Category Archive for ‘Holidays’ at The Healthy Parenting Blog

Archive for the 'Holidays' Category

The Basket Hunt!

Published

on March 21, 2008

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Each year at Easter, we hide the Easter Baskets..or ahem, the Easter Bunny does. He also does something that my mother did for me when I was a kid. She leaves clues. The kids come downstairs on Easter and find one clue on the table for each of them. For Connor, its like a pun where he actually has to first figure out what the clue is pointing to. Here’s an example;

They call me a box
But I don’t look like one
Inside me you’ll find letters
Check me daily for some

A place to cook
Not in the kitchen
Under my lid
Might be some chicken

I spin in circles but
I’m not a ride
The only passengers I have
Get dried

For a few years for Owen, I’ve printed out pictures as the clue (van, bike, oven, dryer, mailbox, etc). This year, I’ll probably use short words. Each clue takes them to a new place, which has another clue. I try to make this last for a good 20 minutes and have them go back/forth, inside and out. The final clue they search for is where their Easter baskets are!

They love it as much as I recall from my childhood.

Easter Eggs!

Published

Lauren

on March 21, 2008

in Holidays and Non Toxic Living

. 2 Comments

We dyed some Easter eggs this morning and I wanted to share the results. The above purple is from blueberries. I didn’t follow to the T any instructions. I put about 2 cups of frozen blueberries into a pot and covered with water and about 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Let come to a boil, then simmered for about 10 minutes and strained out the blueberries. The color is mottled but a very pretty purplish blue.

We had no blue as I forgot to buy the red cabbage which is supposed to make a really nice blue! Next time.

This is an egg in the beet juice. I cheated and used the beet juice from 2 cans of sliced beets I had in the cabinet. I added a few tablespoons of white vinegar and simmered it for awhile. It makes a nice pink egg.

The color to the left is the yellow from tumeric. I put about 1/2 cup of tumeric in a pot with about 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. I brought it to a boil and then simmered for about 15 minutes. My plan was to mix the blue dye and yellow dye for a green dye but since I didn’t have the blue, I figured I’d try the purplish color and yellow. The result was pretty good but the bizarre thing is that the dye actually looked orange but turned the eggs green!

Here is the an egg in the “green” dye;

And the result is below in the bowl with the other colors…not too bad!

And here’s a look at some of the eggs together. We used wax crayons to make doodles on some..and we also doodled on the finished dyed eggs with magic markers.

I made all the dyes first and we dipped/soaked the eggs at the table. The longer you let the eggs sit, the more colorful they are. It was fun all around!

An Organic Green Easter

Published

Lauren

on March 12, 2008

in EcoWarrior, Gluten Free, Healthy Eating, Holidays and Organics

. 0 Comments

Easter is coming! As per usual, I’m behind in getting started but save the info for next year if you’re already 10 steps ahead of me.

Basket

One thing everyone can do to green up Easter is to NOT buy those throw away Easter baskets. There are many greener options available these days. For one, invest in a nice basket that will last many years. I have used the same straw Easter baskets for each of my boys for about 5 years now.

You can also buy galvanized tin paint pails at your hardware store and have your children help you paint them or you can decopage them, if you are crafty.

Another idea I found was to use an actual outdoor hanging plant basket, which might be suitable for older children or the adult in your life that likes the Easter Bunny to visit.

Grass

I still bought the Easter grass last year and was hoping to find an alternative this year. If you start a few weeks early, Creative Kids at Home offers a great instructional on growing your own real grass for your Easter baskets.

This is a great opportunity to let your kids help out with the greening up of Easter. Now more than ever, global warming is an important topic that kids want to know and do something about. So I think for this year, we will hold a “construction paper rip”event. We have tons of construction paper (who doesn’t?)….so I’ll let each child pick their colors and rip into tiny pieces. The explanation is for our house an easy one, since we’ve always told our kids that the Easter Bunny (and Santa) use the wrapping paper and supplies at each house. So they will be helping to supply the Easter Bunny with a more environmentally sound option. Perfect!

