New West's Second Annual Documentary Film Fest!

October 19th and 20th at Douglas College.

New West Shoreline Clean up September 23rd

Come out to this annual event and help with the shoreline clean up and invasive plant pull!
For more info check out the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean up website here! 

Companion Planting

Stop Smart Meters

Help fund the film!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas_Visit holiday displays

We live in a great city for Christmas events and displays, and are only a sky-train ride to Vancouver for even more free family events! Here in New Westminster there are many holiday celebrations taking place. Staring with lighting of a large Christmas tree in Hyack Square at the end of  The Parade of lights  AKA the Santa Clause Parade, held in early December. 

New Westminster has a large Merry Christmas sign on City hall!

 Irving House, built in 1865, is a beautiful place to visit to experience a recreation of a traditional  19th century Christmas. A little further west you can visit The Burnaby Village Heritage Christmas.  

Spending time in this village is like stepping back in time. There is even an antique carousel and the best salt water taffy for sale in the gift shop.

Venturing downtown Vancouver there are so many great things to see! The lights in Stanley Park are a terrific for the whole family. The annual light display is put on by local firefighters and is a fundraiser for the burn unit. Admission is by donation. There is something really magical about thousands of lights in the forest! 

The Bay downtown has a seasonal floor that is a Christmas wonderland and a fantastic way to pass some time if the weather outside is frightful.  Be sure to check out the large office building's lobby's, around Georgia and Burrard and Thurlow are all pretty spectacular, Hotels are also incredible . The Four Seasons has a Festival of Trees, which is a collection of sponsored decorated trees, there are themed trees and some are pretty fun!  The Hyatt Hotel has an annual gingerbread display with world record setting large gingerbread houses and men!

 Downtown you can take the Old Woodward windows display tour at  Canada Place. These old fashioned windows are nostalgic and beautiful!

 There is a dramatic art instillation at the Vancouver Convention Center so be sure to look for that downtown too. The Douglas Coupland Orca is my favorite, as well as The Drop, although not holiday related, it is a visually stunning piece of art, and worthwhile seeing if you are walking near by in Vancouver. 

When you are downtown there are many unexpected things you can see just walking around enjoying the atmosphere. There are plenty of family friendly events that are free or reasonably priced. Many of these things run past Christmas and into the new year so enjoy some Christmas cheer and be a tourist in your your own city.

On the sixth day of Christmas; The gift of experiences

Yesterday Ava and I attended the Royal City Youth Ballet's The Nutcracker. This was our first time at the ballet! As a family we usually try to see some live performance as part of our holiday season.
It is fun to attend plays, musicals and special events like this with your family for the holidays.
There is no waste and the memories will last a lifetime, and can inspire a child in many ways.

A few weeks ago we also saw The Wizard of Oz at the Carousal Theatre on Granville Island. This is one of my all time favourite stories! It is fun for all ages and the Carousal Theatre is very reasonably priced. Some of my fondest childhood memories are from seeing live performances and participating in plays and the choir in school. The excitement of live theatre, and the feeling that you are all grown up never leaves you.

Many high schools, and colleges also put on plays you can attend for a fraction of the cost of a professional group. You can also find more affordable tickets to matinees, the opera and the symphony. Sometimes you can even get to talk to the performers and really feel like part of the action. This is not the cheapest thing to do for the holidays, but everyone is sure to enjoy themselves and share the love of performance art together.

On the fifth Day of Christmas, waste free wrapping.

For Christmas this year we are making holiday gift bags and wrapping paper from cloth.

We have some left over from last year and we are making more. These bags are reusable and fun! You can buy material on sale in the off season and save it up for this. You can also use non holiday themed prints to make everyday gift bags for birthdays and other gift giving occasions.

We also reuse our old cards every few years. We will save our Christmas cards and cut them out and reuse them to make new cards to send to friends and family.

Another green wrapping idea is to use newsprint and stamp or decorate the paper yourself. This way you can personalize the gifts and don't have the plastic and paper waste from the traditional wrapping paper packaging.

When you plan ahead these idea's are really simple and people love to get gifts you have made yourself and can reuse! It's easy being green and not creating waste.