Opinion

The holiday season welcomes you: warm turkey dinners, ornaments strung up on the tree, “jingle bells” playing in the background, and lights and decorations covering the front lawn. Unfortunately, these jolly times come at a cost. The holiday season - spanning from Thanksgiving to New Year’s - is not just full of cheer but negative environmental impacts. The decorations, gifts, feasts, fireworks and festive lights are fun, but are they worth damaging our earth? 

The beginning of the holiday season in America is marked as the fourth Thursday in November, also known as Thanksgiving. The table is set, family gathered and the turkey is out of the oven. That turkey is not the only one. The mass consumption of turkey on this singular day puts a strain on the farmers, leading them to factory farm in order to meet demands according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Specifically 46 million turkeys are killed each year just for Thanksgiving according to the Food Empowerment Project. Of this, an estimated 200 million pounds of turkey is thrown away each Thanksgiving according to Nashville News Channel Five. For reference, an average turkey is about sixteen pounds. This means that way more turkeys are being killed for the holiday than necessary and more waste is being produced than should be. Unfortunately, turkey is not the only thing on the dinner table at Thanksgiving, and it's not the only thing going to waste. 

Within the next few weeks, the halls are decked: lights on the roof, Christmas tree up, maybe a reindeer here and there. But these decorations come at a cost, and it's not just what you pay for them at the store. Data from a NASA satellite shows that parts of the globe glow 20-50% brighter during the holiday season. But lights most likely aren’t the only thing showcased at your house during the holiday season. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, about 25-30 million real Christmas trees are bought each year. Plastic trees aren’t really a better option, as ABC news states that “the Carbon Trust estimates the carbon footprint of plastic Christmas trees at around seven to twenty times that of a real tree.” This is in part because the fake Christmas trees are made of metals and plastic which can also contain lead, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. 

New Year's accessories, like noisemakers, also cause problems. The problem with these items is that they aren’t sustainable because each year people purchase new ones with different dates. These props are used to count in the New Year. Counting in the New Year brings confetti, lots and lots of confetti. According to TCD news, an environmental news source, 3,300 pounds of confetti are dumped in Times Square alone each year. That's a lot of confetti for a ten second countdown. 

Whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah or something else, the exchange of gifts encapsulates the holiday spirit. Because gift giving feels necessary to many, a lot of people end up with things they don’t actually want, according to ABC News. But there is an easy looking solution - receipts and returns. The problem is that the gift must be shipped back, causing an increase in carbon emissions due to the extra miles of travel. While you probably think these items will get resold, that is not necessarily true. According to an interview by Fox News, items get 90 days on the shelf and then they have to go. Scripps News reports that 5.8 billion pounds of returned inventory go to waste. According to NBC News “sending products back to be repackaged, restocked and resold - sometimes overseas - generates even more carbon emissions, assuming they can be put back in circulation.” This is especially important to consider during the holiday season because recipients of gifts are more likely to return an item that you bought them. According to Civic Science, their data showed that 1 in 3 adults planned to return gifts during the 2023 holiday season. 

Whether under the Christmas tree, given at secret Santa or just an exchange between friends, gifts during the holiday season come with something extra: wrapping paper and a card. Each year, 2.65 billion holiday cards are sold in the U.S alone. According to an article by ABC News, 8,000 tons of wrapping paper are used each year which is equivalent to around 50,000 trees. AustinTexasgov.com states that “plain wrapping paper is accepted in your blue recycling cart. However, wrapping paper with glitter or foil is not.” The wrapping paper that is not accepted as recycling ends up in the trash. 

In order to partake in the gift exchange, gifts must be acquired. With advances in technology online shopping has become a popular way to browse. But it is important to consider when and what you buy from afar. According to the National Environmental Education Foundation, online shopping uses almost five times as much packaging as in store purchases to keep the item protected during shipping. 

The holiday season can be a stressful time and pressure to buy gifts before the opening of presents can lead consumers to resort to fast shipping. Convenient for purchasers, yes. For the environment, not so much. According to CNN, because there is a time crunch and an obligation by companies to get the item to consumers in a short amount of time, there is less opportunity for the packages that are along the same route to be clumped together, meaning more miles driven, more trips and more CO2 emissions. 

