Green Living Tips for July 4th Holiday

Green living strategies apply to holidays too. If you want to help the environment, it is important to forego some holiday rituals such as having a picnic using foods from single serve containers and buying plastic forks and spoons for guests to use. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort to make small changes to your holiday routines to ensure that holiday celebrations don't create a lot of waste.

Enjoy Local Celebrations

July 4 is a holiday where people often take to the open road to get away for a vacation. Perhaps this year is a good time to enjoy local events and forego using a lot of gasoline to travel. With the unrest in the Middle East, America's dependence on foreign oil / gasoline is more problematic than ever.

And as pollution levels grow in the environment, air travel and long road trips just add more toxins to the air. Why not just avoid the stress of travel and get involved in local celebrations. You may enjoy the holiday more and avoiding travel helps the environment.

Provide Vegetarian Food Choices

Eating less beef is a green living strategy. Beef farms use valuable land. Thus reducing meat consumed also helps limit the amount of land devastated by beef farms. Also, beef is full of too many chemicals and antibiotics from the unhealthy foods the animals are fed. If you do serve beef on July 4, find grass fed beef which is a healthier option, notes the Huffington Post.

Shop for Local Products

The local farm market will have lots of great foods to serve at a July 4^th party. A watermelon could make a wonderful fruit boat, full of chopped up fruits from the farm market. Shopping at farm markets helps sustain local farms. Also, foods grown locally are fresher and did not have to be shipped from a distance, which wastes gasoline.

A cute idea for a party at the holiday is to create bags of fruit to give away to guests. This helps parents to have some healthy snacks on hand for their kids at the party. The farm market will have lots of fruits and berries to fill gift bags.

Make Decorations

Flimsy store purchased decorations are often only good for one party. At the end of the night they usually end up in the trash. Avoid all that waste by making some home-made holiday decorations that will last for years.

You can use scrap wood to make a flag and paint it red, white and blue. This could be hung on a tree or garage door outside to add a patriotic look to the party.

You could also make a patriotic decorative item to hand on the front door. Start by finding a tree limb on the ground in your yard or at a local park. Find one that is at least a foot long. Then get red, white and blue wool and tie 10 to 20 pieces so they hang off the tree branch. Next, get some old tissue boxes and cut out some star shapes from the cardboard.

You may want to use crayons to add colors to the stars. Then use a hole punch to add a hole at the top of the star. Bring one of the strands of wool through each star. Then make a knot to hold the star in place or staple the wool to the back of the star.

This will create a lovely decoration that is patriotic and flutters in the wind if you hang it off a tree limb. If you want to add more sparkle to the decoration, use glue to add some glitter to the stars.

Party Treats that Last

Giving out party favors is a way to add some fun to the gathering. Take some time to get gifts that will last for a long time and won't soon end up in the trash.

Instead of giving out sparklers to light up after dark, give out some small flashlights that they shake to make the light shine. The kids will enjoy shaking the flashlights. Also, this type flashlight lasts for a long time and does not need batteries.

A wooden star painted in red, white and blue, or a mix of colors is also a cute party favor for adults. Then next year guests can hang it in their home as a decoration as Independence Day approaches. Hang the star with a ribbon stapled to the back of the star.

A basket of perennial seeds is a great gift for people who like to garden. Perennial flowers will come back every year. They will be a nice reminder of the holiday party for many years.

Sources::

Huffington Post

Personal Experience