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Going Green for the Holiday Season!

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Go Green This Holiday Season

The holidays bring many opportunities to “go green” and think about the impact our traditions and activities can have on our environment. Being green doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive, but it often means taking a little extra time to be intentional. Here are four ways to go green over the holidays:

  1. Gift Giving

During the holiday season, there is often increased pressure to purchase items that you might normally skip at other times of the year. The social pressure to buy gifts,

Christmas Cheers Celebration

cards, and miscellaneous “stuff” fuels consumerism and waste. Try to avoid any gifts you purchase from ending up in the landfill. Consider gifting an experience, a homemade consumable product (like bath products or food), a second-hand item, or an eco-friendly product like Swedish dishcloths, reusable water bottles, or glass soap dispensers.

  1. Product Packaging

When you purchase an item this holiday season, consider the packaging and challenge yourself to eliminate waste. It turns out, plastic packaging accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste globally, and much of it is thrown away within just a few minutes of its first use. For example, gift cards are popular, but the plastic cards themselves are difficult to

reuse or recycle. Go old-school and give cash or checks as a sustainable alternative.

 

  1. Gift Wrap

Did you know that in the United States, an additional five million tons of waste is generated over Christmas, four million of which is wrapping paper and shopping bags? Newspaper, butcher paper, reusable boxes, metal tins, and paper gift bags are creative and sustainable ideas for gift wrap. Choosing these materials helps to keep traditional gift wrap, bows, and ribbons from ending up in the landfill.

4.  Holiday Traditions

Holiday cards, party invitations, decorations, hosting, and food can take a serious toll on our environment. Large gatherings can mean single-use plates, utensils, cups, and napkins. Avoid or reduce this waste by choosing reusable products. Uneaten food becomes food waste, so use the interactive guest-imator to plan how much food you really need at your gathering. Finally, if you decorate with a live tree, look for opportunities to reuse or recycle your tree and keep it out of the garbage. Your tree can be used for mulch, to protect fish in lakes, or to provide shelter for birds.

Source: Laura Stanton, Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, OSU Extension, Warren County. Email: stanton.60@osu.edu.

Winter holiday pet safety

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December abounds with holiday celebrations, and nothing can spoil good cheer like an emergency trip to the veterinary clinic. These tips can help keep your winter holiday season from becoming not-so-happy—for your pet and for you.

If you want to share holiday treats with your pets, make or buy treats formulated just for them. The following people foods are especially dangerous for pets:

Chocolate is an essential part of holidays for many people, but it is toxic to dogs and cats. It’s safest to consider all chocolate off limits for pets, even though the harm it can cause varies based on the type of chocolate, the size of your pet, and the amount eaten.

Other sweets and baked goods also should be kept out of reach. Not only are they often too rich for pets; Continue reading →

Tips For Keeping your Cut Christmas Tree Alive

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Does adding Aspirin, Preservative, 7-Up, Sugar help keep my Cut Christmas tree alive? The answer is no!!  The main need for a real tree is WATER! Check and refill the water daily.   A freshly cut tree can take up around a gallon of water every day.  Please note, when the tree stops taking water, it’s probably time to get it out of the house.   If the tree begins to lose needle or the needles are brittle definitely remove it to reduce fire hazards.  Recycle the tree. Many municipalities accept trees and will run them through a chipper to use as compost the following year.

 

Gratitude…it’s for all seasons and all ages!

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Sharing your gratitude can be a welcome contrast to the emphasis on gifts that often comes with the holiday season.  Studies have shown many benefits to practicing gratitude, such as improved mental health by increasing frequency of emotions of happiness, pride and contentment, and balancing out challenging emotions like anxiety and depression. Expressing gratitude can lead to the way for hopeful possibilities, decisions, and actions. Practicing gratitude can benefit physical health as well, by engaging the part of your nervous system that helps you feel more relaxed. Expressing gratitude can bring people closer together and strengthen family relationships.

Fortunately, gratitude is a practice that can be cultivated in children. Here are several ways you can foster gratitude in children:

  • Be a good example. Look for ways to demonstrate generosity and thankfulness. Offer a sincere thank you to a check-out clerk or someone who holds open the door for you. Include your children or grandchildren… tell them specifically why you are grateful for them and for the things they do, like putting away their shoes.
  • Point out examples of generosity. Help children notice when others go the extra mile to be helpful. When we focus on the good, we are more thankful.
  • Talk about those less fortunate. When children hear about others that don’t have as much, they learn to be more thankful for what they have. This might be an enjoyable time to teach them how to give back through charitable organizations.
  • Build on a child’s strengths. Help children use their interests to show gratitude. If they are good at drawing, they could make a card for someone. If they like to bake, they could make something for a neighbor or community bake sale.
  • Make gratitude part of your rituals. You can practice gratitude at bedtime or mealtime by asking a child to think of three good things every day.

