This time of year the fun and excitement of giving and receiving gifts is often overshadowed by a certain amount of guilt over mass consumption and wastefulness. And it’s not all in our heads; holiday waste increases by 25% from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. That’s an additional 1 million tons a week dumped in our landfills. So how do you reconcile this concern and set an example for your kids while maintaining the tradition of holiday giving? Well, for a start, you and your kids can gather used books, toys and clothing to give to local charities, hospitals, schools or libraries.

Creating homemade decorations was my favorite holiday activity growing up. Coming up with new ways to make gift wrap, gift tags, and ornaments from things found around the house and neighborhood was part of the challenge--and the fun. With being green on many of our minds this holiday season, we have an even greater reason to be resourceful and to look to nature for inspiration.

As summer draws to a close, both parents and kids alike mourn the end of long days full of play and free of schedules. This shift from carefree summer days to school days has become even more distressing, as research shows that kids spend more time inside now than ever before. This detachment from the outdoors is causing what Richard Louv coined in his book, Last Child in the Woods, as "nature deficit disorder," resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems such as anxiety, attention deficit disorders and depression.

Starting a vegetable or flower garden with your kids is a great hands–on way to spark their curiosity in nature. Keeping a garden pest–free can be a real hassle, though. Reaching for a store bought chemical pesticide might seem like the easiest solution, but consider this: Pesticides not only kill garden nibblers like mealy bugs, aphids and slugs; they also kill beneficial insects.