Helping hands, stars or angels

Make some salt dough and roll out very thinly, then cut out a shape of a small hand, star or angel.With a straw make a hole in the middle finger for a ribbon to be thread through when dried. Dry on top of a hot radiator or airing cupboard. When dried, you can either decorate or keep it plain. Make a label stating:

You can call upon this hands/star/angel in the coming year and I will happily help you to .......

Merry Christmas to you,

Your name

Telephone numer

This ornament can be left plain or decorated and hung anywhere in the house during christmas or the rest of the year and will remind the recipient of your pledge

• Babysitting,
  
• Shopping,


• Decorating,


• Cooking some meals,


• Glifts, etc are some examples of the sort of things you could give.

Mince pie party

Traditionally mince pies are served around Christmas. When looking around the shops there is a huge selection of the little cakes. ALL very heavily packaged may I point out.

Foil, plastic cup holder, cardbord box and some cellophane all for just 6 mince pies...

It is so easy and I believe even tastier to make them yourself. If you organise a group of friends to join you it is a lot of fun too!

A friend of mine told me the other day that every year she invites a group of friends for a mince pie morning. They all bring their baking tins, pastry ingredients and fillings (no doubt also a roling pin), tins are going in and out the oven on a regular basis, they share their recipes, some are doing the washing up and drying, they have a chat and when all activity has died down, have a lovely cup of cinnamon coffee with a freshly baked mince pie.

If you keep them in a tin, they will last for quite a few weeks without the need of preservatives and lots of packaging.

Have fun!

Presents for a gardener friend

Buy a collection of seed packets. (f.e. different lettuce and herb seeds).

Mix them up and divide them again into different little envelopes. These can be made out of brown envelopes that were sent to you. Write your own instructions on this mix pack of salad seeds to be grown in a window box in spring. This way you can give organically grown lettuce. No food miles, a fun activity for just a little bit of effort.

For those who have an allotment and would like some help with planning, a year's subscription to growveg.com will be a real helping hand. £15

To present, get an acorn, pine corn etc and attach the little seed packet to it.

Happy growing!

First Aid for Teenagers

It is not always easy to find an appropriate present for your fast growing up offspring. This might give you a fun but simple way out.
Buy a basic First Aid box (poundland or similar) and fill it with emergency items for teenagers items. Examples :

• stamps
• change for a call box
• a taxi card with local taxi phone numbers on.
• £1 Boots voucher
• a mini bar of chocolate
• a simple hairband a sachet of hair gel
• a sachet of shampoo
• an awful photo of yourself as a teenager
• a note giving them one free lift somewhere in the car no moans guaranteed.
• a note guaranteeing you will listen to a 'confession' without getting mad
• a note giving them a phone call to you anytime of night or day, for any reason
• a note saying you will cook their favourite dish when they have a low day
• a heart shaped note with the word 'Hug anytime' on it
• a note saying you will say 'No' if any girlfriend or boyfriend in the future asks if you have any cute baby photo's of them etc etc
  
• This can be adapted to any age obviously....
  

A present for a good friend and the family

Make a Christmas hamper with a selection of (home made) biscuits, jams and juices, a jar of organic hot chocolate, coffee, tea or malt drink, some fairtrade chocolates, nuts, etc. A bees wax Candle with a Christmas wish from you all.

Go to your local vegetable shop for a small wooden tangerine box. There is no need to wrap this box, just put your goodies with some tissue paper (from the local shoe shop) into the box and put a nice tag on it and a wonderful gift is created.

A 'green' presents that benefits the environment in more ways than one!

Are you looking for a present for a family that enjoys films?

Why not give them a membership to a web DVD rental service? It will reduce transport, packaging and production costs (as you hire the DVD and share one copy with hundreds of other members) and it will give the recipient a long lasting surprise.

Sign up today and try LOVEFiLM for FREE for 3 WEEKS! (if you are a first time member)
Plans start at only £3.99 a month.

Or you can buy a £35 Tesco voucher for the same service and get a free gift.
www.tescodvdrental.com/freegift and enter promo code TSZZ9876

I have been a member of the Amazon rental scheme for some years now and have found them excellent. Tesco DVD rental and Lovefilm, I have just read the reviews...

If you join the scheme by going through www.buy.at/SharedGarden click on Amazon, Tesco or Lovefilm, they will all contribute a percentage towards the Seed Fund of the Shared Garden Project. A community garden project in West Bridgford http://www.sharedgarden.co.uk/

Eleven Million Phones this Christmas

Tesco Mobile, the mobile phone service of the giant supermarket chain has carried out some research and found that around 11 million people are expecting to have a new phone in the run up to Christmas this year. Great for mobile phone companies but the worrying side effect is that 20% of people are expected to simply throw their old phone away!!

Why? Well, it seems we don’t really know how to recycle them so throwing them away is an easy alternative! To try and help a little Tesco have a mobile recycling service where you can earn cash, vouchers, green club points or donate money to charity. Even if your phone won’t switch on they will still give money to charity.