To finish out the holiday season, we hear the signature booms of the New Year, followed by a colorful light display- fireworks. When they explode, fireworks release chemicals into the air contributing to air pollution. During the show, carbon monoxide and nitric oxide are released into the atmosphere which are toxic to inhale for animals, according to the Simple Environmentalist, Emma Dedler. Fireworks impact on animals does not stop there; the boom these shots of lights send off can cause animals to flee their homes. This can lead animals to run into roadways, birds to fly upwards into the chemicals or so far that they are above the ocean and are unable to make their way back to shore before fatigue causes them to drown, according to Humane World for Animals. Even if the animals do not flee, fireworks bring more chemicals. A chemical called perchlorate that is released during the show is known to contaminate water ways and can seep down to groundwater according to earth.org, an environmental newsletter. 

Ultimately, the holiday season is about togetherness, family reunions, returning home and lots and lots of travel. Travel contributes the most to CO2 emissions out of all the holiday festivities according to ABC news. During the 2025 holiday season 55% of Americans planned to travel according to PWC, an accounting firm. Because so many people are travelling, there are more trips and more fuel is used. 

While the stockings are hung, the fireworks boom, the feasts are eaten and the gifts are exchanged, think about the environment. According to a study by Stanford, waste increases by 25% during the holiday season. Even more unfortunate is that all this waste in the landfill contributes to methane emissions according to the National Environmental Education Foundation. If you want to be part of the solution, not the problem you can do little things: turning off your Christmas lights at night, buying a little bit less food, and purchasing gifts ahead of time or in-store to make the holiday season fun for us and the environment. 

The way women look is intertwined with how we define ourselves. The one thing that remains constant across years of evolving beauty trends is that you have to change or maintain something about yourself. And if you can’t you are left feeling less than ideal. But what really is ideal?

The idea of an “ideal woman” has evolved dating back to prehistory. According to CNN, Ancient sculptures portrayed women as round pear shaped figures displaying fertility, Greek goddess Aphrodite, was depicted with curves and long wavy hair, and Renaissance Art illustrated pale women with plump limbs that symbolized wealth. Corsets became a staple during the Victorian era, the rise of the 1920s flapper girl coincided with the highest period of disordered eating, and the waif era of the 90s made being skinny trendy. The Victoria Secret Model marked the standard of the 2000s, the Kardashians brought back the rise of the hourglass figure, and the modern age prioritizes looking youthful as you grow old . 

The reality is that no woman looks the same. When a body type or a hairstyle or a facial feature becomes a fashion trend, no young girl comes out unscathed. The media is a large source of comparison for women.  Ms. Taylor Rainbolt, drill team director and theatre choreographer at SAS, said that “as a kid Seventeen Magazine and Teen Vogue were popular and as a teenage girl you don’t realize everything is airbrushed, adjusted and photoshopped. You would look at yourself and think why don’t I look like that? It definitely makes you question your self confidence.” Today, the rise of cell phones and social media makes comparison something young women carry in their pocket. 43 year old Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Texas, Chelsea Holden, is glad she grew up without social media. “When we were younger there was less access to the media because we didn’t have smartphones. It was out of sight out of mind. But social media puts ways to compare yourself in your face all the time," said Holden. This takes a toll on young women who look at social media everyday and are constantly seeing edited bodies, celebrities with perfect skin and advertisements for skincare, supplements, botox, makeup products and clothing. There is always a new product or trend sweeping the internet that makes women feel the need to maintain themselves and improve themselves to be beautiful. SAS parent Kim Whittlesey, 57 years old, says “I never really sat and stared in the mirror and the faces of others like girls and women do now. You are constantly looking at the face of someone perfectly airbrushed. The model isn’t in a magazine you put down; she follows you everywhere you go.”

Whether it’s what to wear or how to age gracefully, there is a crushing pressure for how women must exist. In an interview with SAS junior Allie Shoberg, 16 years old, she raised a concern that women experience a lot more pressure than men. Women are more likely to wake up and spend time picking at their skin, doing skincare, and putting on makeup while it’s more common for men to to get dressed without worrying about what they look like. Women are also expected to have a certain body type. Shoberg said “The standard is to be fit but not too fit and to look skinny but also look healthy. It’s like goldilocks. We have to be just right.” In an interview with SAS freshman Lauren Knighten, 15 years old, she said that this is a universal experience for highschoolers. “Every teenage girl is insecure about something,” she said, "a lot of times it comes from us. We want to put on our makeup and go shopping sometimes. But it’s not fun when you feel like you have to.”  

