MAGAZINE: December 2008 ISSUE
'Tis the Season
December 01, 2008
It's already time to take a peek into the Christmas season. This year, many of us need to put on our creative hats to allow our dollars to stretch a little further. Why not start a new holiday tradition and give while giving back?
Make your holidays an extraordinary experience this year. Take the family for a trek to the forest, warm yourself with a little hot cocoa and pick your perfect tree. "Cutting Christmas trees in a national forest has become a popular holiday tradition for many people in Northern California," says Sharon Heywood, supervisor of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Whether it’s a striking red fir or the ever popular silvertip, thinning is actually good for a healthy forest.
To really make your dollars count in our economy, spend some time shopping at our local boutiques. From Mount Shasta to Chico and everywhere in between, you can find well-priced, creative gifts and not only help the artists who make them but the shop owners, too. Mary Jane of Discover Earth in Red Bluff says, “It’s about not being such a disposable culture, its about finding uses for things rather than discarding them.” And with items like “Not Your Grammies Jammies” made with beautiful vintage fabrics that are buttery soft to the hand, this handmade nightwear and loungewear puts a whole new twist on recycle, renew, reuse! For the good, nature-loving boys and girls on your shopping list, inspire them with some of our outdoor gift ideas. How about a fly fishing reel and a guided fishing trip this year? Not only do they receive an amazing gift, but you can plan a trip together. From less than $20 on up, there are plenty of options for anyone who enjoys our great outdoors.
Some gifts require you to think back. Remember the grade school art teacher who said you were talented? You may not have picked up a paint brush since, but now is the time… family and friends will be elated to receive a piece that you have created, so let those creative juices flow. As Adam Mankoski of HawkMan Studios says, “Art class is a place where kids are allowed to be truly free and creative.”
Of course, the best parts of the holidays are truly the memories. Create special moments with one-of-a-kind gifts that tell a story, or start an annual holiday tradition that can be shared for a lifetime. Noel.
Featured Content for December 2008
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Top 10: Merry Movies
Top Ten Holiday Films The weather is cooling off; the scent of the holidays is in the air. Hot chocolate and curling up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and a warm fire in the fireplace is the perfect antidote to a winter chill. Christmas movies are on just about every channel. Which one will you make sure to watch? Below are our reader’s favorites: A Christmas Story "You’ll shoot your eye out, kid." It’s A Wo... More
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Profile: From a Village to the World
North State Novelist Tony D'Souza Author of the critically acclaimed novels Whiteman and The Koncans, Tony D’Souza loves living in Dunsmuir because it feels like a village. “I miss village life from Africa,” he says. D’Souza lived in Ivory Coast, Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer where he taught AIDS education. D’Souza has traveled to more than 50 countries, but most of the time he wasn’t heading off to cathedrals and museums featured in guidebooks. Instead, he imm... More
3
Recreation: ...And a Crossbill in a Pine Tree
Audubon Christmas Bird Count Treasured Christmas traditions originate from days gone by. Cutting down the family Christmas tree, singing carols and … blasting birds out of the sky with shotguns? Yes, about 100 years ago, it was a family tradition to set aside one day near Christmas to go into the great outdoors and shoot as many birds as possible. Prior to the turn of the 19th Century, people engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas “side hunt” by choosing sides a... More
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Interest: Warm Fuzzies
Kathy Grimes' Feltpaca Products Picture this—on one half of a balance sheet, there’s a CPA who grew up in suburban Minnesota and works fulltime as Mercy Medical Center’s business systems analyst. On the other, there’s an imaginative designer and maker of unique alpaca fleece clothing, blankets and accessories who also raises the alpacas and processes their fleece. If you find it hard to reconcile that one person is all of the above, you haven’t met Kathy Grimes. She... More
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Interest: Blue Santa
Operation Blue Santa Delivers Cheer With sirens wailing, a swarm of patrol cars pulls up to a motel. A man in blue climbs out of one, wearing a badge and a Redding Police Department nametag – but his fluffy white beard and jolly round belly make him look suspiciously like someone who hails from parts much further north. Sure enough, his helpers pull festively wrapped packages out of the squad cars and deliver them to the wide-eyed youngsters who live in the motel. As they open the items, t... More