Hey all,
With the holiday season here, I've been thinking about holiday traditions lately. There are many traditions in place today which are wonderful in some aspects, but not so wonderful in other aspects.
The xmas tree is a great example. It is great how this tradition is something that brings family members together, it symbolizes love and togetherness for many people, and it bridges generational gaps. But at the same time, farming and harvesting trees for this purpose is less than ideal from an environmental perspective. From an economical perspective. Fake xmas trees have a negative environmental impact as well, and buying all those (probably China-made) plastic tree ornaments is kind of a bummer too, not only from an environmental perspective, but also from an economic one.
There are other traditions which, upon giving it some thought, are not as nurturing as commonly thought. Standard holiday cooking, decorating the house with lights and plastic things, vegging in front of a TV set while watching some cute xmas movie... These all seem less than ideal.
I'd like to start a few of my own holiday traditions: Ones that both I and my non-raw friends can enjoy. But I'd like them to be not only nurturing to the soul, but also to the environment, and from every other angle. To use Dr. Graham's word, a Winfinity type of tradition. Do you guys have any ideas? Do you have any cool traditions that you do around the holidays? Or specifically on Xmas day, Hanukkah, New Year's Eve? Do share :)
Replies
what a great idea!
in NZ we don't get nice traditional Christmas trees anyway, so we bought a plastic one last year that we can re-use every year. I have some felt and wooden decorations (plus some plastic ones), all of which will be re-used.
I like the idea of coming up with new ways to decorate. I think new traditions are well overdue.
My parents are visiting us this time round and because it is summer here, there won't be a big roast dinner in sight. I am in charge of the food and will prepare for them a healthy-ish 'SAD' lunch with fresh salmon, steamed potatoes and lots of veges. for dessert there will be fruit salad, banana ice cream with hot berry sauce and probably a pavlova (meringue dessert with cream and fruit). We are keeping some traditions, because my Kiwi fiance wants them. I think if I can show him how nice new traditions can be, he may be okay with them for next year.
Hopefully by the time we start our own family, we can have a bunch of healthy new traditions (think fresh dates and figs instead of cookies, fruit platters everywhere and large salads :-) ).
I think that's a great idea Caitlin. I also think Christmas plants are great. I like to decorate with oranges covered ion cinnamon and poked with cloves all over! Other than that I want to celebrate the solstice out in nature and I've been craving a camping adventure. Ice skating also sounds great. My big plan is to go through all my things and package things I want to give away. My goal is to make it active. I can't stand sitting in front of the TV or sitting on the couch gossiping or shopping. I want to make crafted gifts with my daughters to give to our family and that's it. I'm not talking about Santa Claus and I don't want to glorify consumerism to my daughters. I know there will be gifts from family, but I have no guilt about giving things away if they don't fit with our lifestyle and replacing useless gifts with active experiences.
Those are great suggestions!
I moved recently and have no family to visit this Xmas, which means I can fast over the Holidays. New tradition: Abstaining while others are indulging.
:)