you’re saving hundreds (probably thousands) of shipping miles.  Bonus points when the products you buy are actually grown and produced locally.

Buying Local Food

Unfortunately, you can’t find local products very easily in the grocery store.  I’m not really sure why.  Our family is puzzled and way too frustrated by the fact that our local chain grocery stores back in the US doesn’t sell tortillas made 30 miles away or ice cream made 90 minutes away.  Instead, their tortillas and ice cream come from factories over a thousand miles away.  Products that are shipped so far usually have more chemicals, additives, and preservatives, so they’re already not as eco-friendly as local foods before they even load the truck to start their journey.

Most of my neighbors have no idea that they can find the exact same food sources so close to home.  It’s like citizens of big beef-producing states don’t even get hamburgers from local cows.  Shop locally?

That’s one of the greatest benefit of organic and locally-owned grocery stores.  They’re more likely to carry these local items or be open to considering them.  Martin and I ask every US grocery store we shop at to consider local products.  Only two have responded – they are family businesses.

Want To Give Some Local Yummies This Holiday?

Finding Not-Made-In-China Stuff

The paintbrush I coated our house in yellow with was made in Germany.  So was our level, and I think the screws were, too.  Germany works hard to carry the “Made in Germany” logo.  But short of Nalgene water bottles and Maglites, we don’t see much “Made in USA” logos.  That’s why we started looking locally for our US holiday gifts.

Want some local ideas?

Ready to Take the Local Challenge?

So instead of buying a poinsettia this year  consider thinking a little locally (any idea how many miles those things travel?  I have no idea  UPDATE: A local nursery two miles from my parents house grows its own poinsettias in green houses).  Buy local gifts and Mother Earth will thank you.  I’ll thank you.  And best of all?  the recipient will thank you.

Now spill it.  Any local gift ideas up your sleeves?  Won’t you leave us some ideas and spread some green holiday cheer?

(Images from SparksChamber and MySmallBusiness)

Raise your hand if you’re drooling over the thought of tasty Thanksgiving food.

One… two… three… (Martin!  You can only hold up one hand.  Put that other one down.)  I guess we can’t help it.  Thanksgiving makes us giddy.  Things were a little crowded.  I think we had ten people squished into our 250 square-foot living room/kitchen.  The table filled the entire room.  Martin sat on the step stool, and I’m not exactly sure what it was I was sitting on.  We barely noticed with these cool made-from-scratch yummies:

 
Here’s a shot my father-in-law took.  Thankfully, my plate didn’t make it to the table yet (otherwise I might not be sharing this picture!)

So good luck with all of the tastiness at your house.  May Thanksgiving be filled with blessings, great people, and good food.

(Image for Making This Home)

The thought of shoving a Thanksgiving turkey into this oven gave me shivers:

So you know what?  I didn’t make one for our Sunday Thanksgiving in Berlin.  In fact, we fed ten people and didn’t have any meat at all.  I know, I know.  Sound the Thanksgiving police alarms.  What kind of Americans skip turkey at their own Thanksgiving party?

I guess… us.  We completely messed with this tradition, but it was during this vegetarian meal with ten friends and family members from around the world that we truly felt the meaning of Thanksgiving.  And it had nothing to do with cranberry sauce or turkey.

Thanksgiving is pretty much the only American holiday that focuses solely around gathering with family and friends.  There are no presents and costumes to distract our attention away from people.  We dine together without the rush of the Next Activity, and I never truly realized how beautiful the feeling is of a holiday that focuses around the dinner table until now in Germany.

I kept a list of things to take care of, just as so many of you suggested. (thank you, thank you!) And then when the time for our party approached, I kicked back just like you said.  I imagine the lack of turkey-cooking-stress had a lot to do with it.  Vegetarian Thanksgivings aren’t all that hard.  One guest told me, “I don’t even miss having the turkey,” and she wasn’t even one of the vegetarians.  (big grin)  There are so many side dishes and other foods available at Thanksgiving that I don’t think anyone missed it.  Plus we had no room on our countertop, anyway!

Where’s the turkey?

Tomorrow, I’ll slip you a few of the most popular recipes from our party.  I know it’s probably a bit late for all of you preparing for Thanksgiving parties of your own.  But the lovely ladies at our party made everything from SCRATCH.  We had no option of pre-made pies from the store or mushroom soup for green bean casserole.  Those things don’t exist in Germany.  And at least all of us are anxious for the know-how secrets of making stuff without all the (not-always-so-healthy) shortcuts.

So stay tuned!  Meanwhile, do tell… what are your favorite recipes at Thanksgiving?  And maybe a tad more important to us this year… are you loving the idea of a holiday centered around the table as much as us?

(Images from Making This Home and The Akumalian)

I love simple recipes.  Every time I make one, I’m in shock.  Like this applesauce.  How could it be so easy?  I thought the only easy applesauce came from a jar.  

And now?  The cranberry sauce we just ate for Thanksgiving.  It’s just like the stuff from a can except, well, it doesn’t taste like a can or have a list of ingredients longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. 

In Germany, we can’t get prepared foods we’re used to having at Thanksgiving like Stovetop Stuffing and Costco pies.  If you want those crazy American things around here, you season the breadcrumbs yourself.  You buy and roast the pumpkin.  You might even have to milk the cow.  ;)

I was okay with all of that.  But no can of cranberry sauce?  That’s my mittens on a winter day.  Surely I’d freeze.  And my hands would get numb.  And turn black.  And fall off.  And then the world would end…  so we needed to have cranberry sauce at our Berlin Thanksgiving party even though Martin said I tend to overreact.