Adult women also tend to experience pressure of how to look to be taken seriously in the workforce. When reflecting on her career, Whittlesey stated, “When I first started working in corporate America I really had to dress the part. To be considered I felt like I had to wear a suit and stick to blue or black and subtle to kind of look like a man in a business suit. Not what I love to wear. I would have loved to wear a red suit!” To be taken seriously in the workplace she had to shed some of her individuality. Whittlesey believes that as women get older, the pressure doesn’t stop because the modern beauty standard prioritizes youth. It’s more acceptable for a grown man to age gracefully. Kim Whittlesey said “now the struggle for women of my generation and those ahead is deciding to age gracefully or go down a rabbit hole of trying to look younger than I am. Everytime you turn around there is a new way to change your face, not just decorate it with makeup.” 

The younger generations seeing their grandmothers and mothers alter their appearances normalizes this standard of beauty and pushes it on the next generations. Shoberg commented that “it’s a normal experience for teenage girls, seeing parents changing their bodies. They say things like ‘Oh I wish I had a button nose’ or ‘I have a mole I don’t want’ and adults and friends making comments about their bodies can cause you to think about yours. Adults change things that aren’t achievable. A young girl can’t reach those standards but it’s what they see all day.” 

Shoberg highlights that this is what drives young girls to chase something that isn’t themselves. To conform. This is how we lose our authenticity. If you watch a movie from the 90s or the 2000s, the movie star wasn’t copied and pasted, she was unique from her peers. But the women young girls look up to are starting have the same noses and lips and hair and bodies. Our beauty standard is narrowing and we are losing what the true definition of beauty is. Barbara Emerson, 78, says that “It was really important to be unique in high school….Today social media makes everyone feel like they have to please someone with their appearance. Everything is so much more advertised to influence you that it doesn’t allow for creativity. Appearance didn’t used to be who we were.”

The conforming pressure comes from the way we talk about and define beauty. When talking about women, a big conversation topic is appearance. Shoberg pointed out that, “If a woman looks good, people will comment on it. But even if the goal of a woman’s social media post isn’t to show off her appearance, people feel comfortable criticizing and talking about her appearance behind a screen.” Ms. Rainbolt said she experienced a lot of unsolicited advice and commentary throughout her life, especially in the dance world. But she is actively changing the conversation. She says “I try to be mindful about how I talk to my students and dancers because I had some hard dance coaches growing up.” If we all take on this mindset we can combat the standards society has set for young girls. 

We can show young girls that it’s okay to wear makeup or not. To get Botox or not. To wear a dress or not. We should feel comfortable in our own bodies. While self assurance comes with age, if we shift the conversation, we can prevent damaging the confidence of females in their adolescent years, the years where they are learning about who they are and setting themselves up for who they want to be. The most important thing is that it starts with us and the way we talk to ourselves. When I interviewed all of these women, I was fascinated that when asked to give one piece of advice to their younger self, they all said something very similar. 

Allie Shoberg, 16, would tell her younger self “Beauty is really from the inside and reflects onto your outside. When you love yourself and others and show kindness to yourself and others I think that's beautiful. Be yourself. You’ll be the best version of yourself if you're confident in who you are.” Taylor Rainbolt, 34, would tell her younger self “You will receive a lot of unsolicited advice and opinions as a female and I would encourage you to do your best to drown it out. Stay true to who you are.” Chelsea Holden, 42, would say “Be yourself. Hold your head up high. Be confident in your own skin.” Barbara Emerson, 79, would advise her to “Be yourself and don't let someone tell you who you are and what you should be. Try to express that in your way, not in the way that someone else wants you to.” 

No matter when you were born or what your insecurities are, hopefully you would give your younger self the same advice. So next time you look in the mirror, be kind to yourself and know that you are so much more than your reflection. The power is in your hands to show the world what beauty really is.