Episode 154

The Holiday Season and Climate Change

Episode Summary: In this holiday special episode of CarbonSessions, hosts Leekei, Kristina, and Jenn delve into the intricate relationship between holiday celebrations and environmental impact. 

Holiday celebrations and their global spread especially in today’s consumer-driven societies contribute to the planet’s strain. They went on to discuss the enormous surge in holiday-related consumption.

According to the National Retail Federation, in the US, holiday sales grew from USD 400 billion in 2003 to over 900 billion in 2023 . The hosts discuss the environmental implications of holiday decorations, the energy consumption of festive lights, and the surge in gift-giving, leading to increased waste.

Kristina, Jenn and Leekei explore alternative ways to celebrate, focusing on minimizing waste and maximizing experiences. 

They share personal stories and fun ideas, like using election pamphlets for gift wrapping and creating memorable experiences rather than giving material gifts. The episode also touches on the importance of local and traditional foods during holidays, as opposed to imported, expensive items.

The hosts concluded on the essence of holidays as a time for community and connection, and the importance of aligning our celebrations with our environmental values.

https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/2023-holiday-reach-record-spending-levels

https://www.greenchoices.org/

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Want to join in the conversation?

Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Leekei Tang, Jenn Swanson and Kristina Horning.

Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France. 

From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and community Connector, helping people help themselves. 

Kristina has a background in architecture and engineering. Currently in Prague (that it is where she is originally from) and her base is US

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

Transcript
Speaker:

Hi, I'm Christina.

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I'm from Prague.

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Hi, I'm Jen, and I'm from Canada.

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Hi, I'm Oladunji, and I'm from Nigeria.

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Hello, I'm Liki, and I live in Paris.

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Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm from New York.

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Welcome to Carbon Sessions.

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A podcast with Carbon Conversations

for every day with everyone

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from everywhere in the world.

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In our conversations, we share ideas,

perspectives, questions, and things we

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can actually do to make a difference.

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So don't be shy and join our Carbon

Sessions because it's not too late.

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Hi I'm Liki.

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Hi I'm Christina.

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Hi I'm Jen.

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And what are we talking about today?

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We're gonna talk about Christmas and

consumption and holidays in general.

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Yeah, because there are lots of holidays.

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Christmas is approaching, but I've

tried to list down all the holidays

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that we have here in Europe.

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We have Christmas and then comes New

Year's Eve, and then Valentine's, and then

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Easter, and then there's the big summer

holiday, and there's also Halloween,

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and then Christmas, and all over again.

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And I was thinking of, you know,

some very international cities that

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have embraced the Western culture.

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and combine the holidays

with traditional culture.

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So if I just take cities like Hong Kong

or Singapore, on top of all this holiday,

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they also have Chinese year, Dragon

Boat Festival, and Full Moon Festival.

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And then we can look at India,

probably they have Diwali,

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Hanukkah, and all these holidays.

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This is marvelous, lots of celebration,

but how does it do to our planet?

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This is what we're going

to discuss today, right?

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Yes.

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Absolutely.

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I was just looking at

some articles on that.

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I've been really, uh, working on

decluttering and minimizing stuff.

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I'm not there yet by any means, but

working on it and watching a lot

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of videos and things about that.

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And decor is one of the things that

people spend a lot of money on at.

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You know, places like dollar stores

and craft stores, that was one thing

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that some of the people that I've been

watching have talked about, a place you

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can minimize, because, you know, the

second, not even Halloween isn't even

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over and Halloween is a huge decoration

kind of thing around here where I live.

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Halloween isn't even over and there's

Christmas stuff in the stores.

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Nevermind, in Canada we have

Thanksgiving early, I know the U.

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S.

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just had Thanksgiving a month before

Christmas, so, um, so there's all of

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that decoration, you know, pretend

leaves, and plastic everything, and

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those big things that go on the lawns

that you have to have the generator

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with The, the air running through.

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And then I noticed the other day

driving down the street, uh, we've got

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a house at the, at the end of our street

that one of my kids says is on crack.

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I mean, the house has every

single surface covered in

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lights and they're not just lit.

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They flash at you.

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And one of our kids said,

I'm offended by that house.

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Whenever I drive by, it's shouting at

me because it's flashing and it's just.

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I think of the energy consumption,

nevermind all the plastic.

