Thanksgiving 2010: The Greenest Holiday? 7 Tips To Make It Even More Eco-Friendly (PHOTOS)

Some of us at HuffPost Green have mixed feelings about holidays. The commercialization, worthless plastic trinkets and decorations, pressure to buy gifts that will get thrown away, along with the ripped-up wrapping paper has us cringing.

But Thanksgiving is different. With natural decorations, seasonal food, and an emphasis on family and friends instead of buying stuff, it may well be the greenest holiday.

Check out six reasons we love Thanksgiving, and one reason we don't, plus find more tips for greening your Thanksgiving from our blogger Avital Binshtock.

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Seasonal Food That You Could Find At The Farmers' Market

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There’s a reason why traditional Thanksgiving food happens to be in season. That’s because the holiday celebrates the bounty the Pilgrims and Native Americans were able to gather together from their surrounding environment. OK, so our conception of Thanksgiving foods is a bit off from the Pilgrims’. For one, they didn’t have sugar or flour with which to make cranberry sauce or pie. In fact, turkey might not have been on the menu either, even though it was readily available. “Wild fowl,” mentioned in one of the original accounts could have been geese or duck. Pumpkin and other gourds were probably also on the table, even if they hadn’t just popped out of the oven and been sprinkled with brown sugar. Still, many of the items we savor (oh, who are we kidding, we shove those dishes in our mouths like a backhoe) find their inspiration in seasonal dishes. Green Thanksgiving tip: According to the LA Times, changing your Thanksgiving food traditions can actually have a large impact on your carbon footprint. Give your kids a history lesson and try to incorporate more local, organic foods from the farmers' market into your bounty. Avoid croissants from a can and serve up a meal of duck, goose, whole cranberries without the sugar, lobster, mussels, heirloom corn, rabbit, plums, and if you’re feeling adventurous, venison. A free-range turkey will do the most to minimize your carbon footprint. And though settlers weren’t in the habit of raising them yet, you can most definitely find sweet and regular potatoes at your farmers market. Pictured is a Thanksgiving entree prepared by chef Patricia Yeo with roast turkey, sweet potato puree, roasted brussel sprouts, cauliflower and plums.

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There’s a reason why traditional Thanksgiving food happens to be in season. That’s because the holiday celebrates the bounty the Pilgrims and Native Americans were able to gather together from their surrounding environment.

OK, so our conception of Thanksgiving foods is a bit off from the Pilgrims’. For one, they didn’t have sugar or flour with which to make cranberry sauce or pie. In fact, turkey might not have been on the menu either, even though it was readily available. “Wild fowl,” mentioned in one of the original accounts could have been geese or duck. Pumpkin and other gourds were probably also on the table, even if they hadn’t just popped out of the oven and been sprinkled with brown sugar.

Still, many of the items we savor (oh, who are we kidding, we shove those dishes in our mouths like a backhoe) find their inspiration in seasonal dishes.

Green Thanksgiving tip:

According to the LA Times, changing your Thanksgiving food traditions can actually have a large impact on your carbon footprint.

Give your kids a history lesson and try to incorporate more local, organic foods from the farmers' market into your bounty. Avoid croissants from a can and serve up a meal of duck, goose, whole cranberries without the sugar, lobster, mussels, heirloom corn, rabbit, plums, and if you’re feeling adventurous, venison. A free-range turkey will do the most to minimize your carbon footprint. And though settlers weren’t in the habit of raising them yet, you can most definitely find sweet and regular potatoes at your farmers market.

Pictured is a Thanksgiving entree prepared by chef Patricia Yeo with roast turkey, sweet potato puree, roasted brussel sprouts, cauliflower and plums.

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Tradition

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Comments

[Kelly Belly]

12:34 PM on 11/26/2010

Nothing is green if it involves torture and misery of sentient beings. Misery does not taste good, people.

[wyldwoodfarm]

03:47 PM on 11/24/2010

My turkey already seems to have a greenish tint to it. Is that bad?

[hen81]

12:24 PM on 11/24/2010

A turkey calls 911 at Thanksgiving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAHULstcI4Y

http://DTPollard.com

[AxelDC]

10:13 AM on 11/24/2010

Stay home!  The petroleum you burn travelling to and from home for a quick weekend will be a lot more than the petroleum used to make paper plates.

[kinoptikation]

03:52 PM on 11/23/2010

Tip#8: Travel where family is not.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

01:18 PM on 11/23/2010

For most Americans (I know Native Americans have different view of the holiday) Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday as we all share it regardless of our country of national origin or religion.  The best Thanksgivings are ones at home with a small number of guests.

[dukesman2000]

01:10 PM on 11/23/2010

“We beg to differ..”
-Native Americans

[KarlaElisa]

12:36 PM on 11/23/2010

Having a hard time wrapping my head around the 'Green' aspect of a Holiday wrapped in a shopping week that most likely will see someone crushed in a shopping frenzy.

Stores opening at 4am the day after....

JOIN ME IN BUY NOTHING DAY, the day after Tday!

Be a good Citizen, not a good Consumer.

[sabelmouse]

07:26 AM on 11/24/2010

i will and i'll be listening to the shopocalypse.

[thaggas]

09:23 AM on 11/23/2010

I love Thanksgiving. Food, family and football. No presents. No organized religion. It's the best.

[rm3]

11:19 AM on 11/23/2010

You said it all!!

[EuroRant1]

12:22 PM on 11/23/2010

Really? Wish someone could tell this to my very religious (Christian) family. That last straw was a Thanksgiving I had with my family 21 years ago. I was made to sit in the living room with the children because I was not "welcomed" at the table.

Thanksgiving was always my favourite holiday but after that incident ... little to nothing was really keeping me in America any more so I making a move to Europe was really easy.

5 yrs ago my parents wanted to have one last Thanksgiving with me ... so I was invited "home". So after a lot of moving mountains to get there and a lot of forgiveness - I finally sat at the a Thanksgiving table to be once again be told by my Born-again Christian siblings that I was not welcome ...

I literally have not eaten Turkey, yams or stuffing in over 20 years ... I do miss it and if it wasn't for Huffington reminding me - I wouldn't even remember it was Thanksgiving. The same goes for Christmas ... and about the only time I miss football any more is on New Years.

Count your blessings thaggas ... you have no idea how truly blessed you are.

[YankeeCanuck]

12:06 PM on 11/24/2010

It sounds like you are blessed--and the best part is, you made your own blessing.

[MohammedAbbasi]

08:59 AM on 11/23/2010

From The Association of British Muslims - HAPPY THANKSGIVING guys :)

[KarlaElisa]

12:34 PM on 11/23/2010

Thank you very much, Mohammed!

May I offer you a belated happy Eid al Adha and upcoming blessed Al-Hijra!

[MohammedAbbasi]

03:08 PM on 11/23/2010

Thx Karla :) May we brothers and sisters around the world realise that we are indeed one family.

[Sandmanj]

08:45 AM on 11/23/2010

It's all in the multicolored corn husks and the multicolored multishaped gourds.

They gravy's nice, too.