8 Ways to Green Your Holidays
This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.
‘Tis the season to give, celebrate and renew. It only takes a small commitment to protect the environment. Here are eight simple ways you can make a difference this holiday season:
1. Rethink the Gift Wrap
It’s time to think outside the box, for real. Not only are most wrapping types wasteful, but its been done, year after year. Break out of your comfort zone and create some great looks with reuse items found around your house.
- Bows
- Bags
- Fabrics
- Newspaper comics
- Magazines
- Decorative boxes
These scrap items can be used to make that gift even more special. They can also be reused year after year.
2. Keep the Trees Truly Green
If part of your celebrations include a Christmas tree, choose to recycle it once the festivities are over, find local treecycling centers through Earth911.
If you want to recycle your tree, do not use tinsel or spray it with fake snow, as tinsel and white trees cannot be recycled. You can also use a live, uncut tree and replant it after the holidays or just decorate a house plant or tree in your yard.
3. Hang up your Cheer
Though ornaments have traditionally been used with Christmas trees, they can be hung from any place in the house. String them with lights to dress up a window or hang them outside. Either way you approach it, ornaments are a great craft and reuse project.
Make ornaments at home with items you may normally recycle:
- Paper towel rolls
- Old calendar pictures
- Holiday wrapping paper
If you have any left over ornaments from holidays past, donate them to your local thrift store or pass them on to family and friends.
4. Keep Energy Low & Excitement High
It is easy to let energy get the best of you during the holiday months, but you can fight back with some easy ways to keep the bills down. Use a timer on your house and tree lights to avoid keeping them on all night, cuddle up next to a fire burning an eco-friendly log and keep your water heater warm with insulation.
5. Just Call
Some of the best holiday greetings don’t come in the form of paper. Forget that card and pick up the phone. It is pretty likely that most of your family and friends would prefer some real talk time over words in a card.
If sending cards is part of a die-hard tradition, save old holiday cards and create new ones by cutting the card down. Old cards also make great ornaments or can even get laminated for coasters. You could also send e-cards and save paper, or you can buy new cards made with post-consumer content.
6. Celebrate in Style
Holiday parties are some of the best times to see friends, share gifts and eat a lot of food. Instead of opting for paper and plastic, use dishes, silverware and cloth napkins instead of disposable utensils and paper products.
Don’t have enough reusable plates for everyone? No problem! Make it BYOP, and have everyone bring their own plates, forks and cups. You can even make a game out of it and have people trade with each other. In addition, give out leftovers so you won’t waste food. Plus, your guests already brought their own to-go containers!
7. Shop Smart
This holiday shopping season may be tighter than years past, so it’s time to get strategic. Many online retailers not only offer free shipping, but by getting it directly delivered to you, your car can stay parked in your driveway. If you do venture out to the mall, plan a trip with friends to carpool and save resources, and try to consolidate your shopping trips into as few as possible.
8. Resolve That Resolution
Though New Year’s is still a ways off, now is a great time to begin planning your changes for 2009. Want to buck that plastic habit, get that commute to be a group affair or increase your recycling efforts? The new year is a national time where change is praised and encouraged. Do some research, and start the new year off with a plan. Hold onto your hat 2009, here we come!
RaeAnne Kelly
posted on November 17th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I am so excited to be a part of the GREEN movement and look forward to meeting others whom have already caught the train!!
If you know someone looking to Green THEIR company, please forward them my information. Or better yet, forward their information to me at the email listed above. Thanks!
paper craft magazines | Digg hot tags
posted on November 17th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
[...] Vote 8 Ways to Green Your Holidays [...]
Jenny
posted on November 21st, 2008 at 4:35 pm
TickleMe Plant – It Moves
A great green low cost gift that will make everyone smile is to grow a TickleMe Plant and watch it MOVE when Tickled! The leaves quickly fold and even the branches droop when tickled. I found this to be a great stress reliever in my office and what a conversation piece!. You may have seen the TickleMe Plant in the botanical gardens or on the premier of CSI NY. Now it can be grown indoors year round.
No green thumb needed. I found it on line at http://www.ticklemeplant.com
Fleur
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Great Ideas… some I use already. Will pass onto friends.
Stephanie
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Another way to go green for the holidays is to give antiques as a gift. Antique jewelry is beautifully crafted and often cheaper and better quality than the new stuff, and doesn’t encourage bad gemstone and metals mining.