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And then, then the other day,

on Remembrance Day, we have

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Remembrance Day for the veterans

on November 11th, uh, here.

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And I noticed a tree, an outside

tree, decorated with Christmas lights,

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except that they were going from top to

bottom, and they formed a Canadian flag.

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And then it said underneath,

lest we forget, in lights.

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And I thought, oh, so now we

have Remembrance Day decorations?

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Apart from poppies?

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It's just, like, what?

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That's my rant, sorry.

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But I love Christmas.

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I really, really love Christmas.

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Of course.

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Yeah.

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Of course.

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Me too.

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Yeah, I love Christmas,

especially when I was a student.

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My part time job was working at

Disneyland, and my favorite season

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at Disneyland was Christmas because

Christmas is all over, you know.

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It has the, the, the very nice

decoration, it has the song, the smell.

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I love Christmas.

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All about Christmas.

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But the problem with Christmas Is that,

okay, I just came across some stats the

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other day, some stats published by the

National Retail Federation in the U.

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S.

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And this stat shows that between 2003

and:

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S.

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for the holiday season.

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It was over 400 billion dollars to 2023.

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Up to, ooh, more than double, 900, 900

towards a thousand billion dollars.

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That's insane, isn't it?

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So I guess it's not that

everything goes to the decoration.

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I guess that's, you know, there's more

than decoration and light consumption.

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What else do we have?

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Yeah, I think that the presents,

the huge amounts of presents.

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And in Czech Republic, there

is not only all these holidays.

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for giving presents, but they

also not only birthdays, but

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they also have name days.

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So everybody has at least two days

a year for presents plus Christmas.

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That is huge.

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And the houses are tiny.

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We don't have space for more stuff.

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The huge amounts of things and plastic

and the cover of the present, because

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usually it's not just the toy, but

it's the plastic that covers the toy.

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Plus the box that covers

the plastic covered toy.

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Plus the wrap that is mostly plastic.

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It's not paper even

though it's paper wrap.

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That's mostly plastic.

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Plus plastic.

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It's overwhelming.

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It doesn't have to be, though.

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No, but It doesn't have to be.

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But still, it's nice to give

and receive presents, isn't it?

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It is.

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For me, for many, many years,

when I realized there is no more

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stuff I can fit in my house, I

ask everybody for the presents.

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It has to be food or drink, something.

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It can be spoiled, also.

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Something has to be eaten.

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Or composted and it's so much nicer or

flowers, but yeah, it's so much nicer

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to do that because I think it lifts the

pressure of people, even though in Japan,

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they always have, when they go somewhere,

in Czech also, when people visit each

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other, they always bring presents.

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When they visit each other

houses, but that time they usually

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bring something to eat, drink,

flowers or something like that.

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Yeah.

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I mean, bringing a present to visit

someone is one thing, but I'm talking

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about the pressure of buying the best

gift, you know, the most expensive,

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the biggest gift for Christmas.

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It just insane.

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You know, as you said, you see all

this stuff in the shops a month before

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Christmas, even two months before

Christmas, you receive all this catalogs.

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Not anymore because we don't do paper

catalogs anymore, but we receive all

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this email telling you Oh, you should

buy this and you have all this ad on

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televisions as well and on the radio and

everywhere Pressuring you to buy stuff for

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loved ones to make them happy and I just

think it this is insane Well, and we're

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recording this on Black Friday in the U.

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S., and it has spilled over into Canada.

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Yeah.

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And, and it's not just a day,

it's a week, you know, we're

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getting bombarded with stuff.

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But we, in our family, we

eliminated this pressure and this

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problem many, many years ago.

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Um, I probably told you this already.

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Did I talk about this already?

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I think you did, but I think it's worth

sharing because it's very interesting.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So.

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We have Christmas, a party, Christmas

gathering with all of our kids and

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our bonus kids, our, our kids friends

and everybody who's family but not

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necessarily blood related, um, about a

week before Christmas so that everyone

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can come because everybody's got in

laws and outlaws and, you know, has to

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be in five different places at once.

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So we pick a date, we

tell everybody in advance.

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everybody comes and we have a game

and the game is that everybody

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has to bring something from their

home that they don't want anymore.

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It, it cannot be bought.

