I love Thanksgiving. I love the foods. I love the fall leaves painting the landscape. And I love seeing my family. Sorta. Usually. I mean, I do. Well, when everyone isn’t yelling.

Fact is, holidays can bring out the best and the worst in us. When you gather a mix of relatives in one space, toss in overeating and over-criticizing, mix in some booze, plus endless errands, annoying travel, crowded stores and screaming children, the holidays can potentially make your head spin. And due to the economic woes we’re all facing, many peoples stress this season is focused on cash flow. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than a million Americans lost their jobs this year.

However, according to a recent study by market research firms KW Strategems and Decipher, Americans claim to be good at handling holiday stress — On a 10-point scale, Americans rated their stress level at 3.44 points. So that’s good, right?

So even if your dad starts to nag you about not having a “real job” or you feel so broke you’ll probably end up making people macaroni art for presents, try to stay calm. If the family starts to drive you up the wall, go for a walk. If you are fretting over finances, give friends and family favors as presents (like offers to babysit, help doing someones taxes, paint their living room, make them cookies, whatever your specialty may be). Most importantly take care of yourself during the holidays. Don’t use the holidays as an excuse to be super unhealthy. Sure, indulge and enjoy but don’t sabotage your health.Don’t over commit to parties and events if you know you can’t afford the time. Don’t force yourself to celebrate with conflicting friends or family just to save face. Gracefully decline requests to be places you don’t want to be. Holidays are suppose to be fun (key words “suppose to”) not hellish.

For helpful ways to cope with holiday stress, takepart and check out The Mayo Clinics 12 tips for coping with stress, depression and the holidays at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/MH00030

I love making presents for the holidays, but sometimes I run short on time (read: lazy) to make something for everyone. So, if I’m going to buy a gift I like to know it’s helping the world in some way, which is why Tom’s Project Holiday is such a great idea for the holidays. When you purchase a pair of Tom’s shoes, the company will donate one pair of shoes to a child in need. This season Tom’s is asking you to help them give 30,000 pairs to children in Ethiopia to protect them from podoconiosis, a soil transmitted disease that can be prevented simply by wearing shoes.

takepart by giving a gift make a huge difference in a child’s life.

So the holidays are coming up and presents most of us will need to buy.  Luckily I came across this list of places/companies that sell products made here in the USA.

As my pal Russell wrote when he shared the piece he wrote for KEMPT (via Google Reader) : “So, this may be economic jingoism. But I also think anything we do to draw attention to the way things are manufactured is probably good”

(and if you like buying online, takepart and buy things from Ebay’s ethical World of Good.)

(via KEMPT, via A Continuous Learn)

—ACCESSORIES—

Alexander Olch — New York, New York — neckties, accessories

Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons — New York, New York — accessories

David Hart & Co. — New York, New York — neckties

Faribault Woolen Mills — Faribault, Minnesota — blankets

Geier Glove Co. — Centralia, Washington — leather gloves

Leather Man Limited — Essex, Connecticut — belts, accessories

Swans Island — Northport, Maine — blankets

The Welch Company Inc. — Portland, Oregon — suspenders

Wiley Belts — Charlottesville, Virginia — belts, leather goods

Go after the jump for more!

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The Red Cross is partnering with Pitney Bowes for the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign. The program will collect holiday cards to distribute to American service members, veterans and their families in the United States and around the world. The goal is to collect and distribute one million holiday cards. Check out their promo video:

takepart and click here for more info on this program and ways to send your holiday greeting.

I decided not to write about this before the Fourth of July as to not be a buzzkill, but now that the festivities are over I’d like to point you in the direction of this article from the Los Angeles Times that discusses how awful for the environment fireworks are. Turns out the answer is “really bad.” In fact,

Throughout the Los Angeles region, concentrations of fine particles, or carbon soot, skyrocket for up to 24 hours after the Independence Day shows, reaching levels as high as those from wildfires…

Also, traces of poisonous metals, which give fireworks their bright colors, and perchlorate, a hormone-altering substance used as an oxidizer, trickle to the ground, contaminating waterways.

One Environmental Protection Agency study found that perchlorate levels in an Oklahoma lake rose 1,000-fold after a fireworks display, and they stayed high in some areas for up to 80 days.

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Social Action and Cinema YouTube Videos of the Day: (for Memorial Day!)

1) Memorial Day Weekend 2007 : Iraq Veterans Against the War launched Operation First Casualty

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here >>>

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by Kerry Trueman

Do lavish holiday light displays bring out the eco-grinch in you, making you wince at the sight of all that wasted energy? This year, you can feast your eyes on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree without flinching, because the massive tree’s five miles of LED lights will be powered by 363 solar panels on Rockefeller Plaza’s rooftop.

But the greening of Rockefeller Center won’t end with the holidays; Tishman Speyer, co-owner of Rockefeller Center, also announced plans yesterday to cover the roof of Radio City Music Hall with desert plants, which could recycle over a half-million gallons of wastewater annually. For a concrete jungle, mid-town Manhattan’s getting greener all the time.