Have yourself an organic Christmas

Our children are reaching the age where Christmas takes on special meaning. We were talking between ourselves last month and agreed on a few basics. We definitely wish to free ourselves of the consumer drive to hand out elaborate and expensive presents. I received those as a child and, quite frankly, they probably didn’t do me a whole lot of good. What we would like to focus on are the simple joys of being together as a family. This involves plenty of scrumptious food, good stories, wishes, laughter, and some time for serious reflection as well.

To achieve that kind of Christmas, you need symbols and the obvious one which inspires so many cultural traditions is the decorated tree. I’m not speaking of those wire and plastic structures so easily overdone with flashing stars and fluorescent baubles. No, I was hoping to return somewhat to the natural world where a tree looks and smells like it grew from healthy soil, with the necessary help from sunshine and rain. Isn’t this is the tree of childhood dreams.

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I’m planning to make this an Organic Christmas. I hear this gets a decent run across California and parts of Europe where entire communities embrace the organic lifestyle. I’m afraid that hasn’t really occurred in my neck of the woods, but hey, somebody has to start the ball rolling! Why not me?

So far I’ve got a few ideas about getting the food supplies together. I’m going to order an organic turkey, and it’s easy enough to purchase the cake’s ingredients from our neighbourhood health store. There’s a local farmer’s market which sells organically grown berries in time for Christmas and I will probably order some certified wine from an online distributor. That was the easy part.

Christmas is about giving and sharing and I believe the most important thing to share is your ideas and hopes for the future. At the risk of sounding philosophical, I’m expanding this to encompass my ideas and hopes for the future of our planet. This is not as corny as it sounds. There’s plenty of self-interest to stabilise things. After all, my family has to live here for who knows how long?

No more last minute shopping for this boy. It requires much thought and love to create the small yet significant presents I’m hoping to distribute on the special day. I’d like to focus as much as possible on sustainable and recycled materials. I’m using the internet for ideas but it’s all a bit secretive at the moment.

Now, back to the tree of childhood dreams. There’s a forestry block out the back of my town which raises conifers for their softwood. Every year they sell a few of their immature trees and the money is given to worthy charities across the country. That fits in with my concept for Christmas so I’ve ordered one of those. Every year, our children make Christmas decorations at pre-school and kindergarten. Instead of admiring profusely before politely discarding, these will take pride of place this year. Even the angels with the moustaches. Don’t ask, it’s a long story. If there’s empty room on the branches, I’d like to adorn them with little sachets containing dried organic lavender and other aromatic herbs. This is an idea I discovered during my research. It all adds to the richness of the sensory experience. Beeswax candles are also lovely at night but you’ll need to be very careful if your house becomes somewhat chaotic like ours.

The last thing I need to remind myself is to get involved with community issues. My wife is so much better than me in this regard. She’ll volunteer here and there and knows how to get enthusiastic about a project. I tend to procrastinate and then worry whether those committee things should be handled a better way. Of course the idea is you grow wiser every year and hopefully more cooperative, so let’s see what can be done.

I’m still young enough to enjoy leaving the organic Christmas cake and home made ginger beers on our porch for Santa. Don’t forget the bowl of water for his reindeer.