Healing Lifestyles & Spas

A Wholesome Spin on the Season

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By on Healing Blog

by Debra Bokur

Life is all about evolution – this year give your holiday traditions a push forward by creatinggreener, healthier expressions of celebration and JOY.

In most families, the celebration of certain holidays involves participating in familiar rituals that help provide a sense of community, continuity, and comfort – whether that’s baking gingerbread men with children, or gathering with other family members for a meal or special service. Some traditions are inspired by culture, nationality, or religion, while others are more intimate, and particular to a family – such as playing a board game over a waffle brunch while everyone’s still in their pajamas.

During the course of researching and writing The Joy of Family Traditions (Celestial Arts, 2008), author Jennifer Trainer Thompson discovered the importance of such rituals, regardless of how simple or silly they might seem. The practice of traditions serves to keep us meaningfully connected with our loved ones, even if we are separated by time or distance – while also affording a powerful opportunity to connect with our heritage and cultural beliefs.

“It’s so important,” says Thompson. “[Even if] we can’t do it in the obvious holidays. For example, the weekend after Labor Day, my mother’s family gathers for three days at a resort on Lake Winnisquam in New Hampshire. The place isn’t fancy (in fact, it’s falling apart), but it’s at water’s edge, and because we book our stay for the off-season, the rates are even lower than they would be in the summer. We all pitch in on meals and cook together and bring canoes, kayaks, fishing gear, and bikes. Even those on more limited budgets can afford [the trip]. My cousins and I talk about this weekend, and how important it is to us. Our kids are second cousins, and they are very close because we have made the effort to keep the tradition going.”

Even if your family didn’t practice any particular traditions while you were growing up – and doesn’t seem particularly interested in establishing any – you can create meaningful practices for yourself, or for your own children, by exploring historic traditions that have to do with your own individual ethnicity. Thompson says she didn’t have any particular interest in Latin American traditions until she adopted a child from Guatemala. Since then, she’s begun to weave certain Latin American customs into her family’s celebrations.

“The beauty of traditions,” offers Thompson, “is that you adapt, or create, or pass on, or continue, traditions based on what works for you – whether they are big obvious ones (such as birthdays, Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah) or not so obvious ones that help you instill values that you want to pass along. For me, that would be nature, charity, giving back to the community, and generational family continuity.”

This year, we’re happy to provide ideas for shaping up some popular traditions – and sharing a few customs of our own.

This year, instead of overindulging in a turkey dinner, have an animal-related encounter of a different, more positive kind by spending a day walking lonely dogs or grooming cats at your local animal shelter.

Another option to too much stuffing and pumpkin pie: Run or walk for a good cause. Many communities offer annual Turkey Trots of varying lengths, with proceeds donated to charity. If your local chamber of commerce doesn’t know of an event in your town, a simple search with the term “Turkey Trot” and your closest city will likely yield results.

Take a pass on sending out all those paper greeting cards. They’ll eventually be thrown away, and are a significant source of virgin paper product waste – and a contributor to deforestation, a problem that affects not only immediate habitat, but one that also alters the health of the planet’s entire ecosystem. Numerous E-card sites (many of them free) include www.AmericanGreetings.com, www.bluemountain.com, and www.e-cards.com.

Rather than cutting down a tree to decorate, go outside and plant a tree instead. While it’s true that most Christmas trees are grown on tree farms that replant each year, it’s still a viable pro-environment decision. If you don’t live in a place with access to forest or parkland to plant one yourself, there are a number of national programs involved in ecosystem restoration that will gladly plant one your behalf, including The Arbor Day Foundation’s (www.arborday.org) Plant Trees in Celebration program, Plant a Tree Today (www.plant-a-tree-today.org), American Forests (www.americanforests.org), Jewish National Fund (www.jnf.org), and The Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org). In some Northwestern states, the Original Living Christmas Tree Company (www.livingchristmastrees.org) will rent a tree to you for a specific, limited period (about two weeks) that will be replanted following the holidays.

We know you love them, but rather than plugging in all those blinking lights and reindeer displays, lower your carbon footprint by replacing your electrically-generated holiday lights with ones that are solar-powered (and while you’re at it, you can fill your Menorah with eco-friendly soy candles). Solar decorations are available at Gaiam (www.gaiam.com), and can even be found at Target.

Practice illumination in a different way: Light up a stranger’s life by spending part of your day in a community kitchen that assists the less fortunate among us by providing them with a holiday meal and an afternoon of friendly and compassionate interaction. Contact local retirement homes to see if there’s someone who’s spending the holiday alone who might appreciate being read to, or accompanied to a recital, play, or other holiday-related event.

Sure, your kids crave all the latest gadgets, toys, and gizmos. Instead of indulging them, help them learn about and come to appreciate the true meaning of the season by donating one of their own valued possessions to your community’s hope chest or related program.