Full details can be found at www.tesco.com

The Eco List top gift websites

Over the last few months we have come across lots of fantastic websites where plenty of Christmas ideas and presents can be bought from.

The following were my favorite ones:

1. Biome lifestyle: www.biomelifestyle.com

2. Nigel's Eco Store: www.nigelsecostore.com

3. All things green: www.allthingsgreen.net

4. The Green Box Shop
5. The Natural Collection: www.naturalcollection.com

6. Oxfam unwrapped: www.oxfam.org.uk

7. Essential Oil Direct: www.essentialoilsdirect.co.uk

8. The Shared Garden:buy.at/SharedGarden

9. I want one of those: www.iwantoneofthose.com

I hope you all have a stress free and Happy Christmas!

Should we send Christmas cards?

Christmas brings out the best in all of us, whatever our religious beliefs, we can all enjoy its spirit.
Family and friends can use the occasion to stay in touch. Cards are a token of that social outreach.

• Charity cards increase the good feeling of giving to those less fortunate


• An email and a direct donation makes good sense. (make sure you Gift Aid it to let the taxman help out a bit at the same time!)


• Those friends from whom you don't hear much during the year it is great to get their family update through an email or letter.
  But let's not be too prescriptive, you know your friends, family and collegues and you no doubt know what they would appreciate best.

Depending on how you want to balance between tradition and sustainable living, there are quite a few options from which you can choose.

Over the next few days I shall be looking at:

1. making your own Christmas cards
2. Sending recycled Christmas cards (like these designer ones from Nigel's eco store)
3. If you buy recycled Christmas cards from charities they donate up to 20% to less fortunate people.
4. Pick up the phone and surprise 10 friends or family members on your Christmas card list to have a chat and say Merry Christmas!
   

You will no doubt receive Christmas cards from other people. Those you don't want to reuse to make your cards for next year with, make sure they don't go to waste – take them to a Woodland Trust recycling point.

Craft your own Christmas – County Council workshops show you how!

The County Council is getting in the festive spirit and wants to get Notts residents thinking ahead too.

On Saturday 5th December West Bridgford Library, Bridgford Road, from 10-12.30 and 1.30-3.30pm

Over the Christmas period an additional three quarters of a million tonnes of extra waste is generated in the UK. Typical Christmas-related waste includes a staggering 13,350 tonnes of glass, 4,500 tonnes of tin foil, 500 tonnes of discarded Christmas tree lights and enough wrapping paper to reach the moon if laid end to end.

Nottinghamshire County Council and local craft artist, Lucy Brown will be hosting a series of workshops across the county in December showing Nottinghamshire residents how to transform their rubbish into top quality Christmas gifts and decorations using a little bit of creative know-how.

Councillor Richard Butler, Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainability said: “These workshops will demonstrate just how fun and easy it can be to make something unique for Christmas from materials that you might normally just throw away. Making gifts, decorations and wrapping will also save the expense and extra packaging that comes with buying brand new items.

“The County Council are committed to helping people reduce, reuse and recycle their waste and constantly seek new and innovative ways to help them achieve this. So far, we have achieved a recycling rate of around 41 percent and with your help we can increase this further. We want to break the myth that people have to do big, dramatic or expensive things to help the environment – it is simply not true and we can all make a difference.”

Lucy Brown will be demonstrating how material that could of ended up in the bin can be turned into an array of eye catching decorations and gift wrapping. Local people will be able to join in at one of the county’s library’s for either a free morning or afternoon session, or all day if they wish! If you are interested in taking part in one of the workshops please contact the Waste Management team on 0115 9774172 or email waste.management@nottscc.gov.uk to register your interest. It's best to ring if you're interested but spaces may be available on the day dependent upon numbers or come along if you just fancy watching.


Nottinghamshire residents have already achieved a fantastic recycling and composting rate. However, the celebrations and holidays we enjoy over Christmas do end up creating more waste and it is important we keep reducing, recycling and reusing our household rubbish wherever possible.



ENDS



Notes to Editors



If you’re interested in setting up a photocall at individual workshops please contact us.



For further media information please contact the Sarah Bailey in the corporate communications team on 0115 9773729.

The Gift of Electricity for Christmas

As we all start switching on those Christmas lights (which are hopefully low energy!) and begin cooking and baking, spare a thought for your energy consumption. This is quite an 'energy heavy' season and might just be a great time to consider switching your provider to something more easy on the planet.

Good Energy is the only UK supplier providing 100% renewable electricity. Many others offer a 'Green Tariff', but no one else obtains all of the electricity they supply from renewable sources.

So, get a quote, see how much CO2 you could stop being pumped into the atmosphere and bathe in that warm glow of knowing you are using a renewable source. Perhaps now is the time to give your home a green Christmas present by switching - it takes about 5 minutes and you can do it online now.

www.Good-Energy.co.uk