Five for Friday – A Sustainable Christmas
There’s 8 days ‘till Christmas and I’m sure you’ve got those Hallmark movies on full blast by now! 😉 Bella, Zai and I will be watching one of our Christmas favorites tonight, Meet Me In St. Louis, all snuggled up. The one we really look forward to is The Polar Express as a watch party with my parents on Christmas Eve. Love that we all have our favorite traditions this time of year.
This week, with the help of our amazing board, we’ve got some Five for Friday ideas to help make your Christmas a little more sustainable!
1. That’s a wrap!
This Christmas, instead of wrapping paper, you can try wrapping some of your gifts with a bit of Japanese Furoshiki. You can use clothes you no longer use to wrap gifts and topped off with items growing in your backyard.
Here are 6 different ways to wrap a gift with Furoshiki
2. Spin those leftovers!
Whether you’ll be having ham, turkey, or a vegetarian dish, we’ve got you covered with some yummy leftover recipes to try. Nothing will go to waste with these delicious recipes!
Leftover ham recipes
Leftover vegetarian recipe
Leftover turkey recipe:
Deviled Turkey (an old English family recipe brought to you by Angie Rambocus, an English FMN Board member)!
Curry powder: approx 2 level tablespoons
Butter/ margarine: half a pound of butter
Mix together well. Large pieces of turkey, cut deep slashes in the meat and stuff the slashes with the mixture and cook in a pan with a drop of olive oil until hot. Serve with rice!
Make your own Christmas tree decorations using mixed dried fruit for garlands, orange balls with cloves, origami or baking salt dough decorations and painting them. Below are some ideas for dried fruit ornaments and a salt dough recipe with essential oils!
When it comes to eco-friendly Christmas decorations, LEDs are far better than traditional twinkling incandescent lights, because they use up to 80% less energy. You can switch to solar-powered lights outdoors, and put both sets on a timer. You’ll not only make environmental savings but your energy bills will be reduced too.
This Christmas, when you’re getting all cozy, try using eco-friendly natural beeswax candles to light up your room. There are lots of different benefits to using beeswax candles and here are just a few:
* Because beeswax candles are natural,they do not produce toxic byproducts when burned or heavy soot.
* They produce negative ions when burned and those help to reduce pollutants in the air, such as dust, odors, and mold.
* They have the brightest purest light of any candles and are closest to natural sunlight.
* Their mild sweet honey scent helps with relaxation.
We would love to hear some of your ideas on having a more sustainable Christmas! Feel free to share!
Have a blessed Friday and a wonderful weekend!
Grateful for you,
Rachel
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