If you need to have cranberry sauce as much as me, skip the can.  Skip the chutney.  And click right here for one mighty fine (and oh-so-easy) cranberry sauce recipe with only FOUR ingredients by the Food Network’s own Alton Brown.  

It made our Sunday Thanksgiving the bomb (at least to me).

(Image by Zach Kowalczyk)

This post is a part of A Greener Christmas Guide, a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the holidays with a lighter impact on the earth.  For more of this series, please visit A Greener Christmas Guide.

Is there anything more enchanting than Christmas morning when your family rushes into the living room to see all of the beautiful presents with their fancy bows and pretty wrapping papers?  All the paper starts flying as delighted people begin ripping into the pile of gifts.  We forget about all that packaging and focus on the gifts it was hiding.

But what if you didn’t think about the gifts one Christmas morning?  What if you thought about all the trash your family just generated in that short time instead?  And then you started thinking about how every family in town was generating garbage?  Or everyone in the country?  Americans generate wrapping paper waste to the tune of 4 million tons every year.  (insert panic attack)  I wonder how many gallons of milk that is.

I read that there’s going to be a 25% increase in the trash Americans generate during the holidays, and I decided a big change was needed.  So this Christmas, my family is fighting to decrease waste.  I told you about our greener Christmas cards, and now, it’s on to the wrapping paper.

Our Greener Christmas Challenge:

We’re curbing the flow of paper waste this Christmas by wrapping every single present in products that would have gone straight to the garbage can or recycling bin.  That’s everything from wrapping paper to bows.  (If you can think of a solution for tape, I’ll do that, too.)  The funny thing is that this challenge really isn’t going to be all that hard like I originally thought.  I just started thinking about all of the materials destined for our dumpsters, and ideas started popping into my head.  Wish I were this good at finding the gifts to go in them.  

We’re wrapping all of our gifts by…

1. Reusing Products as Wrapping Paper and Bows

Old blueprints:

 This is the coolest free wrapping of all!  Today, blueprints are just stacks of enormous sheets of white paper printed on one side.  They’re perfect for stamping and painting as unique wrapping paper if you find unused ones… which isn’t hard.  I called up the general contractor in my hometown in the US, and they’re putting together a pile of prints for me that were never used.  Contractors throw away heaps of untouched blueprints because they get so many revisions for a project.  I called a general contractor in my hometown, and they’re putting together a pile of prints for me.  Read about how we used blueprints here.

Old newspapers and magazines:

So there’s the old standby of the funnies page.  But how about some German newsprint?  I think that would be cool in the US.  And Martha Stewart’s got some cool ads that could become bows.  We’ll teach you next week.

Fabric scraps:

I’m thinking country Christmas here – cute fabric ribbons that otherwise land in the trash, fun  scrap pompoms…

Old maps and sheet music:

Do you still have maps from your summer vacation or sheet music no one would want to read?  We stick to digital maps as much as possible, but there’s always the occasional map floating around, I bet.

Aluminum foil:

When you use foil, does it get dirty?  Or do you just toss it?  Stay tuned for some aluminum ribbon ideas.

2. Simple Reusable Items

Small pieces of fabric:  

Homemade bags that could be used by the recipient later on – how easy and cool.  Check out this easy tutorial to make bags of your own in a few minutes.

Pillow cases:

My mom always makes pillowcases at Christmas, then she pops a present or two in them.  So easy.  So useful.

Canvas tote bags:

One of our readers, Emily, suggested this idea.  She says, “This christmas we are giving reusable shopping bags ($1.99- same price as some gift bags) to family and friends and packing the gift into the bag.”  Isn’t that an awesome idea?  Go Emily!

3. Tree-free and recycled wrapping paper for sale

If these ideas sound too rustic and the Martha Stewart look is a must, try shopping for greener wrapping products that meet these requirements:

Like with your Christmas cards, I’m not sure WalMart’s caught on to this environmental importance.  You might want to shop these places.  Their choices are to die for.  Except, you know, they’re not toxic, so you won’t actually die, and neither will any trees:

4.  You ready to spill your brilliance?

This is where you step in with a few ideas for all of us.  Pretty please, won’t you share?  Send pictures of your wrapped gifts for us to all ooh and awe at.  You’d be my BFF if you flashed us a little green thinking, you know.  And let us know about other green wrapping ideas you’ve got tucked away.  We’d love to hear ‘em.

(First image from Martha Stewart; all others from Flickr)

Our first snow is falling in Berlin.  Maybe you have already gotten yours?  The bicyclists are trying to maneuver with umbrellas in their hands.  And I feel anxious to bundle into an enormous scarf and thick mittens and feel snow in my eyelashes.  Interesting news on greener wrapping paper to come as well, so my fingers are crossed that you can hang on just a bit while I visit the snow.  For now, a nonsense poem for all of you…

WEARING WINTER CLOTHES

A hat on your round head
and shoes on your flat feet
will keep your body warm
and hold your body heat.

But it does not mean
no clothes on in between.
I think that going naked
would create quite the scene.

(Poem by Katie for Making This Home.  As much as I love to share, all content is copyright protected.  Please do not copy or publish without asking.)