Canadians are a wasteful bunch, especially during the holidays. Redesign your holidays this year to cut back on garbage and food waste.
Perhaps the designers of the first Christmas card from 1840 were influenced by Leigh Hunt’s question: Is it right to spend, laugh and revel when there are so many people who live in isolation and poverty? John Calcott Horsely, curator and designer of the card, asked the painter, Sir Henry Cole, to show people being fed and clothed to remind his friends of the needs of the poor during this season.
Leigh Hunt is a nineteenth-century writer who grappled with the question: How can we celebrate and enjoy ourselves at this time of the year when there is so much misery in the world?
Every December Australia’s air travel peaks, as we travel to family and friends (or flee on holiday). Many buy carbon offsets for these flights – but what do they actually do to our carbon emissions?
Family is not a clearly defined structure in the story: It isn’t biological or reflective of some ‘norm.’ It is instead a choice to stick together, come what may.
Working together on a once-a-year project feels festive and special.
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Holiday traditions – whether culinary, religious, decorative or musical – help families bond and individuals feel stable and content.
Developmental psychology suggests that fantastical beliefs in children are associated with positive developmental outcomes. And parents need not worry, children will bust the Santa myth themselves, when the time is right.
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There’s no need for parents to bust the Santa myth. Children figure out the truth themselves, at a developmentally appropriate time. In the process, they build their reasoning skills.
How do foods break into new niches and global markets? US cranberry growers, saddled with large surpluses and working to boost demand for their product, could take a lesson from soybeans.
Beebots are robots that kids can easily program, with direct feedback seen in where the robot goes.
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Toys and games that involve friends and family members are more than just fun: they can foster new skills, challenge children to work in a team and encourage thinking and idea development.
Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences, BA (Hons), MSc, PhD, CPsychol, HE Cert (Couns.), PG Dip (Couns.), FHEA, FRGS, MBACP (Accred), University of Bristol
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity