Make Holiday Season the Best Time of the Year

It's important to make sure everyone enjoys the holiday season, since studies show it can be a very sad time for some folks.

     Excited kids and adults who need to chill in what also can be a hectic season need to work on projects together. Making holiday cookies can be as easy as slicing and baking readymade sugar cookie dough from the grocery store or as complicated as mixing, rolling out dough, cutting shapes with cookie cutters, and frosting them.

     Making a garland paper chain to trim a tree has become easier through the years. You still cut out red and green strips of construction paper, but connecting the loops of paper together has gone from using some kind of paste that slops all over to staples to a neat little 3M dispenser that rolls out glue on two sides.

     One year my young daughter and I made scented pomanders by stuffing oranges full of whole cloves. We tried it unsuccessfully another year with limes that went bad and mushy before we finished, however.

     Then, there are the potato prints you can use to make gift tags and wrapping paper. Cut a really large baking potato in half and use a star cookie cutter to press the shape into the smooth side of each potato half. Then, carefully cut away the part outside the star shape to make the star stand out. Pour poster paint: red, green, yellow, blue, or whatever colors you want to use, on two different saucers. Dip the potato star into the paint and stamp the design on heavy card stock to make gift tags (Cut the holiday cards you receive this year into usable pieces to use for gift tags next year.) or stamp the star shape all over plain tissue to make wrapping paper.

     Germany is credited with originating the custom of having a live, decorated Christmas tree at home and in the public square. St. Francis of Assisi added the custom of including a Nativity scene with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Christ child. St. Francis, who is associated with his love of animals, would be happy to see how sheep, cows, oxen, camels, and other animals often complete the manger scene.

     Singing carols is a tradition in homes, churches, schools, and even in concerts where the audience sings along. Entertainers make holiday records and CDs and host seasonal  music specials on TV.

     St. Nicholas and Father Christmas make sure there are gifts and gift drives that bring joy to the naughty and nice alike. Presents might be placed under trees, in shoes, in hanging stockings (thanks to a custom from Holland), and in bins for the less fortunate at community centers, churches, libraries, and stores.

     Presents come earlier in some countries and later in others. St. Nicholas can arrive December 6. Sweden celebrates St. Lucy Day on December 13. When days are about to become lighter, young daughters, dressed in white, wear a wreath of greens and lighted candles on their heads and carry trays of coffee and buns to family members. Elsewhere, shoes are filled with gifts from the Three Kings (Magi) on January 6.

     What is the holiday season's best gift? Good will toward each other, of course.   

   

   

All I Want for Christmas Is Seeds

Who knew elves occasionally take a break from making toys to store seeds in Santa's warehouse. Although many put Syria on their naughty lists, in October, 2015 the Svalbard global seed vault half way between the north pole and Norway responded to an urgent request from the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (Icarda) and sent the 128 crates of wheat, barley lentil, chickpea, fava bean, pea, and legume seeds Syria needed.

     After seeds for another 70,000 crops were added to the Global Seed Vault in 2018, Svalbard now stores 1,059,646 seeds. 

     Svalbard, known as the "Noah's Ark of seeds," is just one of the storehouses for the diversity of seeds needed to grow fruits, vegetables, and grains; the collections of plants, like apples and grapes, that are not cultivated from seeds; and even the genetic material essential to maintain the bees that pollinate many crops.

     Individual farmers also are essential in the process of ensuring a lasting food supply. On one of his "Parts Unknown" TV programs, David Bourdain found restaurant owners in the US South have been searching for the seeds that grew foods popular before the US Civil War. They located seeds that had come down through the families of former slaves, when war wiped out the seeds held by plantation owners. When kids start collecting and drying seeds for diverse crops, they also will be getting involved in the vital task of protecting the world's food supply.