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It has to be something they want to

give away and it has to be wrapped and

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we put all the gifts under the tree

and somebody starts and you open a gift

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and then the next person can either

steal that gift or they can open a new

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gift and there's this really ugly, um,

hilarious cookie jar that looks like a

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skeleton that keeps coming back because

somebody keeps it for the next year and

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we find this horrible skeleton again.

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It's really funny.

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So we have lots of fun and

games and sometimes the stuff is

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really good and sometimes it's

awful, but it's, it's very funny.

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And so that's the game and that's

the gift that you have to bring.

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And then the other thing we do so

that we don't buy gifts for each

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other in our side of the family is

We have been sending three girls

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to school every year in Guatemala.

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So there's a village in Guatemala and,

uh, one of the girls has graduated now.

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The other one had to drop out because

of family issues and the third one is in

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university and she's becoming a doctor.

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So she's the one we're

still contributing to.

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And so people just put money in an

envelope with the word Guatemala on it.

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We don't know who gave how much.

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It's like a, into a basket.

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And then whatever we get, we send

to the organization that we're

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working with, who's a person that

we know who actually goes there.

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And we know that we've done something for

the world and we don't need more stuff.

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So it ends up being really easy.

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We do do stockings for our kids,

but what we've done lately, as

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Christina said, they all have to be.

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consumable.

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So my thinking this year, and hopefully

nobody's listening to this, is I'm going

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to make those mason jars with soup mix.

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Ooh, I love those.

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You know, um, because they're,

they're adults, right?

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So we'll put different soups in those

and they can make food for themselves.

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And it's usually special condiments

they would never buy because they're

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expensive or whatever, but it's,

it's consumables that we give away.

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It's just, it's not going to

be the big fancy whatever.

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We just don't play that game.

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You don't have to.

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Yeah.

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And there is another

thing around holidays.

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It's traveling.

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Yes, that's a big, yeah, that's a big one.

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And I, I found a few a website.

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They're talking about

holidays and climate change.

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One is greenchoices.

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org and the other one is the conversation.

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com.

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And if anybody who's

listening is interested.

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You can even look there and get a

carbon calculator or 15 question

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quiz, so you can check yourself.

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So I think that's interesting.

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Yeah.

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It's great.

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I think it's great to meet your loved

ones for holiday, but yeah, I'm sure that

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there are better options, greener options.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And also the Zoom.

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I know it's awful, but if, uh, if somebody

cannot make it there, uh, financially

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or health wise, cause in the winter,

you never know you get sick and stuff.

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And you don't want to fly

with some contagious diseases.

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So then, uh, there is an option, which

was not out there a few years ago.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Can, can I share a Christmas

gift story with you?

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Uh, I'm just thinking of, um,

of my nephew who's turning, who

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will be turning 20 in tomorrow.

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No, in two days.

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In two days, and I remember, so it

was 11 years ago now, and he was

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turning nine, and he has a younger

brother who was six at that time,

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and No, that was not for Christmas.

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That was for his holiday, uh, for his, uh,

birthday, but his birthday is in November.

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So it's almost the same, the same date.

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And his brother's birthday is in October.

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So I invited them to my house, uh, to

celebrate their birthday, both of them.

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And I was really busy at that time,

11 years ago, but still I wanted to,

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you know, to invite them to celebrate

their birthday and I bought them a gift.

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And so I didn't really

have time to look at.

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I just.

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I took some random boxes of Playmobil,

you know, because it was, it's a, um,

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you know, from six to 10, I thought,

okay, one is six, the other one is nine.

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So six to 10.

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So I took two different ones,

of course, not the same one.

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So I bought them, you know,

for, for the set for both of

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them, I bought them one each.

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And so I gave it to my older nephew who

was nine and he opened it and he looked

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at it and say, Oh, it's six to ten.

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It's for babies.

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You know, it's for babies.

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Oh, and so I was a little bit

offended and then his younger

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brother who wanted to look cool

opened his gift and see the seven.

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He's like, no, it's for babies.

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I don't want that.

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So they refused my gifts.

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Both of them.

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I was Not happy at all, because

those skills are so, so, so spoiled.

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And because of them, I

stopped buying gifts for kids.

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Because of them, because both of them.

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So I need to tell him this story

before his birthday in two days.

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But, um, But then, you know, the, the year

after I thought, okay, I can do better.

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Okay.

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I don't have to buy him gifts.