Candy

Baskets do not need to be filled to the brim with candy. Things like stickers, small games, books, balls, etc. all make wonderful additions to your child’s Easter basket. If you have any icing bags laying around, you can fill it with any orange item, add some grass to the ends and you have a homemade carrot to add to your basket.

For organic, natural and free trade chocolates and candy, here is what I found;

Jelly Belly is now offering naturally colored and flavored jelly beans.

Natural Candy Store offers natural, organic and dye free hard candies and more.

Check out Global Exchanges Fair Trade store. They have tons of Easter candy, chocolate and items for your child’s Easter basket!

Liz Lovely’s Organic Fair Trade Bakery - Kid’s Easter Treats

Sweet Earth Chocolates - Organic/Fair Trade Easter Bunnies and eggs

Vegan Divine - Organic Easter Egg Hunt packs

From Kate’s Caring Gifts, Chocolate Easter Egg Pack

and Vegan Chocolate Bunny

World’s Finest is one chocolate company that over 40,000 schools and youth groups use for their fundraisers. At Democracy Now, you can send a free fax asking them for fair trade chocolate.

Eggs

Here’s a cool option for dying easter eggs;

This is done actually by wrapping eggs in onion skins! Learn how here at Instructables.com

If you want to dye eggs naturally, here are a few ideas for coloring eggs naturally. Or check out Martha Stewart’s step by step instructions on how to dye eggs using natural ingredients. Serious natural egg dyers will want to check out Mama Lisa’s Blog entry, How to Dye Eggs Naturally. Its an amazing egg-speriment! She takes you through her step by step eggventure in dying with photo results.

Happy Easter!

Happy Holidays!

Published

Lauren

on December 24, 2007

in Holidays and This n That

. 0 Comments

I am not a baker. I’m a good cook so I can adapt to just about anything but my ventures into healthy baking have always produced pretty dismal results. SO….I made a decision to first excel in the not so healthy baked goods and then gradually convert my recipes that rock.

So this is the result of 2 days of baking not so healthy stuff (all purpose flour, florida crystals, brown sugar, etc), my neighbors and local friends are happy. :) We’ve got oatmeal raisin (dh’s favorite), chocolate peanut butter chip, sugar cookies with homemade icing and good old chocolate chip. We made truffles too that looked really pretty but tasted not so good.

Enjoy your holiday!

A Christmas Song Favorite!

Published

Lauren

on December 20, 2007

in Holidays and This n That

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Dear Santa…

Published

Lauren

on December 19, 2007

in Holidays and This n That

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I found this in my email box this morning and it is cute enough to share…..

Dear Santa,

I’ve been a good mom all year. I’ve fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor’s office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son’s red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I’ll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:
Continue reading ‘Dear Santa…’

“LED” the Way! A Green Christmas

Published

Lauren

on December 12, 2007

in EcoWarrior, Frugal Living, Holidays and This n That

. 0 Comments

Last year we started gradually changing over our incandescent christmas lights to the newer, and BETTER LED christmas lights. This year, we’re just about done with only some white incandescent light wrapped garland that we use on our front porch left to change over. We’ll be waiting until Christmas is over and all things Christmas go on sale to get the last of our LED lights.

If you haven’t looked into LED, there’s a world of good in having them. They burn tons less energy (TONS), last MUCH longer (200,000 hours compared to 2,000), do not heat up (fire risk), have no glass (its a nearly indestructible epoxy lens) and much more.

The colored mini lights are bright and cheerful. The white lights take a little getting used to and you can not string them next to incandescent white as the glow is completely different. But on their own, they are not bad at all. We bought ours for a deal at Costco but if you want to learn everything there is to know about LED Christmas lights, I have the site for you!

Get with Green’s; Holiday Lights - 100+ Best Places and Best Reasons to Purchase LED Lights

And going on now (only for another week or so) at HolidayLEDs is a Christmas Light recycling program that can earn you some discounts on LED lights.

I’ve emailed HolidayLEDs to see if they will continue the much needed recycling program after the discount period ends on Dec 20th. Will update.

Also, keep in mind that there are other ways you can help to make this a green Christmas. If you are going to send out Christmas cards, please use recycled paper (we haven’t sent them out at all, the past couple of years). Try newspaper comics or old maps for wrapping gifts or use reusable gift bags. You can even contact local newspapers to see if they will give you the extra paper left at the end of the newspaper rolls after printing.

