Entry bubble Post Holiday Recycling

By: Colleen | December 26, 2007 | Category: Home and Family

In the words of the great philosopher Charlie Brown, "Another Christmas, come and gone." It's the "day after" and everyone is busy returning that beautiful sweater from Aunt Bethany, or using their newly received gift cards to buy presents for those who may have been forgotten on the first round of shopping (oops!).

We may have won the battle, but we've not yet won the war. We've still got to deal with the post-Christmas clean up. If your home is anything like mine, I'm sure you have bags of wrapping paper sitting around, bows stuck to everything, and piles of holiday cards from friends and family in various locations.

The easy solution? Dump it all, throw it away—out of sight, out of mind. The not difficult and greener solution? Recycle! According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Years than during any other time of the year.

All that wrapping paper? Most of it is recyclable. USA.gov has tons of information regarding the best ways to dispose of holiday waste. Separate your party leftovers into paper, plastics, and glass. It's best if you use washable plates and utensils to cut down on waste while you eat, drink, and be merry.

As Joanne mentioned yesterday, you may be able to re-plant your tree. If not, many cities offer special recycling services and pick-up times for live trees.

How 'bout all those holiday cards? Quite popular, aren't you!? Cut off the front, and use the pictures as post cards for next year. Many churches and community centers also collect these for arts and crafts or greeting cards.

For more tips on recycling year-round check out Nancy's post.

Hey, you might even consider recycling Aunt Bethany's sweater—she'd love to see it on you next year!

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Entry bubble Treecycle – Recycle Your Christmas Tree

By: Joanne | December 25, 2007 | Category: General

It’s Christmas day and while you’re admiring your Christmas tree with its pretty lights and ornaments, I want you to take a moment image of a pine forest to consider fire safety and what you’re going to do with this tree when Christmas is over. Think before you pitch that tree! Do you want it to be just another big, bulky thing taking up space in the landfill, or do you want it to move on to a higher purpose? Go forth and treecycle, or use your Christmas tree to GreenScape your yard.

If you’ve got a cut tree, you’ve got options. Trees are biodegradable and recyclable, and there are many options for recycling and re-using trees. Your local waste authority probably has a Christmas tree recycling program. In many areas, Christmas trees are picked up, mulched, and then free mulch is offered back to the community. This kind of seasonal program keeps holiday trees out of the landfills and helps municipalities save money by reducing disposal fees. Tree collection is usually offered early in January, so if you don’t know about your community’s Christmas tree recycling program, it’s not too late to find out.

Besides mulching, you can burn a tree in your fireplace or wood stove, chop it up and add it to your compost pile, use it as wildlife habitat and even use the needles to make a nice potpourri. The University of Wisconsin Extension Service has an article with lots of ideas for reusing your Christmas tree.

We always buy a live tree (roots and all), so disposal’s not an issue at my house. It’s really pretty easy to care for a live Christmas tree. Before the ground freezes in the winter, my husband prepares a hole for our Christmas tree and then we plant it in the yard the week after Christmas. I never thought a tree would live if you planted it in the winter, but since they’re dormant when they’re dug up and dormant when they’re planted they seem perfectly happy when they wake up in the spring. If you’ve got somewhere to plant a tree and a strong back, I highly recommend a live tree – just be sure to buy a variety that will thrive where you live.

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Entry bubble Follow that Sleigh! Track Santa Claus’ Journey

By: Joanne | December 18, 2007 | Category: Fun

It’s 10 o’clock. Do you know where Santa is?

Christmas is fast approaching, and the kids can’t wait. On Christmas Eve our family will gather and the kids will really start getting excited because Christmas day just won’t come soon enough.Santa and reindeer on Christmas night

But before bed, we’ve got a few things to do. We’ll sprinkle some magic reindeer food in the yard for Rudolf and his mates. Then we’ll send Santa an e-mail to wish him safe journeys. Santa’s a busy man, but Chuckles & Buckley, Santa's Hospitality Elves, will get your message to the big guy and send you a reply. I wonder if Santa has a Blackberry so he can catch up on his e-mail while he’s in the sleigh? On second thought, he should probably keep his eyes on the sky and pay attention to where he’s going!

When I was a kid I would gaze into the night sky on Christmas Eve, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa’s sleigh, and lay awake in bed eagerly awaiting the sound of reindeer hooves on the roof. But today’s children don’t have to wonder. Now we’ve got advanced technology and the guessing is over thanks to the good people at NORAD. This year on Christmas Eve, we’ll sit together in the warm glow of the computer monitor and track Santa's journey! Beginning at 2:00 am MTN on Christmas Eve, you can track Santa live as he makes his historic journey around the world! I’ll warn you that to track Santa with this tool, you’ll have to download Google Earth (for free) if you don’t already have it.

And finally just before it’s time to tuck into bed, we’ll of course leave a plate of cookies for Santa and turn off the Christmas tree lights.

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