Hannah
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Do you guys know if christmas paper is ok to recycle?
eric: RealWorldGreen.com
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
i’m famous in my family for wrapping gifts in newspaper, i’ve done it since i was a kid – which is a long time ago. ( I avoid sheets that have unpleasant news headlines)
In the past few years, my mom has started using cloth bags with a simple cloth tie to give gifts, and she either gets the bag back or encourages the person to re-use the cloth bag.
after the holiday, we stack our christmas trees in a pile in the back woods, and that pile has become what we call the Rabbit Warren; its a haven for small animals and birds to hide from predators. Thanks, eric.
Krista
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I cut Christmas cards that I get from others down into gift tags at the start of every holiday season. I save the old cards in a shoe box then get them out over the Thanksgiving weekend for family time. Its a fun and easy project to work on with kids, especially if you set out cookies and eggnog for the crafters and it saves on buying new gift tags every year!
Dorsey Petro
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I have just started recycled, and getting excited about the Green / Save the Earth ways of life… I am frugal already, therefore, this is just another exciting part of my already saving / frugal nature… I am deciding if I want to use the curb side recycle pickup, or drop it off at our local Kroger’s recycle bins…
I am happy to hear about any recycle ideas…
Bob Peeples, PE
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hannah,
The paper question is very complicated. The first thing is your paper choice. Obviously, metallic papers are difficult to find markets for because of the pulp contamination. Using waste paper is probably the best choice because it won’t get pulled out as bad paper. Lots of municipalities have banned wrapping paper from the recycling bin because it is tough to sort out the bad from the good. That’s why I like the Sunday comics instead. My brother-in-law uses old blueprints because he is an architect and it sort of personalizes the gift. I am too old to need a picture of Santa on my wrapping paper, anyway.
Another reason that they might shy from wrapping paper is the gumballs from the tape adhesives. Recycling mills hate pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) because of the glue gathering at the ends of the rollers in huge gobs. This problem is the same for Post-it notes and clear (”Scotch”) tape, Paper literally flies through the mill and stopping the line means getting that flight started all over again.
Bob.
Jenni
posted on November 26th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Some of the stores, like Campbell’s here in town, have a bunch of empty boots boxes you can take for your xmas gifts, so you don’t have to buy a box just for that. This year I was going to get some shopping bags that I get from the grocery store, and most of us have to shop for that, and put the gifts in those. The use for old cards is a great idea. And for regular cards you get, some churches recycle them, by taking the cover, and the saying inside, and putting them on new or recycled paper, and sell from their church. And for the kids, I will be using the cartoons from the sunday paper, for wrapping paper. And I get them a toy, plus stuff they need throughout the year, like a bunch of toothpaste, floss, vitamins, to encourage good healthy habits.I recycle what I know how to, and always enjoy learning more. Thanks.
Ron
posted on November 28th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Does any one know what can be done with discarded Christmas lights? There has to be literally thousands of those strings that are thrown away each year. The scrap value would be in the copper wire, so would metal processors be interested? Is there any organized collection system in place so they can be efficiently collected?
Teresa
posted on November 29th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I sometimes take bows of our own or from somebody elses gifts to me.i reuse them by putting scotch
tape on the back of them.And yes I reuse what is left of wrapping paper over and over.
Good Luck and thanks for your information.
Cassandra
posted on December 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I have been using reusable shopping bags for gift bags the last couple of years. Not only are they cheaper then “gift bags”, they can be used by the recipient for all of their everyday shopping. It’s like 2 gifts in one. I look for recycled cloth bags or ones made from recycled plastic.
Connie
posted on December 8th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
My family has been using fabric gift bags for years. Joann Fabrics has free patterns and you can save on the fabric if you shop the day after Thanksgiving or after Christmas.
Mindy
posted on December 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I’m with you all! And like eric, have long wrapped in newspaper. Some years ago, I started going to the ethnic restaurants and stores in town and getting their used Greek, Indian, Chinese, etc. newspapers for wrapping; it’s even more fun! My son and DIL use those tall cylindrical cans which some alcohol comes in for gifting dog biscuits (homemade!), cookies, bath bombs, soap, and small jars of jam.
Marly
posted on December 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I’ve started collecting glass jars that hold different items I purchase at the grocery store (jam, olives, sauces….) through the year and reuse them for foods we make at home (sauce, spices)…also use them to package food we make for gifts instead of buying mason jars….I have rubbed off on my family and now the others save the jars too…I would like to make labels for them too, “homemade”…gotta make sure the label making is green as well though….
Jane`
posted on August 26th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Attn Ron: Goodwill accepts anything with a cord – especially Christmas lights – for copper recycling. This is one of their big money makers. Hope lots of people see this, Goodwill does a lot of good. Jane