Here at the National Wildlife Federation, we feel that every child is important and that they represent our future. There are many things that threaten their existence – poverty, hunger, illness, lack of quality education, climate change, extreme weather events, and unspeakable crime among others.  But there are also many things that support their existence – love, families, caring teachers and adults, friends, medicine, superior education, and communities.

As we approach the New Year, my NWF Eco-Schools USA colleagues and I wanted to wish you the very best of the season, and to know that our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with you all during these holidays, and especially with the families and friends of those who perished in Newtown. For most of us, this will be a time of joy – I intend to hug my nieces and make sure that they know that I will always be there to support them in whatever way that I can.  For truly, as Angela Schwindt wrote, “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”

1. Purchase live trees, flowers, and plants instead of cut varieties

Beautiful bouquets of flowers are hard to resist, especially in winter when it seems so little is blooming. But, there are a variety of winter-blooming favorites that would be happy in your home, either year-round or temporarily. Three that come to mind are cyclamen, Christmas cactus, and, if you like to have a tree up at this time of year, a live, native tree that you can plant in the spring (or return to the store for them to plant).

Why it’s eco-friendly: live plants sequester carbon, purchasing locally-available varieties reduces fuel consumption for transport, supports local economies

Planting a native tree supports our iconic forest ecosystems. Image: Darius Kinsey (1927) / flickr / UW Digital Collections

2. Bring your own containers to the grocery store

We are all familiar with the “Bring your own reusable bag” movement, but you can bring your own containers too! If your grocery store has a bulk section, bring in those tupperware, old yogurt containers, or whatever else you have on hand and fill those babies up! Be sure the containers are clean and try not to touch the scoop to the container – a watchful attendant will appreciate your attention to public health. Then, just write the code on the tags they make available, snap it between the lid of the container and the container itself, and you’re good to go. Easy!

Why it’s eco-friendly: reduces the consumption of packaging materials, fewer plastic bags are used for bulk items, reduces food waste because you can buy as much or as little as you want, encourages the market for bulk buying (reinforcing the previous three points)

Seattle stores with bulk areas: I especially like the Ballard Fred Meyer and Uptown Metropolitan Market.

Bonus tip: If you want to save a few extra pennies, weigh your container and write down the weight on the tag so the cashier can subtract it from your purchase. I find that a larger plastic container such as the 64 oz. tub of Nancy’s yogurt weights about 1/8 lb. (0.125 lbs).

3. If driving, get warm and cozy in the car before starting your trip

With chilly weather the norm these days, a toasty car always brightens my spirits. I love to sit there as the car warms up: shoulders hunched, hands snugly ensconced in mittens, radio on, shivering a bit as the car’s engine moves from a somewhat-noisy rattle to a low, purring hum. Once I hear that hum, both my car and I are warm and ready to go!

Why it’s eco-friendly: a car’s emissions-control equipment performs best when the car is the right, warm temperature

Do you have eco-tips to brighten the darkest time of year? Share them with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Families can mark their trees with a red ribbon and return later to cut them down.

We’d set aside last weekend to do our holiday decorating, so as the weekend approached and the weather forecast was good I suggested to my husband that we check for a local tree farm where we could select and chop down our own Christmas tree.

We’ve often bought cut trees from local vendors, but I can’t say for sure the trees themselves were local. I’m a big supporter of buying my food local, straight from the farmer so it only made sense that I should take that next step and buy my tree straight from a local farmer, too.

Although it was our first time cutting our own tree it won’t be our last. The kids had a ball wandering the land in search of the perfect tree for our family. Inevitably we’d find “the one” only to find that it was already claimed by another family, shown by a red ribbon tied on it.

"The one" at Blue Heron Tree Farm in Centreville, MD.

Beyond the fun we had, I feel good about our choice because during their growing cycle these trees provide oxygen, as well as habitat for many types of wildlife. Also the leftover tree can be recycled to mulch or left as a snag, a dead tree that provides habitat for wildlife.

We also supported local farmers Harriet and Ed Caporin, owners of Blue Heron Tree Farm. Buying local helps our economy and, in cases like this, it keeps the land as a productive farm versus over-developed.

Outdoor fun. Adventure. Shopping local. The smell of a fresh cut tree. If any or all of things lure you to buy a local Christmas tree, you can find a farmer near you by searching the National Christmas Tree Association directory.

