Buy Nothing Day 2021 November 25 2021

Buy Nothing Friday is upon us once again!

While you let the rest of the world carry on with the frenzy on Black Friday, YOU CAN JOIN US IN RELAXING!

🌟Enjoy a meal,

🌟Sing, tell or read a story,

🌟Make something really simple and nifty,

🌟Memorize an inspiring poem or verse,

🌟Learn of traditions for Chanukah, 

🌟Build a menorah,

🌟Learn to make latkes and applesauce,

🌟Spend time with those you love!

Join us for the 8th Annual Buy Nothing Friday!  After the happy feast on Thanksgiving—BREATHE and create!

Download the PDF

Classic Latkes

Ingredients:

  • 6 large baking potatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 Tbsp flour to bind mixture
  • oil for frying

**To make gluten-free or vegan latkes - skip the eggs and swap out the flour and oil for rice flour and rice bran oil!

What You Do:
1. Grate half of the potatoes coarsely and half finely.    
2. Chop as much or as little onion as desired.
3. Squeeze as much moisture as possible out of the grated potatoes. This can be done by squeezing handfuls of potatoes or by wrapping them in a kitchen towel, and pressing out as much water as possible. The dryer the potatoes, the better.  
4. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, onion, salt, and pepper. Mix in the flour and eggs if using. Mix well.   
5. Heat the frying pan and enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot, drop large spoonfuls of batter into the pan and flatten with a spatula. You can usually fry 3-4 latkes at a time.
6. When latkes are browned at the edges, flip them and fry the other side for 3-4 minutes until browned.
7. Remove latkes from pan and place on a plate lined with paper/kitchen towels to drain excess oil.
8. Keep ready latkes warm in the oven while you fry subsequent batches.
9. Serve warm with applesauce, yogurt, sour cream, or your favorite condiment.

Homemade Applesauce

Ingredients:

  • 4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into bite-size chunks
  • 1/2 cup apple juice    
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • cinnamon sticks (for garnish)

What You Do:

1. Place apples, juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Remove from heat and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
3. Use a potato masher to mash apples to desired chunkiness.
4. Serve topped with ground cinnamon and a cinnamon stick.
If it’s not sweet enough, try stirring in a teaspoon of sugar.

Autumn
Emily Dickenson

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I’ll put a trinket on.

Philippine Parol

A parol is a Filipino ornamental lantern displayed during the Christmas season. Its most common form is a five-pointed star, although it can come in various shapes and sizes. Parols are traditionally constructed using bamboo and Japanese paper and are usually illuminated with electric lighting.

The parol is a traditional part of the Panunulúyan pageant in the nine-day Christmas Novena procession during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It was initially rectangular or elliptical in shape and was made with white paper, but eventually made in various shapes and colors. It became standardized to a five-pointed star (symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem) during the American colonial period. It remains an iconic symbol of Filipino Christmas.

What You Need:

  • scissors
  • glue (Tacky Glue works great with the tissue paper)
  • glue gun
  • tissue or kite paper
  • pencil
  • 10 thin bamboo strips at least 18 inches long
  • 5 pegs one to two inches in length
  • rubber bands
  • 2 three-inch circular cardboard cutouts
  • 2 twist ties or strings

What You Do:

  1. Create a V shape with two bamboo sticks and secure the ends with a rubber band. Create three more sets of V’s. You will have two sticks left over.
  2. Interlace two V’s to form an A shape and secure the two ends with rubber bands.
  3. Thread one of the single sticks through the center to form a star and rubber band the loose ends together.
  4. Repeat the above steps to form a second star.
  5. Rubber band the two stars together at each of the five points to form a single star.
  6. The center of the star will be a pentagon. Carefully pull apart the center of the two stars and place a peg in each of the five pentagon corners.
  7. Secure each peg using the glue gun.
  8. Cut strips of tissue or kite paper large enough to cover the individual panels.
  9. Glue the paper onto the frame using the glue stick.
  10. Trim the excess paper around each panel as close to the frame as possible. Tidy the edges by gluing and wrapping the uncut edges around the frame. Repeat until all panels are covered.
  11. Cut five 3 x 12-inch strips of tissue paper.
  12. Fold the strips in half and make cuts equidistant apart along one edge.
  13. Take the folded, scored paper and wrap it around the ends of each spoke. Use glue to secure it in place.
  14. Tear 1x1 inch pieces of tissue paper.
  15. Apply Tacky Glue along a small portion of the frame.
  16. Wrap a piece of tissue paper around the eraser side of the pencil and press it onto the frame.
  17. Continue gluing tissue pieces until the entire frame is covered.
  18. Fold layered tissue paper into a triangle.
  19. Fold it into a second triangle.
  20. Fold into a third smaller triangle.
  21. Fold the top corner of the triangle over to the base across.
  22. Cut across the folded paper starting from one side toward the other, leaving a half-inch or so from the edge of the other side.
  23. From the opposite side, cut another slit one inch above the previous.
  24. Continue cutting slits starting from alternating sides until you reach two inches or so below the tip.
  25. Cut a small hole in the tip.
  26. Carefully unfold and separate the sheets of tissue paper.
  27. Thread the string or twist tie through the cardboard disk and two tissue paper sheets.
  28. Attach the tails to the star using string or twist tie.

Nature Made Menorah


What You Need:

  • medium cardboard box
  • scissors
  • 9 or 10 nine to twelve-inch sticks of similar diameter
  • hot glue gun
  • paints
  • paintbrush
  • pine cones, evergreen sprigs, and other forest “décor”
  • yellow or orange kite paper
  • pencil

What You Do:

  1. Break sticks to make nine pieces about five inches long. These will be the candles.
  2. Paint each candle as desired - we used shades of blue, which is a traditional Hanukkah color.  
  3. Once candles are dry, tear a small piece of tissue paper and wrap it around a pencil eraser. Glue each piece of tissue paper to the end of each candle.
  4. Cut two strips of cardboard approximately 3 inches wide and 8 inches long.
  5. Using a ruler, mark four lines equal distance apart on each cardboard strip.
  6. Cut a slit in the middle of each line. This is where your candles will eventually go.
  7. Using the hot glue gun, secure 4 sticks to the long edges of the cardboard strips.
  8. Cut a 3 x 6-inch piece of cardboard and fold in a v shape. Connect the two pieces of cardboard base using the v shape support and the glue gun.
  9. Decorate your base with the items you collected beforehand.
  10. From right to left, gently insert a candle each night with the Shammash candle in the very center set higher than the others.

Download a PDF of these activities and MORE!