Customer Reviews

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is a very thorough guide to greening your holidays. From entertaining, decorations, recipes, and shopping choices, it delivers quite a packed punch of beautiful and sustainable information. My husband and I are both foodies and love to cook. We are very discriminating about recipes, and I can assure you that Anna's Sweet Potato Christmas Enchiladas are delicious and the Truffled Goat Macaroni and Cheese is now a regular staple in our weekly dinners. The apple, brie, and cranberry quesadillas are perfection as well as the pumpkin gnocchi. I made the salt-dough ornaments with my kids and it was gleefully nostalgic and is now a new tradition in our household. This book has re-birthed the handmade goodness that our culture has lost in all its plastic consumerism. My most favorite decor item I did this year was the Bell Jar Mini-Scenes. So cute and fun, and people rave about them when they come over. Such a simple, but unique idea that anyone can make. What I love most about the book is how stocked with information it is. There are so many great projects, ideas, tips, and recipes that I keep thumbing through for something new. A lot of entertaining books I own are very sparse in their content, but this book has an abundance. I'm giving one to all my girlfriends and my mom for Christmas and it will be a permanent fixture on my entertaining/cookbook/holiday guide bookshelf forevermore.

"During the holidays, household waste increases by more than 25 percent...Americans throw away an additional 5 million tons of trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve."

This statement was part of the author's inspiration to write this book, which gives tips and ideas to help minimize the impact of the holidays on planet Earth. But it is so much more than that...this book has ideas to simplify your holidays, build family traditions, and bring meaning back to what has become such a commercialized time of year.

This book starts with the 10 easiest things you can do to save energy during the holidays (although several of the tips apply to the entire year). These range from switching Christmas lights to LEDs to avoiding junk mail (the author gives websites to stop the catalog madness). From there, she goes into decorating projects, recipes, simple homemade gifts, entertaining, and other subjects. Throughout the book are sprinkled easy ideas and scary statistics from other sources. She discusses the greenest Christmas tree issue (fake vs. real...which is better for the environment?), the fact that many traditional paraffin candles have wicks containing lead, cloth vs. paper napkins, and many other issues.

The main reason I purchased this book is I have a 2 1/2 year old son, with another child on the way. I want to do things greener for them, but I also want to do more homemade projects and start some traditions so they enjoy the holidays without thinking of mountains toys. This book accomplishes this for me, with many simple & easy crafts and tips. I love the idea of making wreaths out of old wool sweaters, putting some sparkle on fruits (something I never would have thought of), making angel doily ornaments and twig stars.

Many of the recipes sound great, although some sound strange or have some fairly exotic ingredients. I can't imagine making truffled goat cheese macaroni & cheese (I don't even know if I can get truffle salt or truffles in Alaska), or celery root soup with crumbled bacon and humboldt fog cheese, or apple cranberry & brie quesadillas with black bean salsa. However, several of the recipes do sound good like the stuffed mushrooms, maple walnut cookies, and seven layers of sin bars. I can tell you that the roasted acorn squash soup is simple & excellent!

My main complaint about the book (why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5) is while most of the crafts seem simple, a few of the crafts were not explained well enough and were a bit confusing. Pictures of the steps would have been helpful. Some of the crafts had no pictures at all. Granted, I'm quite craft challenged, so if you are crafty this may not be an issue for you.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for green tips, starting family traditions, or wanting ideas for homemade gifts and decorations. While some of the recipes sound good, that is not really the main focus and is not a reason to purchase this book.

I was disappointed in this book. I was expecting something simpler. Instead, this more like Martha Stewart gone green, with projects and recipes so elaborate they are intimidating.

There are some tips on saving energy and such, but they are mostly pretty obvious to anyone with any interest in environmentalism.

I also have doubts about the "green-ness" of the projects. How sustainable are acrylic paints, glitter, a hot glue gun?

The book is attractive, with lots of full-color photos. I didn't care for the photos, though. They seem to be mostly of the author and her children; I'd prefer to see a little more diversity. A lot of the photos are so "artsy" they aren't particularly useful (extreme closeups, odd angles). A how-to book should have more practical images. But then, maybe this is the kind of book that people look at, but don't actually use. That's certainly the case for me.

Every year for more than a half century I've made thousands of Christmas cookies, handmade wreaths and scores of home-made decorations - some of professional quality and some just fine things to make with your children! I am a child of people who grew up during the Great Depression and then survived World War II. I was raised on the motto "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do or do without!" so recycling household items into something new has always been a way of life. Many of the things I've made have been my very own ideas. Other ideas have come from Woman's Day and Family Circle and Martha Stewart and so on. Unfortunately, "I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas" contains few to none of those great ideas.

