The holidays are here, friends. We're sharing a round-up of healthy holiday tips, recipes and crafts below! As always, please read and share, and have a great week.

1. TIPS & RESOURCES 

5 Tips for a Healthy Holiday Season, by Migdalia Rivera
With the holidays quickly approaching, it's time to make plans! If you're like my family, your holidays center around food, mainly meat. (We love our pernil!) This year I want to have a more humane and healthy holiday by making sure I purchase antibiotic-free meat. But, I want to go further than that and that's why I'm following these 5 Tips for a Healthy Holiday Season...

My Game Plan to Protect Kids from Junk Food this Holiday Season, by To-Wen Tsang
Every so often, I feel that I’m fighting against the whole world just to protect my child from junk foods. But I cannot be the food police around him 24/7. That “leftover Halloween candy” reminds me that, for this upcoming holiday season, I need a game plan to protect my little one from junk food. This is what I’m going to do...

Say “No” to Holiday Stress, Beth A. Collins Sharp
What’s the best holiday gift I have ever received? Not having to do the whole holiday thing... Welcome to the holiday season, an annual test of endurance for many women. Forget the walking machine for a cardiac stress test — just strap a monitor on most any woman during the week before Thanksgiving or Christmas... 

Squash: Cook It, Craft It, Grow It, by Karen Showalter
Perhaps no vegetable has a more unappetizing name. But squash is actually an incredibly tasty, versatile and nutritious veggie, that's also fun to grow. And of course there are some fun squash crafts, too...

Ten Holiday Gifts that Support Paid Sick Days, by Sara Alcid
Make your holiday shopping REALLY count! By supporting businesses that support paid sick days, you’re giving the gift of family economic security back to your community and using your consumer power to recognize business leaders who champion the issues we care about, like paid sick days and paid family and medical leave...

Shopping Advice from a Black Friday Worker, by Judy Conti
I don't judge you if you shop on Thanksgiving. Some people rely on the "deals" and are able to rock the loss-leaders so that they are able to buy gifts for those they love that they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. But .... *Don't assume that the retail associates you encounter volunteered to be there, or that they didn't have anywhere they would rather be. (The vast majority are there because they have to, either because they don't get paid holidays, or need the money desperately to afford their own holiday shopping, or because they were scheduled regardless of wanting the day off)...

Gun Safety During the Holidays: Ask to keep your children safe! by Sara Smith
A friend recently shared what happened last year during a holiday visit to her parents’ house. While looking for medicine to soothe a headache, she opened a drawer and found a loaded, unsecured gun. As the mother of two young children, she was shocked that her parents would have left a loaded gun in a drawer within reach of her curious children...

Check out this veggie-friendly gingerbread house idea from Nanny Kim's Recipes. 

Don't miss out on the fabulous, healthy, holiday recipes we're sharing over on the Good Food Force Facebook Group! Check out and share ideas for healthy side and main dishes. Next week we're tackling desserts and drinks (it can be done!). 

2. CONNECT

Friday 1pm ET: #FoodFri Tweetchat on Snacking

Snacks play a major and growing role in Americans’ diets. Though sugary drinks, chips, and candy are among the most common snack choices, snack time doesn’t have to mean unhealthy foods. From revealing the role Big Food has played in changing Americans’ snacking habits to sharing healthy snack ideas, tips, and tricks, this tweet chat will help you transform your own snacking routine and give you ideas on how snacking could play a key role in supporting public health. Please join us today at 1pm ET! 

Tweet: Snacks play a major & growing role in Americans’ diets. Join us, @MomsRising & @CSPI for a #FoodFri 11/20 from 1-2 pm ET.

Thank you for all you do! 

- Karen, Anita, Elisa, Monifa, Donna, Migdalia, dream, Bea and the rest of the MomsRising.org team!