Going Green This Thanksgiving

Do you know how much food and packaging you waste on Thanksgiving Day or on any  holiday? It’s not about creating the best meal and going overboard and stressed out. You can have a happy and enjoyable Thanksgiving by going green.

8 Ways to a Green Thanksgiving

1. Plan ahead to minimize overspending when the time comes. Figure out your menu and the amounts you need to serve x amount of people.

2. If you have a fall harvest of fresh grown vegetables, that’s great, but if you don’t buy from your local farmer’s market (if you have one in your area) or from your grocery store.

3. Choose a free-range turkey or look for an alternative to turkey. There’s chicken, ham, a roast or you can go vegetarian or vegan. If you plan on having turkey, buy a smaller turkey so you don’t have leftovers. Of course, if you do, there are plenty of meals you can create to serve leftovers. You can also use the turkey carcass to make soup stock.

If leftovers isn’t something you want to deal with then put some food items together and let your family or guests take them. Just think of it as a “Thank you for coming and here’s something to take home.”

4. When you’re shopping, remember less packaging is better for the environment or choose packaging that is environmentally friendly. Don’t forget to bring your own reusable bags to load your groceries.

5. Put food scraps like vegetable and fruit peels in a compost; paper products in recycling and bottles can be brought back to a recycling facility.

6. If you have always hosted Thanksgiving, suggest a potluck this year or alternate with another family member. It’s only fair because you shouldn’t be stuck with all the cooking and clean up. This way too if you have leftovers, whoever brought the item can also take it home and there’s less mess to clean up.

7. If you plan to use decorations, keep it simple or use last year’s decorations. Better yet–create new ones or do a craft–using OLD stuff, scraps, etc. Have your kids make place setting cards. Inside the card, think of a different question to ask each person about Thanksgiving. For example, what Thanksgiving means to them, what they are thankful for, what’s their favorite memory or funny story about Thanksgiving etc. Before eating, go around the table and see what everyone has to say.

8. Use less electricity where you can. You can illuminate your home with scented soy candles instead of having every light turned on in your home. Be careful where you place your candles to avoid any accidents.

“The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.  Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.”  – Isaiah 24:5-6

Thanksgiving is about caring, sharing and giving thanks. Let’s show God how thankful we are for the beautiful planet he gave us to enjoy! :)

What are you thankful each and everyday?

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