‘Tis the Season from the National Wildlife Federation:

• 5 Gifts Birds Are “Tweeting” About This Holiday Season
• This Year, Shift Your Gift Into a Gift For Wildlife
• Reindeer: 12 Fascinating Facts About These Amazing Creatures
• Simple Holiday Crafts to Make With Your Kids
• Habitat Certification and Other Gifts for Gardeners
• The Northern Cardinal: Find Out About the Bird That Most Symbolizes the Season

Give more creative presents to your loved ones - they will appreciate it. (photo credit: chatirygirl/Flickr)

1. Use what you have. If your closet is like mine, you have boxes of old mementos and treasures that can be transformed into something beautiful. A personalized gift says so much more than “I picked this up from the store”. Convert old T-shirts into a soft rug, make coasters out of notes and photos, or create a Dali melting record clock. Don’t forget sentimental gifts that require only a little creativity – retouch Grandpa’s childhood photographs, organize Mom’s recipes, or edit that dusty “Disneyland 1998 family vacation” video.
2. Gift experiences. Work and school can prevent families from spending much needed quality time together, so the holidays offer the perfect time to catch up. Families can find escapes and adventures on deal websites like Livingsocial and Groupon which can save them money to spend on more important things. Time is the most valuable gift you can offer, and the added savings are a welcomed bonus.
3. Find alternative wrapping paper. Your works of art have been created, and now it’s time to wrap the gifts. Finish those half-rolls of wrapping paper hiding in the back of your closet and resist the urge to buy more. Use recyclable bags and spruce them up with some festive cheer (you can also use Silk Furoshiki Gift Wrap, but remember, the point is to use what you have – the less you bring into your home, the less you ultimately have to recycle or throw away!). BONUS: Add some colorful flair to your packages by replacing your unrecyclable packing peanuts with shredded strands of discarded wrapping paper.
4. 

   Photo Credit: sdminor81/Flickr

   Know where your Christmas tree comes from. Real Christmas trees have a distinctive smell, but they can be shipped from far away farms and your tree leaves a high carbon footprint before it arrives at your door. On the other hand, fake Christmas trees can be reused, but they are not recyclable and require high amounts of petroleum for their production. Thankfully, there are alternatives – you could find a nursery and chop down a tree or you can build your own Christmas tree.
5. Donate to your favorite nonprofit. This is the gift that keeps on giving throughout the year. The National Wildlife Federation’s new Choose Your Cause campaign allows our donors to choose the cause where they want their donation to be used. In addition, NWF is a member of Earth Share, a nationwide federation of the nation’s most respected environmental and conservation charities. We’ll put your donation straight to work where it’s needed most in our conservation programs across the country.

‘Tis the Season from the National Wildlife Federation:

• 5 Gifts Birds Are “Tweeting” About This Holiday Season
• This Year, Shift Your Gift Into a Gift For Wildlife
• Reindeer: 12 Fascinating Facts About These Amazing Creatures
• Simple Holiday Crafts to Make With Your Kids
• Habitat Certification and Other Gifts for Gardeners
• The Northern Cardinal: Find Out About the Bird That Most Symbolizes the Season

(Morguefile.com)

Within a week or so of joining NWF, I was handed one of my first projects: Help promote shiftmygift.com. While I was a bit nervous to take on a brand new project so soon, I was relieved to learn that Shift My Gift (SMG) was just about as new as I was! SMG launched August 15th of this year and has started to change the way people donate to non-profit organizations – and how they celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions.

The Background Story

Shift My Gift was founded by two brothers Blair and Kirk Souder. During a trip to Nepal, Blair realized just how little the native people had, yet how content they seemed. Upon returning to the states, he decided we needed a way to turn gifts into something more meaningful– and thus shiftmygift.com was born.

Here at NWF, we are honored to be chosen as one of the first non-profits featured on the site. In my excitement, I’ve told many friends and family members about it. Each person responded with something along the lines of “Wow, why didn’t I think of that?” and then went on to exclaim how they would love to have a more meaningful gift option to give their loved ones. One of my friends mentioned how this would be great for her Dad, an NWF supporter, bird enthusiast, and “the guy who already has everything.”

SMG would also solve the problem of those unwanted gifts you receive every year. Instead of another gift cluttering up your house, why not ask for loved ones to support your favorite non-profit?

Hmm, I Think I Like This Idea. Now How Does It Work?