 Why is the world's food supply in danger? There are many reasons:

• Wars destroy farms. Research stations in Lebanon and Morocco are working to produce seeds and saplings to resupply Syria's farmers.
• Globalization of agriculture has concentrated seed production in companies that abandon many plant varieties in order to produce uniform, high-yield varieties. (See the earlier post, "World (Food) Expo. Hybrid Crops & New Farming Practices.")
• Pests and diseases can wipe out crops. (See the earlier post, "The Bees and the Birds.")
• Global warming has reduced the area suitable for farming. (See the earlier post, "Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?")
• Farmers have moved to urban areas to find work.
• Without a market, farmers have stopped growing foods that have gone out of favor when diets shifted to wheat, rice, potatoes, maize, soybeans, and palm oil.
• Deforestation has removed forests where plants thrive and evolve.

Kids used to get oranges and apples in their Christmas stockings. To be sure these fruits continue to exist, the world is counting on Santa to bring these goodies along with toys and candy.

Santa's Checking His List Twice

In preparation for the holiday gift-giving season last year, I wrote the blog post, "Go Holiday Globe (S)hopping." Many of the gift suggestions in that post are still available. UNICEF (unicefusa.org/shop) and SERRV (serrv.org) again offer Advent calendars. For children who celebrate Hanukkah, SERRV also sells Kosher certified dark and milk chocolate foil-wrapped coins from the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana, Africa.

     This year, there are gifts that enable youngsters to sample the world's latest technologies. Using a LED touchscreen, kids can change patterns on Barbie's new "Digital Dress." A variety of robot toys are sold at YoungExplorers.com, mindware.com, Museumtour.com, and shopng.org. Since the American Red Cross Field Radio and Phone Charger from shopng.org uses both solar power or hand cranking to recharge, it can go high tech or low.

     A variety of approaches to geography update a familiar subject. Maps, a new book by Aleksandra and Daniel Mezielinska, associates fascinating facts with illustrations of every region of the world. By touching one of 39 sections on the "Global Glowball" from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art store (store.metmuseum.org), children can activate a song from that part of the world. Based on the latest facts about every country in the world, the geography game, "Where in the World?" from Museumtour.com is fun for 2 to 6 players 8 years of age or older. Using pieces shaped like countries, children over 4 also can put together a "World GeoPuzzle" from Museumtour and those 12 years of age and up can build Museumtour's 4D puzzles of Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Osaka, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Tokyo, or Toronto. For free, go to "google maps" and introduce children to the way they can use a computer to tour countries, such as France, and cities, such as Nairobi, Kenya.

     Several new gifts provide the kind of indoor activities youngsters need to amuse themselves during the winter. Games, stencils, stickers, and crafts come with The National Geographic Kids: Animal Creativity Book. In Dawn Casey's book, The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales, stories from around the world are coupled with related activities. In the virtual world, students can build the world's landmarks with the Swedish video game, Minecraft. Or they can paint Paris and London in watercolors with Ravensburger's Aquarille World Cities Arts and Crafts Kit, which comes with all needed art supplies and instructions for different painting techniques.

     Paris seems to be a popular destination this holiday season. Chavonne, the African-American "Journey" doll at Toys R Us, is about to travel to Paris. Madeline is already there in her new book, Madeline and the Old House in Paris.  In Paris! Recipe for Adventure, a book by Giada DeLaurentiis, Zia Donatella takes a brother and sister to a French cooking school to show them home-cooked meals are better than fast food. (The same author also visits Naples! Recipe for Adventure.)  Students can build Paris' Eiffel Tower with National Geographic's 3-D puzzle or the more difficult to construct 5-foot tall model that uses the same engineering principles as the real landmark. (At shop.nationalgeographic.com, National Geographic also offers a 3-D puzzle of Big Ben and a 4-D Cityscape puzzle of London.)

     For teen age girls who want gifts with a touch of Parisian glamour, artisans around the world are creating original jewelry just for them. The SERRV website (serrv.org) and Shop For Social (shopforsocial.com) provide many options.

     What would be the ultimate gift? Book an international family vacation with AdventuresByDisney.com, journeys.travel, AAA.com/ExploreMore, worldwildlife.org/travel, or hfholidays.co.uk.