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And so what I did is I, I had

a box full of, you know, this

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Paris ticket of, for the Metro.

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He, he used to love, and he still loved

the Metro and trends and everything.

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So for his 10 year birthday,

I had the box full of.

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Of train tickets, of metro tickets,

of old cars, the old ones, the new

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ones from the different cities.

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And so I gave it to him, and I

didn't, but it took me a long time

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to collect all those, but it was

like a very, very, very good gift.

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And even there was one that was

very special, I put it in the frame,

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and he was really, really happy.

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Isn't that fun?

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It's so fun, yeah, yeah.

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That's great.

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And they're also gifts of experience.

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Yeah.

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Instead of giving stuff stuff.

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We can take them out and, uh, do something

with them, run around, throw a frisbee.

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When our, um, two youngest were

coming up to their birthdays, and I

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can't remember what birthday it was.

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They might've been 12, like each,

they're two years apart, but the

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youngest two, but, um, When they hit 12

or 13, I can't remember, we decided to

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do a scavenger hunt birthday present.

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And so we got into the car and they were

given a map, like an old fashioned map.

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And they were given clue number one

out of an envelope and it was a rhyme.

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And they had to read the clue

and then figure out where on

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the map we were supposed to go

and then we would drive there.

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And this took all day.

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Oh, that's awesome.

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And one of them, the theme

was the Wizard of Oz.

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And it was all of these

places that we had to end up.

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And we even picked up our son at

the Broadway Skytrain station,

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and the clue was something about

a monkey flying in on Broadway.

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So you know, thinking of a play and

calling him a monkey, and he was

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actually coming back from working

up north by plane, and he met us

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at the Broadway station, and he

jumped out at her and scared her.

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And she's standing there going,

well, what do I look for?

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And then he jumped out because he,

you know, he was also an actor.

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So it was kind of fun.

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Anyway, we all ended up at the theater to

see Wicked, which of course is the story

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of the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz.

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So all of the clues all day.

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Took us to that.

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And the other daughter, hers, uh, was,

uh, Billy Elliot, the, uh, the show.

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So, you know, we started off by going

to a British shop and buying chips

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in the British shop and then going

to, you know, all these things that

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had to do with ballet and Britain.

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And we ended up to see Billy

Elliot, but those were birthday

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experiences they will never forget.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, there's one, there's something

I did for my brother that he, he will

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never, I mean, he will not forget

because he hasn't used it yet, but I

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made him a special advent calendar.

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You know, those are, because

he told me he needs to, um, to

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work on his core on his apps.

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My brother is very fit, but he

wants to be more have better abs.

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And so for, I think it was two or

three years ago, maybe two years ago.

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Yeah, it was, I was during COVID.

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So two or three years ago,

I did, um, advent calendar.

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And so I bought one from, uh, from

the previous year at church and

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there was empty with prayers and

all that, but then I cut them.

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Um, I took like some, um, like

your new exercise of four apps.

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And so every day you get, you

pick, you pick an exercise.

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So you have some exercise to accomplish.

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And after that, you've got some tricks

and the trick were, uh, some nuts, not

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chocolate nuts, but that's so creative,

but not that I put In this, you know,

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small boxes of smarties, so the first one

he thought, wow, I'm going to have some

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chocolate, but then he realized that,

oh no, it's nuts and, and so, and he's,

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this thing is I had a lot of fun doing

it, making the thing, but I think he

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has not, I mean, last time I asked him,

he said, no, I haven't touched it yet.

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I mean, he has, I think day one,

two, and then I think he gave it,

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but it was so fun to make this.

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And this I think he will not forget.

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That's good.

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Yeah, that's a lot of work too.

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Yeah, but it lasts very long.

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But it's fun.

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Yeah, and it's fun to make.

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Yeah, it's very fun to make, yeah.

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Yeah, so we talk a lot

about gifts and, uh,

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but there's one thing we haven't

discussed, which is food, food,

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um, I think at holidays we tend to.

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eat a lot.

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Yeah.

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I discovered something.

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I was told about something by a

woman recently, and then I went

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out and got it and tried it.

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And it was really cool.

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It's an app that we

have called flash food.

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I don't know.

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It's local.

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I don't know if you have such a thing.

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But what it is, is you can look at So

if you look at two particular stores

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in your area, at all the food that's

going to outdate that they can't sell

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past a certain date, and they've got a

refrigerator, a freezer, and a shelf.