Signing up for Shift My Gift is really simple, really. In fact, you probably already know more than you think. Here are quick steps:

1. Go to www.shiftmygift.com and create an account.
2. Once you have an account, you can create an “occasion.” An occasion can be anything from your birthday, to a holiday, or even a wedding/gift registry – feel free to be creative!
3. Choose the non-profit(s) you would like your loved ones to donate to in your honor.
4. Send your occasion via email or social network to your friends, family, etc. and ask that they “shift your gift” this year.

Your Occasion Matters

The best part is that 100% of the donations you receive go directly to the National Wildlife Federation or the non-profit of your choice. SMG charges a $1.49 processing fee per donation, which helps to cover their operating costs. However, this is easily offset by the savings in gas, wrapping paper, and overall time spent at stores and malls. Here at NWF we love anything environmentally friendly!

With the holidays steadily approaching, I’m thinking of ways in which I can “shift gifts” this year. How will you shift your gift?

P.S.: One NWF-er shifted her birthday gifts before shiftmygift.com was even invented. In 2009, Danielle Brigida raised $825 for NWF in honor of her special occasion!

This post is by Crystal Simmel, the Online Marketing Coordinator for NWF’s internet team. She works to increase engagement and provide a better user experience through website ads, optimized search results, and various other tools. While not at work, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and DIY projects.

But for a truly unique maritime experience, join me on a Sea Serpent Day (August 6th or 7th; there is some dispute) excursion to LISTVILLE (population: five).

The first mention of sea serpents in letters is generally accepted as coming from Virgil’s Aeneid, around 30 BCE. Laocoön, priest of Neptune, was preparing a bull sacrifice with his sons when “a pair of sea serpents with huge coils” and “blood-red crests” made way for the shore and enveloped the statue-ready trio in their “scaly folds.” There were “burning eyes” and “hissing jaws,” and I’m told younger and more sensitive altar viewers needed to leave the room.

Oarfish engraving, c. 1889 (Florida Center for Instructional Technology)

In the centuries since, ‘sea serpents’ and their sundry variations have been reported everywhere from Nova Scotia to the Portuguese coast and described variously as “turtle-like,” cow-faced and possessed of “brilliant flaming eyes” (these and other details come mostly from Richard Ellis’s 1994 book ‘Monsters of the Sea,’ which contains many period eyewitness accounts full of taxonomic and linguistic weirdness).

While we’ve yet to get reliable word of the existence of sea serpents, scientists have come up with a number of likely—and in some cases verified—explanations for sea serpent sightings, including these five based on actual, factual wildlife.

1) Oarfish

Long-dead and therefore significantly less serpent-ish oarfish (flickr | muzina_shanghai)

This is one of the simplest imaginable explanations, and the first thing I thought of when I read about the “blood-red crests” of the Laocoön-eating serpents (Scientists too. See incredible photos on this blog and the engraving above; sea-serpent-ish, no?).

Now, Oarfish are an unassuming family of bony saltwater fish, only slightly more likely to fatally maul a hirsute Trojan priest than a clump of kelp. Still, the largest of them, the King of Herrings, may reach somewhere between 40 and 50 feet in length, and could easily set the imagination racing as it breaks the surface of the water crest-first, its big eyes glistening.

The oarfish is scarce, apparently tastes bad and is still largely a mysterious animal. Here’s Kurt Ove Eriksson, who spotted a smaller specimen off of Sweden’s western coast last year: “At first we thought it was a big piece of plastic. But then we saw an eye [...] I went down to check and saw that it was this extremely strange fish.” Nice work, Kurt.

2) Basking Shark

A non-decomposing basking shark. (flickr | Green Massachusetts)

In one of the most famous sea serpent incidents of recent times, a Japanese fishing boat near New Zealand hauled in a vaguely monsterish corpse in 1977. It appeared to be a long-necked, small-headed, four-flippered creature—a surviving plesiosaur, perhaps, long the single most popular sea serpent theory. Crewmembers discarded the corpse, but not before numerous intensely-scrutinized photos and samples were collected.

The corpse remains popular in cryptozoological lore despite the near-unanimous informed conclusion  that it was, in fact, a partially-decayed basking shark. The placid filter-feeder is well known for rotting into a what appears to be a serpentine form. From the link above, originally printed in Reports of the National Center for Science Education: “When the basking shark decays, the jaws and loosely attached gill arches often fall away first, leaving the appearance of a long neck and small head [...] All or part of the tail (especially the lower half which lacks vertebral support) and/or the dorsal fin may also slough away before the better supported pectoral and pelvic fins, creating a form that superficially resembles a plesiosaur.” More:

Interestingly, basking sharks seem to have a propensity to mimic sea serpents while alive as well as dead. Often they feed in groups at or near the surface (hence their name), sometimes lining up two or more in a row. When they do this, the dorsal and tail fins protruding from the water can be, and sometimes have been, mistaken for multiple “humps” and head of a long-bodied sea-monster (Sweeney 1972; Bright 1989; Ellis 1989; Perrine 1995).

