The Richmonds love their Christmas cards — making them, sending them, receiving them. It’s an important yearly tradition for the Alberta family. “There’s this warm, twinkly kind of feel to it,” Ania Richmond explains, adding physical cards convey an intimacy that e-cards fail to express. “I still pull out cards from my dad, who’s now passed away, from 15, 20, 30 years ago. There’s just something really sentimental and powerful [about it].”
Though the Richmonds decided physical Christmas cards were not something they wanted to let go of, they were conscious of the waste. With the goal of living net zero in mind, they struck a balance: recycling old cards the family didn’t intend on keeping. Armed with glue sticks, markers and scissors, Ania and her kids spent an afternoon gluing cut-out Christmas trees, reindeers and Santa Clauses on top of old cards. By recycling what would have been tossed in the trash, the Richmonds were able to adjust their holiday habits to make them more sustainable.
As in the Thanksgiving challenge, the family is also focusing on their food-related emissions. Wigilia, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner in Poland, has been a long-standing tradition in Ania’s family. However, the 12-course feast is a very carbon-intensive meal, with many of the components, such as fish and beets, imported from Poland. To modify this traditional meal to make it more sustainable, the Richmonds will steer clear of imported food and will instead buy ingredients from their local farmer or opt for more local fish such as salmon.
The Pistor Family