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The refrigerator has all sorts of

salads and prepared foods and stuff.

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The freezer has stuff that's

frozen, obviously, and then

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the shelf has baked goods.

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And you look on Flash Food, and you

can buy whatever you want to buy and

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then you go and you just pick it up at

the store and it's food that outdates

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today or yesterday or tomorrow but

it's food they can't keep on their

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shelf and it ends up being half price.

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So Like but it's good like we we went

and we got I can't remember what it

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was a steak and egg salad That was

normally 15 for 7 and it was big

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and it fed two of us for dinner and

I thought wow That's kind of neat.

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So I sent my husband down

there and he's he's down there.

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He's going what about this?

364

:

What about that?

365

:

Yeah but but it was It was really,

anyway, I don't think it has much to do

366

:

with the holidays, but, um, well, well,

I think it does connect to the holidays

367

:

because I just heard about Thanksgiving

in the U S that when people, whatever

368

:

they don't eat the leftovers, they

can carry it to the kitchens, uh, to

369

:

churches or other kitchens that serve.

370

:

People in need.

371

:

I thought that's a good idea.

372

:

Very good idea.

373

:

Yeah, but what I was suggesting

that is that we tend to eat too

374

:

much food or to have too much

food on on the table for holidays.

375

:

This is something that we've been told

that we should have, like, you know,

376

:

lots of different foods and the, the

The fattest, the biggest, um, the most

377

:

expensive ones like from across the world

and um, like the food that is impossible

378

:

because it's a special occasion.

379

:

This is, um, there's

something I've noticed.

380

:

I mean that I, that I don't do too

much of it, but uh, when you go and

381

:

shop at grocery stores or, uh, traiteur

in France, um, you got a lot of this.

382

:

Oh, you have the, the, the thing

that is very, very special because.

383

:

there's this culture of because it's a

holiday because it's very special you

384

:

need to have lots of very expensive good

food and when it's for it to be very

385

:

expensive has to fly from across the

world interesting i i've never thought

386

:

of having to have expensive food oh um

we have like certain things that are

387

:

traditional um traditional foods but

not that They're particularly expensive,

388

:

that's, that's not my experience.

389

:

What's your traditional food?

390

:

We usually, I mean, we get a turkey

from a farm and that's expensive because

391

:

it's free run and has had a life.

392

:

So we go and we buy a turkey and

they're close to a hundred dollars for

393

:

a free run turkey that isn't fed full

of antibiotics and all that stuff.

394

:

And then we usually have, I don't

know, kind of, you know, potatoes,

395

:

mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes.

396

:

or yams and roasted Brussels sprouts and

I make a cranberry chutney and I make

397

:

pumpkin pie with pumpkins that we grew

or we had earlier and baking so it's not

398

:

it's kind of normal like regular food but

it's not necessarily fancy or expensive.

399

:

Yeah that's the same in Czech that I

thought every family has the same food

400

:

but I found out not but it's pretty

similar to all of us so we have breaded

401

:

fish, potato salad, Mashed potatoes,

and somebody has it on New Year's,

402

:

somebody has it during 20, December 24th.

403

:

It's a lentil soup, that means

a lot of money for next year.

404

:

And so, it's all, all the

traditions are very local.

405

:

And the expensive food are more for the

gifts, but as the food, food, it stays in.

406

:

Yeah.

407

:

What, what about you, Leké?

408

:

What do you have for Christmas?

409

:

That is so interesting because over

here we have foie gras, which is

410

:

something that is, that is, I don't

eat it because this is very personal.

411

:

I mean, if you love foie gras, that's

fine, but I don't think we need to make.

412

:

Animals suffer because, to make them

sick because of that, but so, but

413

:

foie gras is a must have on the table.

414

:

Um, there's also very often some seafood,

like, you know, seafood platters.

415

:

And I remember there was one year, I mean,

there was one year, I think it's still

416

:

going on, this, all these snow crabs from,

I don't know, from Canada or from Alaska.

417

:

It's, it's just silly, you know,

why do we need that, you know?

418

:

Oh, that's interesting.

419

:

Yes.

420

:

So, yeah, for us, even the carp that is

served as a fish is, uh, grown in the

421

:

local ponds or local lakes, and they

bring it in these huge tubs into the city.