3) Basilosaurus/Zeuglodon (prehistoric whale)

I’m cheating here, but the badly-named basilosaurus (originally thought to be a type of dinosaur) WAS a real, live animal at one point.

You have to admit, it was a nice try. (Wikimedia commons)

In 1845, a German entrepreneur/collector/flim-flammist named Albert Koch unveiled a crazy looking skeleton—a modern-day sea serpent, he said—and toured with it in New York and other American cities. For a little while, it was the talk of zoology, taken by casual observers as proof that sea monsters existed (Koch claimed to have unearthed the skeleton in Clarksville, Alabama, and went so far as to describe its behavior and other details on the basis of the bones).

Despite the unending credulity of contemporary audiences—this kind of hoax was perpetrated often and successfully in 19th-century science, which was sometimes closer to circus exhibitionism than anything else—it became clear pretty quickly that the 114-foot thing had been cobbled together from a variety of bones taken from five or so specimens of the the long-extinct basilosaurus, a prehistoric cetacean (certainly not a reptile, as Koch claimed).

Koch’s scientific name for the creature–-hydrarchos sillimani—was derived from the naturalist Dr. Benjamin Silliman, whose presence was thought to lend scientific legitimacy to the affair. Once Harvard anatomist Jeffries Wyman and others pointed out that it was an obvious fraud, Silliman requested his name be removed (Though, hey, it’s the main reason people remember him. There’s a lesson there).

4) Giant Squid

Giant squids are already among the coolest, monsteriest creatures of the deep, but they may account for some of the earliest serpent sightings as well.

(Wikimedia commons)

In the mid-18^th century, Bishop Pontoppidan reported a “Sea-monster” that “looks at first like a number of small islands, surrounded with something that floats and fluctuates like sea weeds” (see image at right, also featured in Ellis’s book). The Pontoppidan sighting was widely agreed to be a giant squid later on.

Later, in 1849, Prof. Japetus Steenstrup determined that a carcass discovered in 1639 (“a peculiar creature or sea monster” with “7 tails” covered in “buttons” and a soft body without bone or cartilage), presumed to be a serpent of some kind, was actually Architeuthis (with a few body parts missing). Many other sightings and discovered bodies from the 16^th-18^th centuries seem to fit this description as well.

Luckily, once people started figuring out that these multi-tailed (or headed) serpents were actually cephalopods, they were able to shift pretty seamlessly to freaking out about impossibly huge tentacled ‘krakens.’

5) Elephant Seal

This is cute, but admit it--it's also really weird-looking. (flickr | Jim Bahn)

Sir Richard Owen (somewhat controversial himself as a contemporary and opponent of Charles Darwin, but an important scientist of the day nonetheless) famously suggested that the Daedalus sea serpent off the Cape of Good Hope in 1848 had in fact been a semiaquatic mammal.

According to Owen: “It is very probable that no one on board the Daedalus ever before beheld a gigantic seal swimming freely in the open ocean.”

It’s not hard to see how a large elephant seal, with its formidable length and swollen ‘trunk,’ could easily have accounted for a crypto-animal sighting when beheld by weary sailors. In fact, the ninth volume of the Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, published in 1826, mentions reports of a “sea-monster in the neighborhood of Behring’s Straits (sic)” with a “head resembling a sea-lion” dating to 1808.

More useful: modern paleozoologist Darren Naish and his colleagues Michael Woodley and Hugh Shanahan have suggested that many historical sea monster sightings might be explained by unknown or little-seen pinnipeds (see posts on this and related topics at the sadly defunct Tetrapod Zoology blog here and here).

Photo Credit: Flickr's Californian Em

Winter has definitely taken hold of my yard. It’s pretty bleak looking with the exception of a winterberry holly still showing off some bright red berries.

With the exceptionally cold days we have had many of my wildlife residents are laying low, but I can always count on a few squirrels out and about to keep me entertained. So it seems appropriate that I should celebrate National Squirrel Appreciation Day on January 21 by giving these furry friends something to munch on as they scrounge for winter food sources.