Best left in the great recycling bin at the print shop, "I'm Dreaming" is a perfect example of an "author" who is dreaming of a great pile of green cash for Christmas without knowing much about anything at all she preaches about. And make no mistake - this is not a "fun" book. It is a sermon from the very first page - and not very original.

Many of her ideas are ill-conceived and poorly planned. Some, however, are downright dangerous. Completely ignoring the various ways to cover fruit with sugar sparkle, edible gold and silver leaf or edible glitter and fairy dust - all safe techniques in use over decades and centuries - the author recommends the application of a non-toxic glue stick and ordinary glitter. And then recommends eating the fruit so as not to waste it.

My nomination for the Worst Book of 2009, "I'm Dreaming" is not worth the paper it is printed on. Save a tree and leave the book behind. Send a subscription for Martha Stewart Living or Good Housekeeping (1-year) or Ladies Home Journal (1-year) instead!

we are always looking for different ideas on what to give/make for the holidays. this book was unique and creative as well as offering ideas that i consider suitable for gift giving. lots of great photography and good step by step directions. easy - - - no guessing

Not as helpful as I'd like. I was hoping for some easy to do Christmas decor, perhaps using things already around the house. But too many of these crafts just look exhausting -- the decorated matchboxes, for example. For one, where can you even get matchboxes anymore -- everywhere I go doesn't allow smoking indoors. And why would you give decorated matchboxes as a gift? No one smokes I know smokes, and certainly wouldn't refill a matchbox. And the point of being green shouldn't be to give others stuff that they wouldn't want or use. And, really, vintage Chinese egg ornaments? It requires you to empty an egg, essentially, which means wasting it, and going through a painstaking effort for a round, fragile ornament. I don't know. Maybe if I were more Martha Stewart-y, I'd get the need to jump through these hoops. But I'm not, and I don't.

The recipes in here look fine, but nothing you can't find in any normal cookbook.

Also, there's an annoying preachy tone to the writing. I mean, do we need a section on "breaking the plastic water bottle habit"? Seems to me that the people would be attracted to this book are already green -- they are looking to apply green ideas to Christmas. So why talk to them as though they have just discovered recycling?

I will give it one star -- the roasted acorn squash soup with parmesan and crispy sage looks worth trying.

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas / 978-0-8118-6767-2

This collection contains a little bit of everything for Christmas - crafts, decorating ideas, and recipes - all overlaid with a lot of good green advice. Whether or not it's worth the price of admission, however, is going to be up to the reader - I enjoyed this book immensely, but it's admittedly not flawless.

The recipes scattered throughout this book are probably the least green facet of this book - as delicious as "Truffled Goat Cheese Macaroni and Cheese" looks and sounds, it seems a bit excessive to insist on 'real' Italian truffle salt shipped all the way from, you know, Italy (although the supposedly "more sustainable" option given is to "order fresh truffles from Oregon, leave out the truffle salt, and shave fresh truffles right onto the mac and cheese"). I'm not sure where the Foodie craze and the Green craze intersected so indelibly - it must have been along the organic food lines (tastes better for the Foodies, more green for the Greenies) - but sometimes the two make strange bedfellows. Still, you've gotta eat and most of the recipes in this book sound interesting, if usual to my ears (are "Prosciutto and Goat Cheese-wrapped Figs" sweet or savory or both?), and almost all are accompanied by lovely color photos of the finished product. And I really can't wait to try "Parmesan and Yeast Flake Popcorn" on the tree this year.

The decorating tips are very lovely, although I tend to be a little ambivalent about the "Green Decor" trends coming out these days because they seem to largely revolve around decorating your house with repurposed, retro-kitch stuff, when I tend to prefer a more minimalist "just decorate LESS" approach to the green question. Still, that's largely a personal preference, and if you DO like the retro-kitch-repurposed look, there's a lot of good tips here like "Bottle Cap Refrigerator Magnets" and "Tea Bag Ornaments". I do like the "Twig Star Ornaments", for that matter, and intend to try those out soon.

As far as the crafts go, there isn't a whole lot here, but what is included is very lovely. I'd rather have a dozen or so good, creative, attractive projects than three dozen crummy ones, and this book delivers in that regard. I really like the "Herb Wreath" (for herb garden enthusiasts), the "Recycled Cashmere Pillows" (for sewing machine owners), and the "Recycled Wool Wreath" (for everyone) projects. Each project contains a lovely color photo of the finished project, but there are no "in between steps" photos or drawings, so these crafts really aren't for beginners. I think most people could stumble through them just fine, depending on your level of craft proficiency, but it's worth noting that this isn't really a beginner's book on crafting of any kind.