    Best wishes for peace and joy throughout the world in this holiday season and every day in 2014!

North Pole Flag

     Santa Claus has a flag now. Thanks to the "Flag for the Future" competition jointly sponsored by the Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and Greenpeace's "Save the Arctic," the North Pole, which is surrounded by high seas that no country owns, has a new flag.

     British designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, on March 17, 2013, declared the winner of the "Flag for the Future" competition a pennant-shaped flag designed by 13-year-old Sarah Bartrisyia from Malaysia. On a white background, Ms. Bartrisyia used a circle of seven multicolored doves around Arctic starflowers to symbolize peace, hope, and global community.

     The winning design will be reproduced on a titanium flag and stuck in the Arctic ice alongside a time capsule containing a Greenpeace petition signed by those who want to preserve the Arctic from overfishing and oil drilling. Drilling noise and vibrations also could have an impact on fish behavior, while an oil spill would be difficult to contain in ice-clogged waters. When a pipeline ruptured off Santa Barbara's California coast on May 19, 2015, the 105,000 gallon oil spill showed what can happen when drilling occurs anywhere. To dramatize the under-reported perils of drilling for oil in the Arctic, six Greenpeace volunteers climbed aboard Shell's gigantic oil rig, Polar Pioneer, in April, 2015 as it was en route through the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. June, 2015 saw Greenpeace volunteers in their kayaks blocking the Shell rig from leaving port in Seattle. Later, they hung from a bridge to dramatize the need to block the rig's progress to the Arctic. For more about the need to protect the Arctic and to sign a petition asking world leaders to ban oil drilling and industrial fishing in Arctic waters, go to savethearctic.org.

     In London, you can purchase a "Save the Arctic" T-shirt designed by Vivienne Westwood at her World's End Shop at 430 Kings Road. The cost is 35 British pounds.

      BP already operates in Alaska's offshore Arctic. Operating with Rosneft, the state-owned Russian energy company with the world's highest oil output, BP has a controlling interest in British-Russian TNK-BP and is set to launch a series of big projects in Russia's Arctic. As a result of Russia's actions in Ukraine in March and April, 2014, however, BP stockholders and Rosneft were concerned about the company's Russian investments until BP signed a major shale deal with Rosneft in May, 2014. In mid-2018, BP also would purchase the US shale assets of BHP for $10.5 billion.

     Concern about Rosneft's profits was justified in 2014, when the drop in oil prices and the value of the ruble caused fourth quarter losses. By August, 2018, however, a barrel of crude was selling in the mid $60s and Rosnett''s quarterly net profit reached $3.7 billion. When a BP oil spill sent 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the company withdrew its bid for an exploration license to drill around Danish-owned Greenland. In 2014, BP renewed its application and, along with Statoil and other firms, won an exploration license there.  A Chinese group is bidding for a license to drill for oil off of neighboring Iceland. Although the remote Chukchi Sea area of the Arctic experiences extreme weather conditions and lacks preparation to deal with an oil spill that would endanger wild life and indigenous communities, in 2008, the U.S. Department of the Interior sold oil and gas leases there.

     The 8-nation intergovernmental Arctic Council, that includes Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Canada, and the United States, has failed to agree on regulations that would govern oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region. Relying on a 1953 law that allows U.S. presidents to take executive action to prevent leasing of unleased lands in the federally administered Outer Continental Shelf, President Obama, in December, 2016, placed an indefinite ban on oil and gas leases in the Alaskan Beaufort and Chukchi areas of U.S. Arctic waters. Canada took similar actions. Both counties plan to identify shipping lanes through their protected areas, where harsh conditions would hamper cleaning up oil spills.