Yes, there really is such a thing as Squirrel Appreciation Day, founded in 2001 by wildlife rehabilitator Christy Hargrove of Asheville, North Carolina. The most common squirrel in the U.S. is the Eastern gray squirrel which averages a little over 16 inches and weighs about a pound.

Here are some tasty snacks to keep those bushy-tailed acrobats fed when the winter pickins are slim:

• Loop a piece of chain with an eye-screw at its end on a nearby tree branch. Screw on an ear of dried field corn and watch as the squirrels swing and sway while grabbing dinner.
• Smear peanut butter on a pinecone and hang it on a tree, it will keep squirrels occupied for hours.
• Put chunks of stale bread or shelled peanuts on your deck or porch railing. Get ready to watch the show.
• The best way to help out squirrels is to plant native nut and seed producing trees. Oaks, hickories, pecans, walnuts and beeches are just a few of the trees that will not only feed the squirrels naturally but provide shelter and nesting places too.

You can appreciate squirrels and still put them through their paces.  Enroll your local squirrels in the Animal Olympics by creating an obstacle course. Squirrels can actually jump ten times the length of their bodies.

Need some inspiration? See what this guy was willing to do for an afternoon snack. And if adults really want to kick your celebration up a notch, try serving a Flying Squirrel drink.

Get more family-friendly activities to celebrate National Squirrel Appreciation Day from National Wildlife Federation. And share your own squirrel photos, observations, questions, and stories on www.facebook.com/green hour or on Twitter.

We now have 395 schools registered, with 221,550 students served. Click here to read the program’s monthly milestones in 2010, the first full year of the program in the United States.

Happy New Year from the Eco-Schools USA team!

H – Highlight your students: Share your Eco-Schools story on our Facebook page wall, and we may feature your school as a 2011 case study.
A – Academic improvement: Research shows math, science, and reading scores improve through the Eco-Schools framwork
P – Pathways to sustainability are the key: Which of the Eight Pathways will you follow in 2011?
P – Pupils are the driving force: The Eco-Schools framework enhances critical thinking and leadership skills of participating students.
Y – You: Your Eco-Action team participation helps lead the school to tremendous success—academically, behaviorally, and environmentally.

N – New schools in your district: Pledge to help one neighboring or pyramid school register in 2011.
E – Eco-Action team: Redux – Establish fresh team goals  for the New Year.
W – Water: Implement one new H2O efficiency project in your cafeteria, bathrooms, or school garden.

Y – Yearly progress: Have you made progress on each of the Seven Steps? If so, it is time to apply for an Eco-Schools USA award!
E – Ease your way along: The Eco-Schools framework allows your school to move at its own pace. 
Set monthly goals as you work your way toward the Green Flag award in 2011.
A – Abroad: Has your school explored the Global Dimensions Pathway? The need for global solutions to the environmental issues we face has never been more urgent.
R – Reflect:  What do your students want to tackle in 2011? Check out our sample action plans for inspiration and ideas.

For years, my husband has wrapped all his Christmas presents in the comic pages from our newspaper. This year there is even a present under the tree wrapped in the flyer from our local supermarket listing this week’s holiday specials. Nothing says Christmas like a picture of a rump roast for $1.99/lb. He says Santa would approve of his recycled gift wrap. This got me to thinking, I wonder if Santa has adopted an environmentally-friendly lifestyle? So I texted him some questions at Ho Ho Ho and here is what he had to say:

Q:  Santa, how do you make sure your means of transportation is green?
A: Well of course the reindeer which pull my sleigh are the ultimate renewable energy vehicles. They leave no carbon footprint even though they circle the globe hundreds of times on Christmas Eve. They never get tired and live forever (in the minds of children).  They do emit some methane gas occasionally, if you get my drift. I try to keep the sleigh up wind of them. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Q:  What about Rudolph’s nose? Doesn’t that require some outside source of energy?
A: Why Rudolph’s nose is lit by the energy he produces when he flies, he’s sort of like a hybrid car in that way.

Q: You make a lot of toys for good boys and girls; doesn’t that require a lot of electricity to run your equipment?
A: Most of the toys that come out of my workshop are handmade by the elves, so not much electricity is needed. When we do need it, my workshop relies on wind energy generated by the turbines out back. We actually try to get a lot of our work done in the summer when we have sunlight 24 hours a day and the solar panels on the roof are fully charged.

