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Topic: Minimizing Your Christmas Footprint
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Lima Bean
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3000
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posted 12 December 2002 10:13 PM
I'm flying home for Christmas this year (NEXT WEEK!!!), so all my gifts have to be small and light and transportable by air. And I'm a little slim in the pocketbook so I'm having to be creative. I'm giving some people photographs I took, some of them are getting books that I've read or picked up in my time, I've bought a few gifts at second hand shops. I don't like to buy new things ever, and it doesn't feel right to buy something still wrapped in plastic just because I'm buying it for someone else. I also don't like to give people gifts that they can't actually use, so I'm trying to be practical as well. It's kinda fun this way. I'm really having to think about the people I'm giving gifts to. And it's so much nicer a way to think about it. I hear people at work talking about who they're "buying for", sounds so yucky. Oh, and I'm burning some CDs of Christmas music for a few people. (ssshh!! don't tell anyone!) [ December 12, 2002: Message edited by: Lima Bean ]
From: s | Registered: Aug 2002
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nonsuch
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1402
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posted 13 December 2002 12:10 AM
What i hate most about Christmas is the acres of paper people tear up and throw away. We haven't used gift-wrap in years: for immediate family, it's Santa sacks (we each have a large cloth bag with our names on); for in-laws and the odd friend, i wrap in scarves, tote-bags, pillow-cases, baskets, shoe-bags, cookie tins - something useful that becomes part of the present. We usually make some gifts. This year, i preserved cherries and made a super batch of fruit vinegar. Sometimes we give previously-cherished items, either from our own cupboards or the yard-sale circuit; sometimes new things from local craft-fairs. E-cards, of course. I sent my last manufactured greeting card in 1976... though i still send a few from the Humane Society or other charity. No dead tree. There is a nice big cedar out front that we can decorate with suet-balls, peanuts and sunflower heads.
From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001
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shelby9
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2193
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posted 15 December 2002 04:36 AM
My friend and I have exchanged gifts back and forth for the last 7 years with the same gift bag going back and forth between us. Our birthdays - same thing. So every year I either get the Christmas bag or the birthday bag with the little gift in it.I'm a great believer in the gift bag thing. My Mom has had the same gift bags forever, most of which has our names on the bottom of the bags so year after year we get the same gift wrapping. It still looks great. I made a whole crap load of baking for people this year. Old tried and true family recipes - like my great great grandmother's Vinetertta (Icelandic Christmas cake). Mostly for those who I know are too busy to bake themselves. On the cards... I'm an old school type - I still send the paper ones. Though in my defence, I do recycle the cards I do receive. I've made cool ornaments out of the pretty cards. I just like to open my mailbox in December and find something other than bills in it!
From: Edmonton, AB | Registered: Feb 2002
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Tommy_Paine
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 214
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posted 15 December 2002 09:57 AM
I take great care in wrapping presents. The ends are neatly folded, and I use ribbon to bind them, and then take a pair of scissors, to curl the excess ribbon into really cute curly thingies.Oh, I'm a big, fat liar. I couldn't wrap a present to save my life. Yesterday, I started my shopping, and my last stop was a table at one end of Masonville Mall, where volunteers wrap presents. The nominal fee, ( I paid extra, because the value to me was higher than what they charged) goes to support the United Way. I couldn't find it last year, so I went with gift bags.
From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001
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angela N
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2705
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posted 18 December 2002 01:44 PM
The new technological Christmas Edit some family video into a movie. Make animated e-cards Scan old slides that no one has seen in decades and make books and calendars out of them. For my sister who is an excellent writer I am compiling stories and emails into a book for her. It looks great and it’s nice to see her work as a whole. Mom too – recipes and stories – cool little book actually. Then I make a few copies and dish them out. I think they will be happy, and I love having such neat projects. My kid makes e-cards with that D-film program that audra gave us. (in case you missed it or haven’t checked it out lately there are Christmas scenes and characters now.) great fun!
From: The city of Townsville | Registered: May 2002
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nonsuch
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1402
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posted 18 December 2002 03:34 PM
Two years ago, my mother and i compiled family recipes into a book - loose-leaf, both for convenience to the user and in case we want to add more. It was well received. Another thoughtful gift: make a new binding of cloth (from recycled fabric), leather (fake!) or metallic foil for the recipient's favourite paperback book. A long time ago, i made dolls that look like their intended owner. You can start with a manufactured doll (second-hand, naturally), or make it from scratch (rag body, modelling clay or dough for the head and hands) and add hair and clothing in the recipient's style. You could also make replicas of their pets. Of course, this is a time-consuming project, so you'll want to begin in the drear of February, for next Christmas. [ December 18, 2002: Message edited by: nonesuch ]
From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001
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lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534
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posted 18 December 2002 03:57 PM
There is a lovely, colourful plastic clay called FIMO to make costume jewellery and tiny sculptures. You can find it in art supply shops. I don't give Christmas presents (I often give watercolours and other artwork to friends, but not around any particular occasion), and pretty much boycott the whole thing, with the exception of small children (the son of a younger cousin, the 1 1/2 year-old daughter of a close friend in France...). With some friends we are getting together and having an unchristmas meal - paella? fish and seafood soup? Perhaps I will break down and make a couple of tourtières, a lamb one for carnivores and a mushroom-seitan one for veggies... (The best meat tourtières are made with game, but you have to have the game...). I like to serve something with fish because it is a treat for my cat Renzo too. If I visit relatives, it will be after Christmas, because if not there is no way out of the whole gift-giving thing, and I haven't got the money or inclination to buy a lot of gifts, and haven't had the time to paint a lot recently. Now in art-supply shops they make blank postcards and greeting cards in lovely ph neutral watercolour paper, but I haven't had time to do a series and don't feel like cranking out potboilers. I sent my German-Jewish friend across the pond some small watercolours I did recently and a jpeg another friend made of paintings of mine, but the fact that he'll be getting them shortly before that day is pure chance. Would be strange to have an atheist Jew thank me for my lovely Christmas present, but no stranger than the Christmas I spent in Paris with lapsed Muslim friends from Morocco, eating an extraordinary tagine and drinking yummy non-halal Moroccan wine.
From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002
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