Holiday

Dreaming of a “Green” Holiday Season!

With the holidays coming soon it is a good time to consider possibly making something about the holidays eco-friendly. This time of the year isn’t very “Green”, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It is almost impossible to make a lot of changes all at once unless you are really dedicated. There are some things that can be doable. Just take small steps toward better choices.

A lot of us grew up with the traditional Christmas Tree. I had a fake tree during my childhood. I didn’t have a real tree until I was a young adult. The smell of the pine and the feel of the needles were always far superior to plastic, and it was natural too. As my lifestyle began to change I thought about the fact that even though I love a tree for the holidays that it is not a very eco-friendly choice. It was really hard to give up what I was used to for so many years, BUT luckily I was able to consider a couple of other options.

I have a mini-metal sculpture that looks like a branchy tree and it holds candles. I put ornaments on it and it is really festive, BUT it does not have the same effect that a real tree has, though I still love it. Last year I found out that I could buy a potted tree. It was a great thing, but the tree can be on the smaller side, which was a fine trade-off. In order for this to work you would either have to bring the tree outside after the holidays ended and take care of it until the following year or go someplace and plant the tree where it can do some good. Both options take work, BUT it occurred to me that maybe someone could start a business that rented potted trees for the holiday season. Once you were done it could be given back and some good would come out of this traditional ritual of chopping down millions of trees each year..... trees that would best serve us by growing and helping to purify our air. I hope this concept is not too far off. It would be an excellent way for people to enjoy a real tree and do something good that would require no extra work compared to buying a standard tree (a tree that would end up in a trash can by January).

I dream about things like this all the time and I guess in time it will be reality. I hope so anyway. Until then I do the best that I can to make a difference here and there. I wanted so much to contribute to a “Green” holiday concept that I started to carry a line of earth friendly cards called Grow-A-Note (Cards for holidays and special occasions that grow wildflowers when planted in the ground, unlike conventional cards that are generally not made from recycled paper and that mainly end up in a landfill). I also designed a Holiday Stocking (Available as a Hand Knit and a Knitter's Pattern) made out of the Pakucho Color Grown Organic Cotton Yarn (the yarn greatly inspired the design). My thoughts about what I could do to have a real tree for the holidays led me to think about these ideas and how they could be better choices compared to their conventional counterparts. I even searched high and low for an eco-friendly organic holiday stocking and found absolutely nothing.

I hope that this unique and beautiful idea for the stocking will inspire people to seek out and feel good about the “Green” choices available to them and that there are people like me trying to offer things that are not normally viewed as conventional, but can add to people’s lives and not take away anything at the same time. This is what I strive for with Ecobutterfly…… I really want and hope to make a difference.