by Kristina Nelson

Created on: August 21, 2009

Readers can avoid long shopping lines, crowded stores, and help the environment by taking advantage of the 352 pages of Christmas crafts, hand-crafted gift ideas, and useful recipes that this book contains. Anyone searching for information on how to celebrate the holidays "greener" will want to have this book.

An introduction, which is included in the book, presents the reality of environmental damage regarding the holidays . Goldsmith explains how the amount of driving on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day effect the environment. This book introduces greener living ideas as simpler and providing better ways to recycle throughout the holidays.

The book's contents pages break down the information into categories of Welcome, Christmas Tree, Giving, Table, and Food - 94 projects in all. The first page of each project is provided with a level of difficultly, which is found directly under the project title. A detailed section is provided for materials needed for each project, and up close and in color photographs show the reader the step-by-step procedures and finished projects. Many of the projects are child-friendly.

Readers learn how to make a vintage fabric box using a recycled shoe box, and make homemade relaxing bath oils. Learn how to make a cotton bag by cutting material and sewing it yourself. Gift wrapping variations provide environmentally safe alternatives. This versatile book also includes information on how to buy the freshest foods for your holiday recipes. Readers will even find recipes to reuse leftovers from holiday cooking.

This book is uniquely designed, and includes more than simply making a gift or recipe. Readers can learn how to make a wood fire, scent a room naturally, and how to grow a mistletoe shrub. Information is also included about the benefits of buying and recycling a real tree for Christmas. Goldsmith also provides information on how to buy a real tree with roots and plant it in a pot.

The end of the book includes templates for projects that require one. Page numbers for the intended project, are provided on the template pages for the readers convenience. Pages 344 and 345 include a directory that includes addresses, phone numbers and Web sites. An index and book acknowledgements are also included.

Sheherazade Goldsmith's first book published was "A Slice of Organic Life". More information on Goldsmith can be read on-line at the Web site, http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/07/s heherazade-goldsmith.

A Greener Christmas, Discover a Simpler, Greener Christmas, Hand-Crafted Gifts and Cards, Natural Decorations, Traditional Recipes, editor-in-chief: Sheherazade Goldsmith, Dorling Kindersley, New York, NY, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-7566-3693-7, $25.00 USA.

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