      The Arctic region is believed to hold 30% of undiscovered gas deposits and 13% of undiscovered oil reserves. Ice melt in the area is opening a larger region for gas and oil exploration and, consequently, a larger area for border disputes and conflicting claims of sovereignty. By submarine, Russia planted a flag 2.5 miles beneath the North Pole in 2007, and according to TIME magazine (Aug. 17, 2015), the country submitted a formal claim to the United Nations for 463,000 square miles around the pole on Aug. 4, 2015. On April 30, 2017, NBC's Evening News showed Russian military men and armor training in the Arctic.  Canada and Denmark (based on its Greenland island territory) have staked claims to sovereignty on territory including the North Pole by arguing that the Lomonosov Ridge of the continental shelf extends under the pole from their countries. A U.N. panel is expected to decide the disputes.

     For information about other world flags, see my earlier blog post, "A Salute to Flags."

    

    

Go Holiday Globe (S)hopping

Gifts can help kids think globally on holidays, birthdays, graduations, and other special occasions. In this gift-giving season, catalogues, international organizations, and museum, map, and book stores are good sources of presents with meaningful international connections.

Christmas, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year

Christians can purchase a pop-up Advent calendar from UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, (unicefusa.org/shop) and help provide for the health and education of the world's children at the same time. SERRV (serrv.org) donates a school notebook to children in Ghana, Africa, for every Advent calendar it sells. Why? Because the chocolate hearts young people find behind the numbers for each day in Advent come from the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa cooperative in Ghana. SERRV also sells Kosher certified dark and milk chocolate foil-covered coins for children who celebrate Hanukkah.

     When the Chinese New Year arrives between January 21 and February 19 at the second new moon after the beginning of winter, Chinese children receive money in red envelopes. Children in other countries would approve if their families joined in this tradition. Besides U.S. currency, the American Automobile Association (AAA) could add some foreign currency in the form of a TipPak (registered trademark) of Australian, British, Canadian, Japanese, or European Union money to these red envelopes. In preparation for the Chinese New Year, youngsters also can write their own fortune cookie messages with rub-on Chinese characters in a kit from Multicultural Kids (multiculturalkids.com).

Personalized presents

For children old enough to appreciate personalized presents with a foreign twist, there are cartouche (kar-toosh) necklaces and netsukes. In Egypt, a cartouche, or amulet, was designed to protect each Pharaoh. Nowadays, necklaces sold my Signals (signals.com) or made in Cairo for National Geographic (shopng.org) translate children's names into Egyptian hieroglyphics using eagles, owls, crowns, lions, and other symbols.

     Birthdays are especially good occasions to give Japanese netsukes, little statues once used on cords that closed pouches or baskets. Some are made to symbolize the animal zodiac signs for each year. This is the Year of the Dragon, and 2013 will be the Year of the Snake. Since animal designations occur in 12-year cycles,  kids can find the symbols for their birth years by counting forward or back from an animal known for one year. Children might enjoy seeing if their personalities match the qualities attributed to their birth year animals.

2000/2012 Dragon: A solitary, free-spirited non-conformist who is generous to others.
2001/2013 Snake: A wise, well-organized person who understands others and can wiggle out of
                              trouble.
2002/2014 Horse: A cheerful, popular crowd-pleaser who loves excitement and handles money
                              carefully.
2003/2015 Sheep/goat: A dazzling, elegant dresser and creative thinker with a shy nature.
2004/2016 Monkey: A clever, brilliant thinker with a thirst for knowledge and the ability to solve
                                  difficult problems.
2005/2017 Rooster: A talented, deep thinker who likes to work alone.
2006/2018 Dog: A loyal, somewhat eccentric protector who can keep secrets and inspire
                           confidence.
2007/2019 Pig: A gallant champion or causes who is satisfied with having a few lifelong
                         friends.
2008/2020 Rat: A charming, energetic, imaginative perfectionist who is careful not to hurt others.
2009/2021 Ox: A patient leader who inspires confidence.
2010/2022 Tiger: A warm, courageous, goal-oriented worker with a sparkling personality.
2011/2023 Hare/rabbit: A tactful, ambitious peacemaker who is fortunate in business.

     Finally, no present is more personal and infused with international significance than a child's own passport. Students don't need to have a foreign trip planned when they get a passport, they just can start thinking about which countries they would like to visit. Local post offices provide the details about obtaining a passport, and they even take passport photos.