Also, keep in mind that ALL green wiring in holiday decorations does contain lead so be sure to wash your hands and keep your little ones away! Another thing to keep in mind, is that if you are just plain done with your old decorations and ready for new ones, Freecycle is the way to go to keep unnecessary stuff out of our landfills.

Its that time - Teacher Gift Ideas

Published

Lauren

on December 11, 2007

in Holidays and This n That

. 0 Comments

This is going to be short and sweet.

There’s so many things that I’m sure a teacher would appreciate but we’ve always just given gift certificates. Either to Barnes & Noble, Target or just a Mastercard/Visa gift card. I’d much rather our favorite teachers be able to buy what they truly want or need than picking something out. They can then choose to use it in the classroom or on themselves/their family.

We will sometimes bake and send the giftcard in with some goodies. Don’t forget the folks in the office who work hard, we will usually try to buy or make a plate for them as well. Any other good ideas?

Have a Healthy Fair Trade Halloween!

Published

Lauren

on October 10, 2007

in Holidays, Organics and This n That

. 0 Comments

Yikes, how did it get to be October already?? I swore last year that I’d have my fair trade organic chocolates early “next” year. Right. Well, its too hot where we are in NC right now to order anything chocolate unless you do overnight delivery - so there’s still time for procrastinators like you and me.

If buying Fair Trade chocolate hasn’t weighed heavily on your mind, you might want to think about it this year. As far back as Summer 2001, it was reported that the cocoa industry was using child slave labor to pick the cocoa beans on the farms. The number of children slaves forced to work in terrible conditions is around 300,000. The chocolate giants admitted to such and vowed to end the practices but years later, nothing has been done and nothing has been demanded of the chocolate corporations who are still profiting from child slave labor.

It is imperative that we send a message to the chocolate industry that we will not stand for this. Please make sure the chocolate you buy this year is FAIR TRADE! Here is a table of chocolate that is slave free. And if you have the time, send a note to Nestle, M&M and whoever else will listen telling them WHY you won’t purchase their products.

Organic and Fair Trade Halloween Candy

Thompson Candy has organic halloween colored chocolate coins and halloween chocolate pops. Call to order; 1(800)648-4058
They sell retail only through their retail outlet factory store.

College Farm Organic Candies offers a nice assortment of hard candies in many flavors including; vanilla caramel, strawberry cream and their favorite “Naturepops”. You can find where to buy on their site on or try Amazon and veganessentials but they also now have their own online store and a 50count Halloween Lollipop bag (on sale for $5.95 right now);

Peanut Butter cats and Chocolate Bat Cookies by Dancing Deer. Great for if you’re planning on making your own little goodie bags. 28 cookies costs $25 or you can buy them wrapped in pairs; 12 pairs for $20. Some new gifts, including “candy corn” sugar cookies.

Dancing Deer Bakery Dancing Deer Candy Corn Cookies

Sunspire Sundrops (like M&Ms). You can get a box of 24 individual serving bags for $24.00..same price as last year. Sweetened with cane juice and no dyes (beet juice, etc…used for coloring)

Sweet Earth Chocolates
Organic and Fair Traded chocolate coins in wrapped in halloween colors.
Milk chocolate or 65% bittersweet….100pc bag at $22

Sweet Earth Chocolates

Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Halloween Store
Some chocolate coins and a few other halloween treats.

Equal Exchange
Organic fair trade chocolate bars. Ships UPS (so temperature must be below 75 degrees to get delivery)

Endangered Species ChocolateSpecializing in natural, ethically traded sweets, donating 10 percent of its net profits to “help support species, habitat and humanity.”

Endangered Species Halloween Chocolate Bites

A Greater Gift.org is selling Divine Chocolate. A case of 30 bars for $24.50.
Divine Chocolate is a farmer owned fair trade company; http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/about

On top of the children’s slave trade issue, remember that there’s GMOs to contend with. Nestle has admitted to using GMO ingredients in such common items as toll house chocolate chips and Kit Kat bars.
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/71/nestle