From Ritual to Wrapping Paper:
Rethinking Your Holiday Celebrations

By Joan D'Argo

Every Holiday season, my husband and I make our annual trek down to the Chicago suburbs to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my large extended family. If your family is anything like mine, the Holiday season is filled with joy, laughter, way too many sweets, perhaps some loving tears… and a lot of waste!

With lots of children in my family, the presents are piled high around the Christmas tree, along the hallways and in the bedrooms. Just when the children can no longer contain themselves, the decree is given to unwrap the presents. Then, with the fury of a wild stampede of horses, wrapping paper is quickly ripped off one present after another. My sisters, with plastic trash bags in hand, quickly scoop up the paper, place it in the bag and before you know it, we’ve generated—in less than 20 minutes—three Hefty bags filled to the brim with garbage destined for the landfill. My family certainly does our part to contribute to the extra 25 million tons of trash that are generated around the holiday season, especially when you include the amount of food that also ends up in those Hefty bags.

While I wouldn’t miss the holiday season with my family for anything, each year I find it harder to participate in this annual ritual of waste. My “dream” holiday ritual to share with my family is one I share with friends. It’s a very simple, yet deeply moving ritual. Friends gather at Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, to share hopes, dreams and wishes. Together, we sit in a circle with a table in the middle that is covered with apples carved out to hold little candles. All of the lights are out and one by one, we each take an apple and light the candle and proclaim, usually in one sentence, a hope, dream or wish for the new year. When all the candles are lit, and everyone has had a chance to make their wish, especially the children, we sing a song and then share a wonderful potluck. No “tangible” gifts are exchanged, yet many people are moved to share deep feelings straight from their heart; something that is rarely done especially during the hectic Holiday season. Ultimately, it’s the gift of love and hope that we share in this circle.

Personally, my family is not yet ready for this kind of tradition. Presents, and many of them, will probably always be a D’Argo family tradition. Perhaps just changing the way we wrap our gifts is the best place to start for us. So this year, I will use a few waste-saving wrapping tricks I found on the Internet that hopefully will inspire other members of my family to do the same. Here’s wishing you a stress-free holiday season filled with love, hope and a lot less waste.

Joan D’Argo works at Oryana Natural Foods Market, a community cooperative since 1973 located in Traverse City MI, and edits the co-op’s newsletter, “Natural Food News.”