I don’t celebrate Christmas, but one friend of mine who is in full Navidad force has a wonderful cookie exchange every year that she always lets me taste tag along for. While I love to bake, especially cookies, there’s one brand I could never walk out of Whole Foods without buying/opening/stuffing my face with even before I got to my car. I love love love Dancing Deer Bakery Co., especially their Sugar Cane Lime and Molasses Clove cookies. They just ooze homemade-ness, and the clear packaging screams to be opened. Believe me, they scream…I dare you to NOT click to see their cakes…

For the holiday, nothing can be more rewarding than a cookie house you can build and eat with your kids later! The Sweet Home Gingerbread House Kit contains everything you need to build a little house, including the house template (ie, the box), gingerbread mix, icing mix, a piping bag for the icing, girl and boy cookie cutters, a special house cookie cutter and step-by-step instructions.

Dancing Deer certainly isn’t “sweet” for nothing. While Dancing Deer is neither organic or allergen free, their line of “Sweet Home” products is Dancing Deer’s wonderful philanthropic commitment to help families move permanently out of poverty. Whenever you purchase a “Sweet Home” cake or cookie gift (including the above Gingerbread House), Dancing Deer will donate 35% (!) of the price of the item to education, job training, child care and housing through the organization One Family Inc., a Boston-based non-profit helping to keep Massachusetts families off the street. This year, Dancing Deer employees and volunteers visited 25 family shelters to help spread a little joy and cookies to those in need. Home Sweet Home, indeed!

We all know how difficult it can be to choose the perfect gift for the kids in our lives. You want something they’ll grow with and enjoy endlessly - for a while. Every child loves getting presents for the holidays, but nothing is better than getting a present for no apparent reason. eBeanstalk - one of the most comprehensive shopping sites I’ve found recently, with super high-quality learning toys for newborns through age five - has taken gift giving to new heights (pun intended) with their innovative Gift Series. What a wonderful concept - either choose one of eBeanstalks pre-picked four toy Gift Series, based on themes such as travel, a Premium level, or for those of us living in an apartment, the compact series. Every three months for one year, a new toy in the series arrives - hooray! - in plain white box packaging, for added arts & crafts! You can also buy single gifts, and there’s a registry as well. It’s like a toy club, handpicked for your child!

Search for toys by age, category, or skills, such as language and emotion. Each toy (over 10,000!) have been tested by parents, educators, child specialists, and the “Mother Board,” over 700 moms who test and rate products to ensure quality and maximum fun. And, as an added bonus, eBeanstalk’s packaging are plain white boxes - perfect for added arts and crafts!

For the holidays, save 15% on all Gift Series - enter the code GIFTSERIES at checkout. And, on orders over $75, enter FREESHIP at checkout for free shipping. Now, to all my friends having babies, forget you read this so I can send a Gift Series to you…

Since holiday deals emails are flooding my inbox, instead of posting a weekly deals list that get lost in the posting shuffle, I’ve decided to dedicate an entire page to eco-deals for your holiday shopping - click on “Eco-Holiday Deals” under the “About Us” section in the right column. I’ll be updating as more notices come in, so please keep checking back! And, if non-profits or charitable giving is your thing, I’ve also started a “Eco-Holiday Giving” section. Keep an eye out for a crafty goodness calendar as well, if you’ve taken the Handmade Pledge! Happy Shopping!

Ah, the holidays…time for families, decadent food, gift giving and getting, and, of course, colds and flu and anything else the kiddies (or you) may bring home to share. Of course, I give my kids medicine for their big, bad ailments, but like many moms and dads, I don’t like flooding their systems with cold medicines that were recently deemed unhealthy for little ones, and try my best to keep them as drug-free as possible. We like our Hello Kitty humidifier, steam baths, lots and lots of water, and favorite blankets to cuddle into. With kids, however, even the smallest sniffles can bring about great stress for them - raw noses! Itchy tissues! Hello Kitty’s smiling face can’t solve that problem…

There are alternatives to Dimetapp fixes, all of which will work for kids of any age (as well as you). Lo and behold, DailyCandy Kids Chicago sent out this great homemade chest cold rub recipe this morning that’s simple to make and a lot easier to apply (and smell!) You can easily find all the ingredients at your local Whole Foods or natural foods store, or this amazing on-line shop, Smallflower. Dubbed “The Original International Apothecary,” Smallflower is truly a one-stop shop for all things natural from head to toe for you and your family. From Hyland’s homeopathic cold remedy for kids, to every essential oil and Bach Flower essence under the sun to mix your own remedies, as well as teething and colic help, be forewarned - you’ll be ready to stock up for the season, hoping it will last well into the new year…

When I first heard about ‘Buy Nothing Day’ and its participation date - November 23rd - my immediate, fly-off-the-handle response was, “Are they CRAZY? That’s Black Friday, only, like, the biggest shopping day of the year!”

Oh, DUH.

The funny part is, I’ve never participated in Black Friday. Maybe it’s because I can’t wake up that early and do more than lie on the couch and zone out to a cartoon. Maybe it’s fear of the Target crush. Or, could it be, it’s actually nice to stay home and do nothing for once after a day and night of cooking and eating?

The concept behind Buy Nothing Day is that, since we are a world of extreme consumers, no amount of hybrid vehicles and solar paneling will help us as a society if we consistently overdo it. Therefore, if we take a day, possibly the most economically important day of the year - and actually don’t buy anything, we’re making a conscious effort to step it up and say we can consume less and get more out of life because of it. Participate by not participating. Or, participate in one of the many Buy Nothing Day activities BND groups have put together in 65 countries to protest consumer over-spending, including the infamous ‘zombie walk’ through shopping malls.

