Get ready to make a holiday “moo-sterpiece” out of milk cartons from school lunches!
The holidays are for celebrating family traditions and creating new ones. This year, The Nevada Dairy Farmers have compiled a list of sustainable holiday crafts for you and your family to enjoy with used dairy products. You may wonder, “Why use old dairy products?” On average, one American produces 1,800 pounds of trash each year. That’s roughly 4.9 pounds of trash per American every day. We can significantly reduce the amount of trash that goes into landfills by reusing and recycling items like milk cartons, tissue paper, and gift bags during the holiday season. Teach your kiddos a valuable and fun lesson on how to create holiday decorations with limited waste!
Gingerbread Houses with Milk Cartons
Anyone who’s ever built a gingerbread house knows the struggle of keeping it standing up. One easy tip for keeping your gingerbread house foundation strong is to use a milk carton as your framework. Add frosting to each carton panel and attach a gram cracker to each side. Add your frosting seams and colorful candy decorations once you’ve covered the carton. To see our creation, click here.
Here’s what you’ll need to accomplish this:
- Milk carton (rinsed and dried)
- Frosting
- Gram crackers
- Candy for decorations
Snow-Bright Buddies with Milk Jugs
Have you ever built a snowman? Avoid the cold and light up your home with a Snow-Bright Buddy made with old milk jugs! First, you’ll want to ensure your old milk jugs are thoroughly washed and dried. Then, you can place battery-powered LED lights inside the jug so it glows bright. Add your “pebbles” to the front side of the snowman to create a face. Stick two pom poms to each side of the snowman to replicate earmuffs, and add a pipe cleaner to connect both sides of the ears. Watch your snowmen glow and enjoy!
Here’s what you’ll need to accomplish this:
- Milk jugs (rinsed and dried)
- Battery-powered LED lights
- Recycled tissue paper or scrap paper
- Pom poms
- Pipe cleaners
- Scissors
- Double-sided tape
Image from matchness.com
Lantern-Lit Enchantment
Make your house glow with these holiday-fun lanterns built from milk cartons. Fill your home with warmth by cutting the tops off a milk carton, wrapping it in used tissue paper or scrap paper, cutting unique shapes into the fixture and adding battery-powered LED tea light candles inside. Attach all your lanterns to a piece of string and hang above the fireplace next to your stockings.
Here’s what you’ll need to accomplish this:
- Milk cartons (rinsed and dried)
- Scissors
- Recycled tissue paper or scrap paper
- Double-sided tape or glue
- Battery-powered tea light candles
- String
Image from redtedart.com
A Cozy Home for Birds
Milk cartons make excellent homes for hungry birds. Make a bird feeder by taking recycled milk cartons and cutting a hole in the center of the carton. Decorate the feeder with small wreaths, battery-powered lights and scrap paper. Cut a hole through the top of the milk carton and feed string through it so the feeder can hang from the roof. Add birdseed and hang the feeder. Enjoy watching your hungry birds come and go!
Here’s what you’ll need to accomplish this:
- Milk carton (rinsed and dried)
- Glue
- Scissors
- String
- Recycled tissue paper or scrap paper
- Bird seed
Image from boulderlocavore.com
Sustainable Habits This Holiday Season
The three R’s, reduce, reuse, and recycle, are necessary habits we should strive to achieve daily. Small efforts from everyone can significantly impact the world as a whole! As stewards of the land, farmers in Nevada have had to innovate their farming practices over the years to reduce the amount of waste produced and greenhouse gas emissions created. For example, dairy farmers in Nevada reuse their water 3-4 times on the farm! Click here to learn more about how Nevada dairy farmers practice sustainable farming.
This holiday season, let’s strive to show our little ones all the creative habits that can be formed by reusing products around the home.