Global gifts

Usually presenting children with educational gifts is like giving them underwear. A number of globes, books, and toys escape that classification, however. The National Geographic website sells a levitating globe, suggested for students 8 and up, that uses electromagnetism to hover in mid-air between the top and bottom of its display stand. Younger children, 3 and up, can use a joystick to circle National Geographic's Fly and Discover Talking Globe to learn about the world's oceans, animals, customs, and fun facts. Young Explorers (YoungExplorers.com) sells the GeoSafari (registered trademark) talking globes that children 6 and up can use to answer 10,000 geographical questions, while MindWare (mindware.com) and National Geographic have interactive globes that students 5 and up can touch with a digital pen to find information about a country's population, weather, currency, and more. With a remote control, children 6 and up also can watch the world's cities go by on a wall "globe" using MindWare's Earth from Orbit Light. In low tech worlds, UNICEF has a Planet Earth Lift-the-Flap book and SERRV's mobile of the world includes children dressed in costumes representing their cultures.

     There is no shortage of fiction and non-fiction books with an international theme. For centuries, classics have taken children through German forests in the stories of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and many others collected by Jakob and Wilheim Grimm. Children have traveled with Paddington bear from Peru to meet Christopher Robin's Pooh bear and Alice in Wonderland in the gardens of England. Through literature, children have experienced the splendor of the Swiss Alps with Johanna Spyri's Heidi. Ever since the 18th century, when Frenchman Antoine Galland recognized how European and Muslim cultures could share the fascination of The Arabian Nights, kids and adults have shared the Indian and Persian stories of a genie who granted Aladdin's wishes, a girl who saved Ali Baba, Sinbad's adventures, and 998 additional tales.

     Books about Asia, Latin America, and Africa now have joined these familiar stories. Heian publishes a series of Asian folktales, and Raul Colon uses a unique combination of paint, etched lines, and colored pencils to illustrate a book of Latin American folktales. For their illustrations in Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, Leo and Diane Dillon won a Caldecott Medal from the Association for Library Service to Children. Just a couple more examples suggest the breadth of books that help children explore their world. Journey to the River Sea takes young people down the Amazon River, while Gena Gorrell, in the context of The Land of the Jaguar, describes every South American country for her young audience. The Children's Atlas of World Wildlife goes around the globe to show children the diversity of nature's creatures, and National Geographic Kids: Animal Creativity Book couples information about the world's animals with games, stencils, stickers, and crafts.

Animals in a healthy environment

Gift givers are on a sure footing, when they tap into a child's love of animals. The World Wildlife Fund (worldwildlife.org) makes it possible to present children with plush animals and, at the same time, introduce them to ways to save animals all over the world from harm and extinction.

     There are both animal gifts that help children play in traditional ways and some that provide a new experience. Besides plush animals, kids 6 and up can construct their own lions, tigers, giraffes, and zebras using puzzle pieces from MindWare. Toys to grow on (ttgo.com) invites kids 3 to 10 years old to go on their own safaris by giving them vinyl jungle huts, an SUV, and 12 animals. Kids also can hide a monkey, elephant, or tiger and launch an adventure using wands from YoungExplorers to find them.

     Toys appeal to children's concern for the world's environment not only its wildlife. To see solar power in action, youngsters can build robots from Young Explorers and MindWare that use the sun to move windmills, boats, helicopters, cars, bulldozers, and a scorpion. Even adults will be excited to learn how MindWare's zero-emission car runs on water converted to hydrogen power. And how does the greenhouse effect, desalination of salt water, or a solar oven work? MindWare has kits to teach those means to a clean environment, too.

Conclusion

From Signals (signals.com) wooden blocks with alphabets, numerals, and animal pictures in Arabic, Chinese, and 14 other languages to a full array of dolls, map puzzles, and books from Multicultural Kids and Latin American rainsticks from Musician's Friend (musiciansfriend.com), the world is ready to help children realize globalization can be fun.