422

:

And you can see them swimming in there

and you pick one and they'll kill it

423

:

for you and then you'll cook it at home.

424

:

So it's a very, very local.

425

:

All the holiday food is very local.

426

:

That is very interesting.

427

:

The cranberries that I was given a gift

of a bag of fresh cranberries from, uh,

428

:

the local cranberry farm from somebody.

429

:

Um, and that will be the

cranberry sauce for the.

430

:

Turkey.

431

:

Yeah, we don't, uh, we do do like

a roasted, um, orange glazed tofu

432

:

because we have vegetarians and

vegans in our family as well.

433

:

So we have, we have some

alternatives to the turkey, but

434

:

yeah, it's all pretty local, plain.

435

:

I mean, it's good, but

it's not super fancy.

436

:

There's also something that I'm not

a big fan of, because I'm, I'm, I'm

437

:

not a big fan of truffle, but there's,

there's for Christmas, there's

438

:

truffle brie, you know, expanse, yes.

439

:

It's like truffles expanse.

440

:

That would be good.

441

:

I like that, but I think

it's too strong, but it just.

442

:

It's like, you know, it's, it seems like,

you know, for, for Christmas or for the

443

:

holiday, you have to eat expensive stuff.

444

:

That's um, that's a kind of

culture that we have here.

445

:

French thing.

446

:

But the truffles are local

for you, aren't they?

447

:

Um, yes.

448

:

France has very high, like

delicious, amazing, fancy food.

449

:

But it doesn't come cheap.

450

:

Right.

451

:

Right.

452

:

But it's Aren't they hard to find?

453

:

They're hard to find, but they're

grown in local woods and stuff.

454

:

Yeah, I guess so.

455

:

Yeah, but it's just, it's just, you

know, this pressure of, I'm just trying

456

:

to, you know, to, I'm trying to refer to

this pressure of having expensive stuff.

457

:

Interesting.

458

:

Yeah.

459

:

For Christmas.

460

:

And there's also a lot of meat,

like, you know, turkey or roast.

461

:

Yeah, I think it's, um, I guess it's

part of the culture because, um, it's

462

:

Culture in France is around the table.

463

:

Yeah.

464

:

Yeah.

465

:

Oh.

466

:

Hmm.

467

:

Yeah.

468

:

Interesting.

469

:

How, so how can we do it better?

470

:

Well, one thing that Christina said

about wrapping gifts, we recycle a

471

:

lot of things and, but I'm, I'm coming

to the end of the gift bags that have

472

:

been given to me to, to repurpose.

473

:

But, but sometimes a nice thing to do

is a new tea towel as the wrapping,

474

:

you know, something that they could

use that we could open, you know, or a

475

:

t shirt or something, whatever you're,

you're wanting to give that you could

476

:

wrap it in that could then be used.

477

:

Once upon a time, I sewed all of

those cloth Christmas bags with the

478

:

drawstrings, but they've all disappeared.

479

:

So I don't know where they ended up.

480

:

People kept them, I guess.

481

:

Um, but.

482

:

That was a fun project, but I just

don't have time to do that right now.

483

:

But to sew the cloth gift bags

that can then be reused again.

484

:

So our wrapping, like it's such a

waste to rip open the paper and, I

485

:

mean it's fun, but it's such a waste.

486

:

You know what I use for my

wrapping for, for Christmas?

487

:

On election years, you know, there's

a lot of elections in France, so we

488

:

received it because there's two rounds.

489

:

For the first round, you receive a lot

of, a lot of, um, what you call it,

490

:

manifesto pamphlet of, with the program

of what each candidate intends to do.

491

:

And then, so you have, for the first round

of election, you have maybe 15 candidates.

492

:

So like, Very big sheet of paper,

so I keep them and then the second

493

:

round you have only two, but still

there's a lot of paper, so I keep

494

:

them and I use them for wrap my gifts.

495

:

I thought it's very fun because,

because there's a face because usually

496

:

very nice, very nice picture of the

candidate, so it makes everybody

497

:

loves and, um, and it's my signature.

498

:

Yeah, so that's great.

499

:

When the newspaper, everybody

was getting newspapers.

500

:

Yeah.

501

:

We used to wrap gifts in the section with

the colors or pictures in the newspaper.

502

:

Yeah.

