Green Calgary

Tips for Simplifying the Holidays!

The Centre for a New American Dream has published an article filled with GREAT ideas and tips for simplifying the holidays as submitted by their readers!

A few of our favourites...

“At home, we made a gratitude tree out of recycled cardboard and are decorating it day by day with colorful paper ornaments listing things we are thankful for."
—Molly MacGregor

"Last year we had an entirely home-made Christmas..... We made a puppet theater, a train table, and a fairy tree house all out of leftover wood from our basement. We repurposed pretty bags and boxes and put together kits for sewing and knitting from tools we had around the house. And we collected used trains for the train table from cousins who had outgrown them. It was so much fun that we’re doing it again this year!"
—Jen Higgins

"Money has always been a huge stressor on me for the holidays; we are not very affluent. However that has never dampened the holidays for us. One good present is all the kids expect and is easy enough. The emphasis for us has always been family. Simple traditions, making danish butter cookies, Christmas eve dinner of a smorgasbord, playing with cousins, Christmas caroling (horribly) through the neighborhood, and just being together, that is where the memories come from and what will be remembered."
—Annetta Olsen Bunce

"Our Christmas tradition when my kids were young was for them to go shopping with me and pick out something they would like then donate it to charity. They took this very seriously since that gift could have been the only thing that child might receive. It really is better to give than to receive.”
—Kathy S. Collins

"I'm giving the gift of Nature this year by sending self made cards with two small packets of native flower seeds inside."
—Therese Davis

"I'm making a family cookbook that showcases our favorite meals along with great pix. Plus doing a book swap for the kids gifting each other."
—Lauren LaVail

"One of the best gifts our family ever received: My brother, who lives 1,000 miles away from us and whom we only see once a year (if we're lucky) committed to send regular postcards to my (then) five year-old daughter for one year. She loves getting mail and he travels quite a bit throughout the Southwest, and postcards are quick and cheap to send. He has kept it up now for two years at the rate of about one postcard a month. My daughter loves it so much that she keeps a scrapbook of just her uncle's postcards."
—Wesley Satterwhite

You can view the complete list HERE

Post to Twitter Share on Facebook