FarmTina

Christmas Trees: A Tale of Murder, Recycling & Rebirth

Holidays are over, and I'm finally back in Brooklyn after a very loooong visit with my parents, grandparents, sister and cousins. I spent nearly five days in the suburbs for Christmas! FIVE! Thank goodness I'm home.

Now that I'm crafting a home with my new Domestic Partner, I'm making some discoveries. (Sidenote: I borrowed the phrase "crafting a home" from a cute DIY home blog and I need to give props to the blogger Kim. It describes me perfectly!) I'm doing a lot of new things in this home that I never did before, such as sharing a bedroom (which means no more pink lace comforter) and sharing my food (guess who ate all the Pignoli cookies?!) (Ok ok, it was me. If I don't confess, he'll start a rant in the comments). BUT I DIGRESS!

What I'm saying is, this is the first time I've had my own Christmas tree! I never had one in my early twenties because I needed to save my money for drugs (KIDDING, MOM), and then I had a Jewish roommate for 5 years who didn't want one and it didn't really bother me. For Christmas 2011, we decided to go with a teensy apartment-sized potted-plant tree. It is literally 2 feet tall and I love it.

I chose a live Christmas tree in a pot because I love houseplants, so I hope to keep this lil' guy all year 'round and he'll grow a little big bigger each Christmas. It will be pretty neat 15 years from now to say, "We've had a home together long enough that our Christmas tree is now 4-feet tall!" But also, it's very possible that I can't give it enough light and nutrients indoors and it will die on me by Valentine's Day. Here's a good blog entry on the Norfolk Island Pine, a "year round Christmas tree".

I've always had mixed feelings in general about the whole concept of a Christmas tree. If you get down to the basics, the tradition of Christmas trees simply involves cutting down a 15-year old evergreen tree so that you can keep it in your house for 3 weeks and then get rid of it. Tree murder! Additionally, Christmas trees are a real fire hazard: The NFPA quotes an average of 240 home fires each year that start from Christmas trees, which basically become tall piles of dry fire wood after a few weeks indoors.

Despite all of this, artifical trees are no better. They are actually less eco-friendly than real trees because they produce more greenhouse gases and are made of plastic, which uses more water and other resources to produce, and can't be recycled when you're done with them.

So even though I thought I was anti-Christmas tree for a while, my official position is now: If you're gonna get a tree, get a real one, and get it from a farm. Christmas tree farms eliminate the need to cut trees from forests and create habitats for animals, help reduce soil erosion, produce oxygen, and of course, the trees can be recycled in many ways.

Here's how you can safely and sustainably dispose of your Christmas tree (and do a little good at the same time):

Is Earth Day Legit?

So. Everybody is all a-buzz about Earth Day today.

Maybe it's the fact that I work in marketing so I know the tricks, or just that I'm skeptical of anything generating buzz online, but my first thought when I heard the morning Earth Day stories on the radio today was this: Is this holiday actually legit or is it just another fake holiday meant to push sales- in this case, sales of greenwashed products, crappy women's magazine stories about "going green", and events where they serve green-colored cocktails?

Luckily, my coworker Andrew had all the answers. Andrew Rozas developed a youth outreach campaign for Earth Day 2010, a mass gathering in Washington, D.C. to celebrate our world, educate the public, and raise awareness for current environmental issues. Andrew told me that, yes, Earth Day actually is a legitimate grassroots holiday that has gained momentum over the years and become a world-wide celebration, and yes, it is a positive and educational movement. (And by the way ladies, Andrew is single and he's a cutie.)

The first Earth Day was meant to be an environmental education "teach-in" in April of 1970, and through strong activism and networking, it ended up drawing participants in 2,000 colleges and universities, plus communities and schools around the country. It is estimated that 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day!

A demonstration during the first Earth Day, 1970

Something that I found very interesting-- Earth Day founder Senator Nelson has stated that the first Earth Day was directly responsible for persuading U.S. politicians that environmental issues were important to the people of this country, and therefore would be an important thing for the government to act on.

If you're stuck in your cubicle today and want to find a way to contribute to Earth Day, download the E4RTH mixtape from WeAreE4RTH.com. Every download donates 10 cents to the Earth Day Network. And if you want to check out Earth from an outsider's point of view, NASA is tweeting Earth images all day.

So what have you been doing to inspire Earth-love today?

Thanksgiving Tip From Mom!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Here's a little Thanksgiving tip that my mom taught me:

When you're bringing food to a Thanksgiving dinner at someone else's house, you're bound to forget something- especially that one container of stuffing in the fridge or dessert in the freezer. To make sure you can't leave the house without that last item, put your car keys or house keys in the refrigerator on top of the food. That way, if you even try to leave without it, you won't get very far!