Green Holiday Entertaining -- and a Recipe for Vegan Latkes

When you throw a dinner or party for the holidays -- whether for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year's -- you use a lot more of the earth's resources than you do in day-to-day life. How can you reduce the ecological footprint of your feast without compromising on hospitality? Follow the game plan in Holiday Entertaining for a Small Planet, the December issue of This Green Life.

One of many recommendations is reducing the amount of animal products you serve -- not just meat, but dairy and eggs. If you celebrate Hanukkah, try this recipe for vegan latkes (potato pancakes):



Here's a printable version of the whole article:



Please share your own green holiday tips and recipes.

A different approach to holiday giving

In our family we celebrate Hanukkah with very little gift-giving except to the kids. We've even cut way back on their gifts in recent years -- to things they'll love but can also really use.

Gift-giving at Hanukkah parties is more difficult to control. At our annual celebration with my brother's family, we have tried limiting presents to $15 or under. More recently, we tried limiting them to books. Though I'm crazy about books, that still involved quite a bit of spending -- of money and natural resources.

This year, I have a new idea (which I have yet to suggest to my brother -- so I don't know whether or not it will fly): a freecycle style exchange.

If you don't know what freecycle is, it's a grassroots movement consisting of local groups that use the internet to exchange stuff for free.

Anyway, my idea is for everyone at the party to bring one or two nice things in good condition that he or she has no use for any more. We'll lay them all out on a table and let everyone choose something new. The things won't literally be new, of course, but they'll be new to the people who bring them home and, I hope, appreciated just as much.