so...
we were on npr for the the patchwork art and craft fair delilah (my aunt & owner of the road less traveled store) and i put on and how to have a green holiday! how rad is that!!!
here's an excerpt from the interview...
At a craft fair in Santa Ana, Calif., customers pore over racks of
reconstructed wrapping paper and handmade ornaments and cards. These
retailers charge three-to-four times what you might pay at a big box
store.
That doesn't bother shopper Kevin Butler.
Kevin Butler:
Yeah, the cards over there are beautiful. They did beautiful, kind of
hand printing press. So that's probably what interests me more is the
hand craftsmanship
They're
locally made so that cuts down on some of the waste and pollution that
come with shipping. Christmas tree retailers are cutting down on waste,
too. Many nurseries now sell trees in pots so you can plant them
outside after the holiday.
Bob
Lilienfeld is the editor of the Use Less Stuff Report. He suggests
following Disney's lead and buying LEDs. They use about a third of the
energy of a standard incandescent light set. Again, they're more
expensive but Lilienfeld says they're worth it.
Bob Lilienfeld:
Energy is so expensive that anything you can do to reduce the amount of
energy you consume and therefore reduce the amount of greenhouse gases
that you create is going to save you a lot of money.
Consumers not wanting to pay extra this year can always tap into their inner preschooler and get crafty.
Back
at the Santa Ana fair, designer Nicole Stevenson's booth is packed with
shoppers. She says creating your own decorations isn't really that
difficult.
Nicole Stevenson:
When you start talking about handmade and hand-making things people get
really scared. So start simple. A little bit of construction paper,
glitter, hello.
She
says use what you already have around the house. If every American
family wrapped just three presents in reused materials it would save
enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. Stevenson suggests
wrapping presents with old grocery bags decorated using a potato stamp.
Stevenson:
Get a potato, cut it in half, and then you're going want to take a
knife and carve an image into there. Put your potato down in the paint
and then just start stamping.
Of
course, you might not want to get covered in paint, glue and glitter.
Delilah Snell is the organizer of the Santa Ana fair. She offers
another option: just buy less this year.
Delilah Snell:
Be simple about it. You don't need to have your mantle filled with 30
different kinds of Santa Clauses. Sometimes a bowl of pomegranates
makes the same statement as a whole bunch of knick-knacks that you
really only use for three weeks out of the year.
The
environmental chorus is swelling this Christmas. Green issues have
struck a chord with shoppers. Now the challenge for the conservation
movement is turning that trend into a tradition.