I understand about finding good prices, especially in this day and age. But, through writing teensygreen and reading about so many other parent’s experiences, I’ve come to learn that ‘less is more’ can truly apply to everyone, even the kids we want to spoil rotten and give the world to. And we can - it just takes better decision making on our part to give them the best of what we can.

So this Friday, stay home. You don’t need to brave the cold or the crowds to bust into a superstore at five in the morning. Take a walk with your kids. Eat leftovers, or have a leftovers swap with the neighbors. Hey, have a leftovers street party! Nap with your kids. Nap with the dog. Anything but taking out the AmEx.

Target will be there on Saturday. Thanks for listening…

Aside from reading, writing, thinking, breathing, and speaking about all things green for kids, obsessing about letterpress stationery, and losing the battle to teach my kids how to swim, I have a full-fledged love for Facebook. Most of my husband’s 18 (!) first cousins are on it, and it’s been a great way for us to keep in touch. There are also amazing networking opportunities, and that’s why I started a teensygreen group for Facebook. Please take a minute to join, and say hi to me! It’s a work in progress, but you can post pics of your teensy greeners, start or give your two cents about green issues for kids, just find a nice place to hang out with other eco-conscious moms and dads (and my husband’s 18(!) first cousins). And please challenge me to Scrabulous. The more, the merrier!

I love all things Zid Zid - my dream is to completely redo my daughter’s room to resemble a kiddie-sized Moroccan souk, complete with poufs, low table, a brilliant blue ceiling, and all the lovely accessories Zid Zid has. We’ll walk around in silver slippers and drink mint tea from gilt tea glasses all day…(can you tell I’ve thought about this a lot?) Seriously, many of Zid Zid’s products feature recycled cotton and cotton fill, vintage fabrics, natural materials, and all products are made in Morocco under fair wage conditions. But it’s the handmade-ness of the pillows and products that brings me back for more…Something I’m going to stock up on for gifts this year are the Zid Zid “Color Me” cushions, animal pillows ready for kids to design to their own style. I made the mistake of showing this to my older daughter, who is in full Chanukah mode…guess what just got added to her list? These cushions can be painted on, sewed on, glued, colored. Go ahead, they can take what your kids give it - and they’ll be best friends in the end.Speaking of giving, my new friend Jennifer, owner of the simply amazing Hazel Wood Children shop, is graciously offering not one but two of these lovely Color Me cushions for this week’s giveaway. Two winners can choose either the elephant or horse cushion. Please note, the pillows come without all the glittery art supplies you see above, but we’re sure you have plenty of crafty goods ready to cover these babies…This week, because of Thanksgiving, the giveaway will be open until Wednesday night at midnight, PST. Please leave a comment with an answer to this - what is your favorite Zid Zid colored animal cushion? (Hint: click on “More Photos” under the hippo to see them all!) Thanks, and good luck!This giveaway is now closed!  Congrats to Jessica and Marcie, winners of the Zid Zid ‘Color Me’ cushions! 

Since I took the Handmade Pledge this week, I’ve been scouring the web for eco-craftiness. Thankfully, I just received an update from Jennifer Strunge, creator of these amazing Cotton Monsters. Jennifer handmakes these monstery yet totally cuddly personalities from recycled linens and fabric. Her background as an artist and puppet maker in her native city of Baltimore, Maryland, really gives life to these creatures - from Sea Monsters to jellies, and little and BIG monsters, no two monsters are alike, and any one of them will make a great addition in your kid’s playroom. Or, as Jennifer finds, makes a great addition to the family! Check out the photo album to see how Cotton Monster has invaded all over the country…

Forty (40) brand new Cotton Monsters will be available tomorrow, November 17th, and they sell out notoriously fast. Keep checking the Cotton Monster shop for the release of the beasts, and get one quick! Jennifer will also have monsters at two Baltimore craft shows - the Charm City Craft Mafia “Holiday Heap” on Saturday, December 1st and Squidfire’s “Holiday Art Mart” on Sunday, December 9th.

Chanukah is only three weeks away. I’ll say it again…THREE WEEKS. When Chanukah is in early December, it’s both a blessing and a curse. It compounds Thanksgiving stress by adding buying and sending presents simultaneously with planning dinner. However, on December 10th, when it’s over, it’s over, and I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the year without removing a single credit card from my wallet.

That being said, our first green switch this Chanukah was our candles. Beeswax candles, rather than traditional wax ones, are all natural, dripless, uniquely non-toxic, and smells like the honeycombs they came from. They’re also non-allergenic, so they’re safe for kids with asthma and other airborne allergies. And, interestingly, burning pure beeswax actually helps purify the air, cleaning out odors, pollen, dust, and other toxins, so they’re actually healthful to burn year round.

The Jewish Museum has a nice array of beeswax Chanukah candles, including classic honey and multicolored for the kiddies. I also found a beeswax candle making kit - just add the wick and roll it up for maximum menorah fun!

This month of giving thanks, I’m trying to put a lot of focus on non-profit organizations and goodwill programs that you can help directly. You may have already heard of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, which provides specially designed, durable, packed with activities, kid-friendly laptops to children in developing countries where computers are a scarce commodity. MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, upon seeing firsthand how computers significantly impact children’s learning abilities, set out to develop a computer specifically to duplicate the effect. The result is the amazing XO computer, designed in collaboration with teachers and computer experts for maximum education (and enjoyment).

Here’s where you come in. For the next two weeks ONLY, you can purchase not one, but two of these unique XO computers for $400. One laptop goes to a child in a designated country, and one goes to a child in your life. Don’t need another computer? One computer is $200, and will bring a child an open door to information, art programs, games, and communication abilities that we take for granted every day. Considering these places can only afford $20 per year on a child at school, I say it’s worth sacrificing Starbucks for a little while and shift that money to where it’s needed much, much more.