However, you choose to foster gratitude, be consistent. Children learn by example. Practicing gratitude can bring families of all types together, build children’s sense of purpose, and improve mental and physical health for all involved.

“Gratitude and attitude are not challenges; they are choices.”

– Robert Braathe

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”

– from Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne)

Call to action: Consider ways you can teach gratitude by example. After showing appreciation to someone, discuss with the children in your life how you think that made the other person feel. Ask what ways they can show their gratitude to others.

 

Source: OSU Extension Family Consumer Science Gather Your Gratitude Challenge
Source: Shannon Carter, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension, Fairfield County, carter.413@osu.edu

 

A new plant hardiness zone map from the USDA

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With its higher resolution and more accurate zonal information, the new USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM) can be helpful as you plan your garden or landscape.

However, it’s good to remember that while the PHZM is a helpful resource, it does not guarantee that your plant will perform well in your landscape based on the hardiness zone alone. A plant’s performance is based on other factors like how it was planted, soil type, light, space, wind and overall care.

As a gardener, it’s still important to always follow the best practices of plant selection, planting and ongoing care from season to season. A plant’s growing

requirements should always match the site conditions in your landscape.

Keeping this in mind, here’s what to know about the new map and how it was developed.

What’s new about the new map?  The new data is based on 1991-2020 GIS data collected from over 13,000 weather stations.

Zones 12 and 13 were added in Puerto Rico and Hawaii and can help northern gardeners decide when to bring in/put out tropical plants.

Higher resolution and more accurate zonal delineation, including in and around cities, mountains and bodies of water.

Plant hardiness zones are based on 30-year averages of weather extremes (coldest temperatures). Climate changes are based on overall annual average temperatures over 50-100 years.

Source: USDA

Be Aware…The Holiday Marketing Blitz is on!!!

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Festive commercials, emails and text messages may put you in the holiday spirit but also affects your holiday budget.  The continuous exposure to festive commercials, fantastic bargains or limited-edition gifts encourages you to spend money.

Marketing techniques trigger spending.  During the holidays, retailers will group items together to create overspending.  For example, a sweater will have a scarf displayed by it creating the need to buy both the sweater and the scarf.  An electronic item, a television for example will have two models displayed beside each other.  One television is a great model and the second one is superior and 30% more in cost.  Often shoppers spend the additional 30% without realizing this is a spending trigger.  This will quickly ruin your holiday budget.  Be aware of this additional holiday triggers:

Holiday music plays in the stores while you shop.

Seasonal scents

Gift sets

Mark up prices and offer holiday coupons.

“Back in stock”

Bulk pricing – 2 for 1 deal

No matter which holidays you celebrate many feel pressured to make them perfect.  Social media images of picture-perfect holidays can create unrealistic expectations that are impossible to live up to. It’s important to focus on what’s important to you and your family. Your decorations, your traditions, and your happiness are more important than photos posted on social media sites.

Make a list-check it twice. Create a holiday spending list.  Include gifts, food, and holiday baking in your spending plan.  Black Friday and Cyber Monday also may be spending triggers.  Often, we forget we are buying gifts and will purchase items for ourselves.  Stick to your gift list.

To effectively manage your money this holiday season, unsubscribe from marketing emails and text messages and be aware of holiday ad triggers. Nothing is a bargain if you do not need it, or it was not on the list. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Source:   Beth Stefura, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, OSU Extension Mahoning County, stefura.2@osu.edu

 

It is week TWO of the Advent Window Walk!!!

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Be sure to listen in to the list of Christmas Carols you will hear on the Advent Window Walk during the second week of window unveilings! Remember the event starts at 6 pm nightly and all prior window displays will be available see at 6 pm too!! As creator Joseph Taylor says, “Think of it like the Advent Calendar!”    So much fun to see the creativity of the Advent Window Walk!!

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Shop Local, Shop Small..Shop Ohio Proud!!

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Looking for a fun unique gift for family and friends..Check out Snacks with a Twist in Pickerington-An OHIO PROUD Partner!!  Created in 1993, Ohio Proud is the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s marketing program that identifies and promotes food and agriculture that are made in Ohio and grown in Ohio. Agriculture is Ohio’s number one industry, contributing more than $105 billion to the state’s economy.  For more details on the Sweet Treats at Snacks with a Twist, be sure to listen into the 88.9FM Saturday Morning Farm Page Interview with owner, Nay Dismore!   Be sure to check out  Snacks with a Twist by Nay’s Creative Ways  located at  8561 Refugee Rd, Pickerington, OH 43147  Phone 614-332-3534

Listen into the 88.9FM Saturday Morning Farm Page interview with Nay Dismore below!!

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