Q:  Since your elves work 24/7, how do you keep the workshop lit?
A: Compact fluorescent light bulbs of course. These puppies last so much longer than the bulbs I use to use. We also use dimmers, timers and motion detectors that let us use light only when it’s needed.  Of course there is always my jolliness. My mirth always lights up the workshop, I highly recommend it.

Q: Do you have a backyard up there at the North Pole? Has it been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat?
A: Why yes, my yard is full of, well–reindeer of course. Sadly we don’t see as many polar bears in the Arctic region as we use to now that the ice is melting so fast, but we still gets birds like snow buntings and Northern fulmars. And we have a small stream out back too. Mrs. Claus is the gardener in the family and she got a nifty sign for the yard showing our habitat has been officially certified by the National Wildlife Federation.

Q: Some bad boys and girls get a lump of coal in their stocking but coal mining is bad for the environment, how do you deal with that?
A: You didn’t notice? We know there is no such thing as “clean coal” so I switched to a compostable product called  F-O-A-L several years ago. It’s a coal-like product made of vegetable waste – totally environmentally friendly, no worries about mountaintop-removal mining. And it’s edible!

Q:  I imagine you encounter a lot of dirty chimneys in your line of work. Any advice for home owners getting ready for your visit?
A: You should have your chimney cleaned at least once a year to keep your fires burning safely and efficiently. And a clean chimney will help keep my red suit clean. Mrs. Claus just hates doing laundry. For families who burn wood for heating and want to go greener, they can replace their drafty wood-burning fireplace with a cleaner-burning and more efficient modern wood stove.

Q: Speaking of chimneys, any particular kind of snack you like kids to leave for you on the hearth?
A: I’m partial to chocolate and a nice cup of shade-grown coffee. The reindeer just gobble up those organic carrots. Of course eating 16 million cookies in one night is a challenge. I have to watch my girlish figure you know.

Q: How do you keep all those elves well fed? Do you use any sustainable farming practices or do you have to import all our food?
A: You’d be surprised how much food can grow even in a colder climate.  Mrs. Claus is really the green thumb in the family and ever since I had the elves build her a small greenhouse, we’ve had salad greens and veggies nearly all year round. And as you can see from my “bowl full of jelly” I’m not exactly starving.

Q: Speaking of the Mrs., she must be hard to buy for, what are you getting her for Christmas?
A: Don’t tell anyone, but I do most of my shopping on-line these days, so easy, and parking that sleigh at the mall is such a hassle. The National Wildlife Federation has lots of cool “green” gift items in their catalog like the ornaments they sell. For each ornament purchased, a tree is planted.  Check out their selection at www.shopnwf.org

Q: We hear a lot about global warming Santa, have you seen any of the effects up there at the North Pole?
A: Indeed I have,  the sea ice is melting pretty darn fast. There is way less than there was 30 years ago. It use to take me a long time to walk over the ice before I’d reach water.  Now the water is practically in my backyard.  And the polar bears don’t like it one bit! They can’t even get a decent meal since there is ice in fewer areas from which they can hunt their favorite food, seals.

Q: Your elves must make some waste while working in your workshop – do you recycle?
A: Why of course we recycle. We find good homes for any of our left-over toys, and we make sure no paper, plastic or aluminum ends up in our landfill. Why we even compost our food, which makes great fertilizer for Mrs. Claus’ garden.

Q: Is your house and workshop well insulated, it gets pretty cold up there at the North Pole?
A: Since a lot of my workshop is underground, snow and ice serve as a great insulator, but families can button up with good insulation and some caulking or weather-stripping around the windows. We also program our thermostat to regulate heating when Mrs. Claus and I are out for a night on the town.
The reindeer never complain about getting cold because they have these unique hairs which trap air providing them with excellent insulation.  These hairs also help keep them buoyant in the water which comes in handy when we have to cross oceans and rivers. That’s the truth, really!

Q: Santa, do you wrap all your presents? That’s a lot of paper and ribbon that usually gets thrown away.
A: I recommend that parents leave the presents I deliver unwrapped.  That way kids will know what I’ve left for them vs wrapped presents from other people. This saves a lot of paper and ribbon from being wasted.

Q: Any other suggestions you’d like to make Santa?
A: We can all make a difference in making our planet a greener, healthier place to live. I’m doing my part and hope everyone will pitch in. Future generations will thank us.

Check out our holiday deals that help support the National Wildlife Federation’s work to protect wildlife >>