Green Book Review: Celebrate Green

Review Summary: Great eco-friendly family book packed with ideas for creative and fun green holiday celebrations.

Forward note: My disclaimer on this review is that I one, have reviewed this before, but not here at Growing a Green Family, as I’ve been meaning to. Also, the first time I reviewed this was literally years ago. I think in 2008. Since then I’ve interviewed the authors for projects, been a guest on their radio show and just in general become pals with them.

This of course, doesn’t affect my review, which if you look back was positive, even back in the day. I just thought that with all the holidays coming up, we should take a look at this awesome book here.

Product: Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family by Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell.

Cost: $24.95 at Amazon – paperback. Not available in digital form, that I know of. *Note: You can save some cash if you purchase this book directly from the Celebrate Green website and get a tree planted in the process.

What’s covered in Celebrate Green:

Celebrate Green offers tips on everything – and I do mean everything – you need to celebrate eco-friendly holidays all year round. From Earth Day to Cinco de Mayo to Father’s Day to Halloween to Christmas to Kwanzaa and every little holiday in-between, this book has got you covered and then some. Beyond basic holidays, Celebrate Green also looks at celebrations that occur year round such as weddings, baby showers, birthdays and so much more.

Each major chapter section is divided by season – Winter through Fall and each seasonal section is clearly marked by topic, near the page number. Plenty of green tips are offered for each holiday, including background of holiday, how-to celebrate said holiday, organic recipes, eco-crafts and gifts, related causes and lots more.

There’s a handy calendar included at the end that rounds up all the holidays in a tidy list, a fun example of Furoshiki, a traditional type of Japanese gift wrapping done with reusable cloth, an insane website resource section, a green glossary plus a section for note taking.

How the holidays are covered:

The holidays are covered extremely well, It’d be tough to tell you how they discuss each holiday in such depth, but trust me, plenty of green tips are covered for each holiday. Since Halloween is coming up, what I’ll do is use this spooky holiday as an example to show you how well they get into stuff.

In the Halloween section topics and tips include:

A nice intro about their own views about Halloween and some background on the holiday.
Why candy is a health problem (in some cases) and what you can do about it.
Halloween websites to visit.
Recommendations on where to find great homemade Halloween items.
The best green treats and little Halloween treasures.
Party favors and prizes for Halloween parties and other events.
When to shop in order to score the best green Halloween deals.
Three Eek-o-Halloween Initiatives – for example, Fair Trade treats.
Eco-friendly Halloween costumes.
Stories about kids who give up treats for other fun rewards.
How to make your own non-toxic face paint.
Trick or treating essentials – a really great set of tips!
Hosting a party.
What to do with all those candy wrappers.
And more.

Each holiday chapter, not just Halloween, offers many ideas, not simply one or two you’ve heard before. Plus, as you can see, each holiday not only focuses on the green aspects of the holiday, but also on other green issues important to the season, which rocks.

Perks of Celebrate Green:

Celebrate Green is printed on 100% recycled FSC certified paper, plus the mama-daughter author team joined up with Eco-Libris in order to further offset the tree issue. When you purchase an Eco-Libris sticker along with your Celebrate Green book (exclusive to books purchased on the Celebrate Green! website), you’ll score one tree planted in a developing country.

A portion of the proceeds from Celebrate Green benefit Treeswing and Healthy Child, Healthy World.

Covers all the holidays – honestly, if they forgot a holiday, I’m not sure which one.

A very friendly, and more importantly, non-guilt ridden tone. If you’ve read my book reviews before you’ll know I frown on the, “I’m so much better and greener than you” tone some books have. That’s so lame. This book is helpful without pressuring you to do more than you feel you can. The authors don’t claim to be perfectly green – they’re honest about what they’re doing and what they’re trying to do better.

You won’t be overwhelmed by this book. The green tips are 100% doable.

The authors set up the world’s best green holiday website to go along with the book.

Were there any negatives?

There’s no digital version (that I know of), which would be cool.

Also, I’ll restate something I mentioned in all my other reviews of Celebrate Green - the text is a little wordy at times. The intro is very long, a little too long for my taste. There’s a back story for most tips, which is nice and all, but if you just want tips, it may be a little much. That said, it is what it is. Some people like to talk. Authors of this book and myself included – I mean, have you seen my 1,000+ word posts? I’m not really one to talk, right?

Overall score:

5 out of 5 little trees. In spite of some longer than should be stories, I think Celebrate Green is almost perfect (rare for me) and a must-have book for any family who celebrates holidays and other events.

If you love holidays but want easy ways to keep said holidays green, you need this book. Plus this is the perfect time to scoop it up – seriously we’ve got Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas on the way!