While you’re in gift mode, ensure that all your gifts have a positive impact on the environment – and zero impact on landfills – by adopting, donating, or contributing to charities, wildlife relief funds, animal shelters and adoptions programs in the name of loved ones and colleagues.

Attending a religious service or holiday party? Get there a different (and healthier) way by pedaling, walking, or snowshoeing (plus, a meditative walk through the brisk winter air will help put you in the perfect frame of mind for contemplation and socializing). Think of the positive impact that environmentalist and actor Ed Begley, Jr. has had from arriving at Hollywood events dressed in a tuxedo and riding his bicycle. Maybe you’ll start a trend.

Wrap smart: If you’ve decided to give gifts, resist the temptation to envelop them in shiny paper and ribbon. Instead, place gifts in organic cotton or hemp tote bags that can be used for years to come as shopping bags, helping to put an end to the massive number of plastic bags that wind up in landfills each year, and reducing the amount of paper wasted in the manufacture of other bags. Options range from simple to gorgeous, and add a thoughtful bonus element to your original gift.

Healing Lifestyles Holiday Traditions

Our lifelong housekeeper, Elvira, lived with my family from the time I was two years old until she recently passed away. Christmas was my Grandpa’s birthday, so each year, we would have a huge family birthday party for him on Christmas Eve. Elvira wanted to contribute to the festivities, so her extended family (who also live in the Los Angeles area) gave our family part of their family tradition – tamales. Elvira and about five family members would spend the entire day lovingly making 100 of the most amazing tamales. The only part of Christmas that was reminiscent of a traditional Christmas was the tree. Other than that, we had tamales, did poppers, and wore birthday hats in celebration of Grandpa’s birthday. What was amazing about our Christmas party was that it included our family, many of Elvira’s family, and friends without family or of different religions and belief systems. It was a big loving mish-mash that turned into an annual family tradition.

– Laurel House, Beauty Editor

I’m from Indiana County, Pennsylvania, the home of actor Jimmy Stewart, who starred in my favorite Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. My family has a model of the town of Bedford Falls, the fictional town in the movie. Our town actually resembles Bedford Falls in many ways, and every year, we set up the collectable village for display in our home. My family and I also volunteer every year to help celebrate “It’s a Wonderful Life” night downtown.

– Kitty Henry, Circulation Director

Christmas, to me, is about connecting to nature and reconnecting to family. We take long walks in the woods, go to Christmas shows like The Nutcracker, and make crafts together. We decorate our tree with candles, crab apples, and walnut shell ornaments, and every year I bake organic Christmas cookies with my daughter and nieces. We use organic, non-toxic food coloring for the frosting, with colors made from turmeric, beet powder, and blueberries – so the colors of the frosting come out pink and yellow and purple. We call them the rock-and-roll Christmas cookies.

– Anna Getty, Eco Editor

We live at high altitude in the Rocky Mountains next to the National Forest, and are pretty much guaranteed snow by mid-November. Each Thanksgiving, my husband and I gather our dogs and snowshoe to a site on a ridge a few miles away that has an old Native American medicine wheel. We bring dried sage we gathered from our yard in late spring. There, we give thanks for the abundant blessings in our lives, and to the land, our ancestors, and all those who came before us who cherished this amazing planet just as we do.

– Debra Bokur, Wellness Editor

Our Christmas mornings last from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. because we distribute all of the gifts, and then open them one at a time, moving from youngest to oldest. After each gift is opened, we get up and give a hug, which is the sign for the next person to start on theirs. Since this is a time-consuming process, we typically work up a hunger and Bloody Mary’s and bagels with lox are always Christmas staples!

– Shanon Hoffman, Associate Publisher

Growing up in Montana, on Christmas Eve we’d drive around town looking at all of the light displays, while listening to the radio’s Christmas carols. Afterward, we’d head home and each open one gift. Although my sister, Carrie, and I were nine years apart, our gift was always a set of matching pajamas that we’d wear to bed that night. Christmas morning photos always show my sister and I sporting our pajamas. I typically would have a mug of coffee in hand, while Carrie would be drinking her orange juice. Now that I have my own daughter, I’m tempted to try and find matching pajamas this year – and make my husband join in!

– Melissa B. Williams, Editor in Chief

I come from a very large family (there are forty of us – and that’s just brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews!). We used to draw names each year – each person got one person to buy a gift for, but then a few years ago we changed it to only the younger kids (18 and under). The kids now buy a gift for another kid and the adults all give money, which is donated to either a charity or we “adopt” a family and buy them gifts and groceries.

– Beth Wood, Production Director

November/December 2008

Healing Lifestyles & Spas Team
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