1. Skip the paper tablecloth and paper napkins. Save a tree, and consider simple placemats and cloth napkins instead. You can find cloth napkins in prints appropriate for Thanksgiving, and them you'll have them to use every year. I found the lovely Thanksgiving napkins below in Fabnap's shop on Etsy. The print would look great at Thanksgiving but could also work year round.
2. Feast on home-grown or locally-sourced foods. We will be eating home-grown potatoes, and apple and pumpkin pie made from our organically-grown apples and pumpkins. If you haven't grown your own produce, try to minimize your feast's carbon footprint by supporting your local growers and/or buy organic. Locally grown food requires only a small amount of fuel to transport it to your table, and organic food is grown without the use of herbicides and pesticides. You may even find that those organic mashed potatoes are the best you've ever tasted!
3. Pardon a turkey. Imagine for a moment all the households across America feasting on big fat turkeys. Most of those turkeys have come from huge factory farms whose impact on the environment is anything but minimal. Consider a vegetarian alternative, like the famous Tofurky roast, or our favorite, the Quorn Turk'y Roast. While I've seen a few comments online that claim this alternative can be dry, I remind you that so can a real turkey without proper preparation. We marinate our Quorn Roast with a mixture of olive oil and herbs such as sage, marjoram, and thyme, and then continue to baste it while it bakes. It comes out of the oven tasty enough that even the meat-eaters will have a slice or two!
4. If you use disposable dinner ware, try using real dishes this year. Sure it's a lot of work washing all those dishes, but if you get the whole family involved it can become part of your holiday tradition. In my family, everybody has a responsibility. For example, I'm in charge of putting away leftovers. Somebody loads the dishwasher, one person washes the things that can't go into the dishwasher, one person dries, and another person puts the dry stuff away. What says family togetherness like cramming everyone into the kitchen? If there are too many people in your family to jam everyone into the kitchen, put some adults in charge of entertaining the kids while the clean-up crew does its work. You'll have one less garbage bag to haul to curb, and that means one less garbage bag in the dump.
5. Decorate naturally. Your table decorations could be as simple as dried leaves and a few acorns scattered across the table, or some dried grasses and twigs placed into a vase. Gather a few things from your yard or a local park (if that's allowed), or put the kids in charge of finding these things. Enjoy nature's bounty and its beauty at your dinner table.
6. Remember what really matters about Thanksgiving: being thankful for what you have and spending time with the people you love. It's easy to go overboard at Thanksgiving, making twenty different dishes and six desserts, but do you really need all of that? Avoid the urge to splurge, and try to keep it a little simpler. Take time to enjoy the day and the company.
Bonus Black Friday tip: Stay home! Do the people on your list really need more "stuff"? If you absolutely cannot resist the bargain madness, think about buying something for someone less fortunate. Toys for Tots always has trouble getting gifts for children ages 12-16, so put your shopping skills to use for a teen in need. Let's face it, being a teenager is hard enough. Don't know what teenagers want (well, who does, really)? Toys for Tots suggests athletic equipment, like a skateboard, or those ever-popular electronic gadgets, like an MP3 player or a digital camera. Take your new, unopened gift to your local Toys-R-Us, or visit the Toys for Tots website to find a local drop-off location.
Do you have tips for greening Thanksgiving? Leave a comment and share them with us!
Best wishes to all of you. Have a lovely, enjoyable Thanksgiving.
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