The real beauty in this book is the wealth of really carefully researched and thought-out green advice. It's hard to find a green book that really acknowledges the difficulties in deciding between the various "green" options out there, and this book provides a wealth of information on careful topics such as real trees vs. fake ones, shopping for presents online or in person, and the types of dishes, napkins, and other consumables best used for large gatherings. Each discussion is carefully explained, and alternatives are presented - for instance, for large gatherings, washable dishes are best but if you really must use disposable dishware, then invest in disposable bamboo plates, and so on. It's really nice to see a green book that explains *why* each option is better, and allows you to customize that advice for your own situation - it's definitely being taught how to fish as opposed to just being handed lunch for the day, and I appreciate it immensely.

A common criticism leveled at green books is that a *really* green book would make all this information available online and wouldn't clutter up the world with more books, but I think this particular book will weather this criticism well. There's so *much* here, and it's all packaged so nicely - it would be hard to track down all this advice, all these exotic recipes, and all these crafting and decorating tips elsewhere. If I had one other criticism to level, it's that I wish this book had gone more the "winter holidays" route rather than "Christmas" - there's absolutely nothing here that's overtly 'Christ' oriented (no nativity scenes made from repurposed plastic bottles) and pretty much everything here will apply to any major winter festival, regardless of religious orientation, so it seems odd that the publishers would slap "Christmas" in the title when all this stuff would work equally well for Jewish and Wiccan winter-celebrators as it will for Christian ones. But that doesn't make the book bad, it's just odd. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I do recommend that you at least take a look if you get a chance.

This is a good book for people interested in making environmentally friendly Christmas ornaments. One I particularly liked is the pine cone and nut wreath.

To be honest I'm not a guy who really makes crafts and I appreciate the book's recipes more.

I like her ideas and advise on helping to keep the planet clean. Suggesting readers stop buying plastic bottled beverages and chose aluminum or glass instead. He page on choosing the healthiest candles was also very interesting.

The recipes are different and I'll enjoy trying them.

This is a good book, more people need to get interested in the planet and I highly recommend it.

Finding Christmas traditions or activities that are environmentally friendly can be quite a challenge to accomplish, especially when knowing that most of Christmas entails waste and events that are anti-sustainable. So I guess having a friendly reference would be welcomed. I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas has three separate attributes to it. The first feature of the book deals with holiday craft making, the second deals with holiday cooking, while the third feature deals with tips on how to live a sustainable way during the holiday season.

The first aspect of this book is the crafts. The best way I can describe it is imagine the crafts you find in most periodicals such as Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple, or Rachael Ray, except geared more towards the green movement. One example would be the Popcorn & Cranberry garland, where it's easy for you and the children to make, but when you're done with it, you just hang it outdoors and let nature's little friends dispose of it for you as a wintertime snack. The crafts range from super easy to moderate difficult. By difficult, I mean you might need some skills with a sewing machine. Other than that, the craft side of this book was quite fun and intriguing.

The second aspect of this book is the recipes. Now, how do you have "green" recipes? Are the food items animal friendly or vegan? The answer is no. So I'm not sure how these recipes are green, other than most of the ingredients I can pick up at my local farmers' market, which in turn leaves less of a carbon footprint. Here's what I gather from the recipes, if you've ever cooked from Martha Stewart's cookbooks or magazine, and your kids hated those meals, then you should avoid this book. Either that or be prepared to swap out ingredients, such as instead of goat cheese, use white cheddar. The recipes for the most part seem more orientated to a more of an adult crowd, such as the sweet potato Christmas enchiladas.

The third aspect of the book offers advice on sustainability. I'm not sure I'm the most objective reviewer for this part of the book. I go to Portland State University, which is green as green can get. With that being said, it seems like a lot of the advice given in the book either was common sense, or something I knew already. That's not a knock on this aspect of the book. I'm sure there are people out there who would never think that cloth napkins are better than paper napkins for entertaining, granted as long as you use eco-friendly detergent to wash, and a laundry line to dry. That just seems like common knowledge to me.

My best suggestion for which this book is guided for would be for maybe a Thanksgiving gift for a friend or family member who is making an effort to going green. As getting this book for Christmas seems to make no sense to me, as it would be kind of late. All in all, the crafts are fun, the recipes need modifying for kids, and the advice could be useful for the right audience.

Over the past few years I have taken steps to to make my home and life greener. I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas contains useful information and some very good ideas on how to make your holiday's more enviromentally friendly using less resources. Some of the information is common sense and a few of the craft ideas can be found via online searches. The patterns are easy to follow and most of the supplies are things you already have or can locate easily at little cost.
The most helpful part of the book is the list of resources and sites to help reduce waste, where to recycle the hard to recycle items although at least one of the links has changed since the book published but a quick online search located the new site easily.
I didn't find the recipes to be appealing but everyone's tastes are different.
I did enjoy the reminiscent accounts of the Authors childhood Christmas/holiday memories.
Overall the book is informative and helpful and accomplishes the Authors goal of helping you use less and still have a meaningful Christmas with your family. I recommend to anyone who is trying to become more enviromentally friendly.