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Five Steps Toward a Greener Holiday
Make this year’s celebration an
eco-friendly one.
You can take care of the planet and enjoy the season at the same time with these five ideas for observing the holidays in an environmentally conscious way.
1. Recycle your tree. Look for an organic tree farm near you at greenpromise.com or order one from freshchristmastree.com. And, don’t throw your tree in the trash. Each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfill. Recycle yours instead. Visit earth911.com to find a nearby tree-recycling program.
2. Light the menorah with earth-friendly candles. Choose soy or beeswax candles, which are renewable and biodegradable. You can order them at pristineplanet.com.
3. Switch to LED holiday lights. They cost more than traditional lights, but they’re about three times more efficient, says Jessica Jensen, co-founder of LowImpactLiving.com. “Buy a couple of strands and they’ll probably last your lifetime.” Order them at holidayleds.com.
4. Go easy on the wrapping. Save and reuse gift bags or use materials you already have, such as magazine pages or paper bags, to create your own paper. If you do need to buy wrapping, find a company that uses recycled products, such as greengirlgiftwrap.com or papermojo.com. If you want to avoid manufactured adornments, you can also look to nature for inspiration. “I might get a pine cone and put it on top of a present instead of a ribbon,” Jensen says.
5. Consider the impact of the gifts you give.
With a little effort, you can find green gifts in many categories.
- For toys, try plantoys.com or underthenile.com.
- For clothing, check out Patagonia.com or bluecanoe.com.
- For jewelry made from recycled metals and antique glass, visit bottledupdesigns.com, dawes-design.com or kirstenmuensterjewelry.com.
- For the book lover on your list, consider Amazon’s Kindle, a wireless reading device.
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These remind me of a great nature-friendly holiday decoration that you can make for free - ice wreaths. All you need are two bowls (one larger than the other) some water, some cranberries (leftover from holiday cooking?), pieces of evergreen from outside, maybe some pinecones... whatever tickles your fancy really... and some cold weather so it doesn't melt! First, place the smaller bowl inside the larger one and add cranberries, pinecones, evergreen, etc., into the donut-shaped space that remains. Then add water and freeze (note: boil the water first for crystal-clear ice)! Once frozen, pop the wreath out, string a ribbon/rope on it , hang outside and enjoy! This is a great project to do with the kids too!
When giving gifts, I like to use a roll of plain brown paper adorned with pine cones rather than store-bought wrapping paper.