503

:

Yeah, that's a good idea.

504

:

Yeah.

505

:

So, yeah.

506

:

So, we have gift exchange, um, we have

rafts, or wrapping, um, we have bird

507

:

transportation, uh, decoration is, we

haven't found a solution for decoration.

508

:

Well, you can, you can

do natural decorations.

509

:

You can make wreaths with natural things.

510

:

Or just less.

511

:

Dry apples.

512

:

Yeah.

513

:

Uh, gilded nuts, leaves,

berries, I think those are so

514

:

beautiful and they last long too.

515

:

And they're compostable and you

can make them again next year.

516

:

Yeah.

517

:

And also for the present, having

experiences instead of having things, I

518

:

think it's more fun and more memorable.

519

:

Even my daughter's one year.

520

:

They made a radio show on, uh, they

recorded radio show when they were little.

521

:

And gave it to us.

522

:

It was such a great present.

523

:

That's cute.

524

:

My uh, my daughter has asked me, I asked

what my grandson would like for Christmas.

525

:

She has a very minimalist home and she

rotates the toys and she's very careful

526

:

about not having too many things.

527

:

And she's asked for a

Sony Walkman for him.

528

:

That is so vintage.

529

:

A cassette player.

530

:

But an old one, like you can't,

they don't make them anymore.

531

:

Well, I'm, I'm on the hunt now.

532

:

That's my hunting.

533

:

Do you need tapes?

534

:

I have tapes.

535

:

Yeah.

536

:

Cassette tapes.

537

:

Because cassette tapes are

easy to put in and take out.

538

:

And they got one once for their niece.

539

:

still uses it to this day and

you can find the cassettes of

540

:

children's songs in thrift stores.

541

:

So cool.

542

:

And so she, she has headphones,

a big headphone set for him,

543

:

but she needs the machine.

544

:

So I have to go around and look at

all the secondhand shops and see if

545

:

I can find one that's in good working

order and then get some cassettes.

546

:

But it's kind of fun.

547

:

So that's my.

548

:

My hunt for him rather than

a big toy wrapped in plastic.

549

:

I always ask, what, what

do you want me to get?

550

:

Oh, that's so that, so

that it's something useful.

551

:

Yeah.

552

:

Oh, that sounds fantastic.

553

:

I just got another idea for overeating.

554

:

When, because when we have the

dinner and before or after.

555

:

We keep eating the cookies,

and in Czech there is a big

556

:

culture of Christmas cookies.

557

:

They're delicious, very addictive, and so

instead of staying at home and watching

558

:

things or something, to go out for

half an hour, for an hour, for a walk.

559

:

with the family and everybody

and that will kind of move us

560

:

away from the table a little bit.

561

:

It also helps your digestion.

562

:

It promotes your digestion.

563

:

It's supposed to be very good

to have a walk after dinner.

564

:

Yeah.

565

:

Yeah.

566

:

Yeah.

567

:

Okay.

568

:

Yeah.

569

:

We solved it.

570

:

That's it, it's done.

571

:

As, as a pastor, I spend a lot

of time thinking of the other

572

:

Christmas and, and working on, on the

experience of, of the other Christmas.

573

:

So it's almost reversed to me

where all of the hoopla of.

574

:

The buying and the consumerism is, you

know, sort of less than standing in a,

575

:

in a church at the end of the night with

everybody holding a candle, singing Silent

576

:

Night, like that to me is Christmas.

577

:

That is Christmas.

578

:

It's community, right?

579

:

Yes.

580

:

It's community.

581

:

So whatever way you have community and you

bring people together, that's all of us.

582

:

Yeah.

583

:

That's beautiful.

584

:

Yeah.

585

:

Midnight Mass.

586

:

It's even people who do not go to church.

587

:

Yeah, in the middle of the mountains

going to the church, such a romantic.

588

:

Pictures.

589

:

Beautiful.

590

:

Yeah.

591

:

Yeah.

592

:

Yeah.

593

:

Okay.

594

:

Bye.

595

:

Merry Christmas.

596

:

Merry Christmas.

597

:

Happy Holidays.

598

:

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599

:

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600

:

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601

:

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602

:

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603

:

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604

:

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605

:

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606

:

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607

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608

:

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609

:

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611

:

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612

:

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When it comes to the climate, we don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action.

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