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Choose a Real Tree
Most people don’t keep artificial trees long enough to offset the energy and shipping costs in making them (plus they’re often constructed with toxic materials including PVC and lead). Tree farms offer many benefits to the earth including increased oxygen, soil stability and wildlife habitat. A real tree also finds second life as garden mulch after the season (and it just smells so darn good!). Find a Christmas tree farm near you.
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Bake a Healthy and Eco-friendly Gingerbread House
Gingerbread houses are a fun family activity, but they don’t need to consist entirely of sugary sweets. Use cage-free eggs, Fair Trade molasses, almonds, sunflower seeds, nut butters, dried fruit, crackers… And what about building an eco house? Organic chocolate bars as solar panels on the roof? An egg shell for a rain barrel? A wind turbine made of dried peppers? Let your imagination take you away.
Gingerbread lotus house with solar panel by Michelle Kaufmann
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Switch to LED Lights
Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are the most energy-efficient around these days. They use 50% less energy than CFLs and 90% less than incandescents. Plus LEDs are cool to the touch (a safe option for decorating the tree) and can last up to 20 years. If you still have old or broken holiday string lights lying around the house, recycle them via Holiday LEDs. They’ll send you a coupon to purchase LED lights.
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Send Seeded Holiday Cards
Not everyone wants to go electronic with their holiday greetings. There’s still something cozy and quaint about receiving cards in the mail during December. But you can reduce waste by sending biodegradable seeded cards. The recipient can still display the card during the season and then plant it afterward. Come spring, the card becomes wildflowers or herbs in the garden.
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Do More with Less
Instead of buying oodles of toys for the kids, buy fewer gifts and make a treasure hunt out of finding them. This adds a layer of fun and makes the gift opening experience last longer. Or choose experiential gifts (tickets to a concert or holiday show, lessons for some activity they’ve been wanting to try) that aren’t easily discarded and tend to create a more connecting experience.
Want more tips for greening your Christmas, New Year’s and the rest of your year’s holidays?
Then check out my new eBook, The Guilt-Free Guide to Greening Your Holidays. It offers 84 pages of inspiration and out-of-the-box ideas for family celebrations from January through December. On sale through Dec 31!
Available as a downloadable PDF.
This post is featured on Natural Family Friday, Natural Living Monday, Thank Goodness It’s Monday, Tuned In Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesday and Simply Natural Saturday.
Great tips!
Instead of buying a manufactured artificial tree or getting a cut-down real tree every year, we made our own artificial tree out of an old box and the green plastic bags our newspaper comes in! Here are details of our homemade Christmas tree, plus another way to make an alternative tree. We also have a pre-lighted artificial tree that our neighbors were going to throw away when they moved back to China-we saved it from the landfill!