How To Make Your Holiday Eco-Friendly

Did you know that between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, Americans throw away a million extra tons of garbage each week?

During the season of giving, it sure seems like we're taking a lot from Mother Nature.

Here are some suggestions of ways to go green this holiday season, and you just might save some green as well.

Gift Giving: Try giving an experience rather than a gift. Tickets to a ballgame, theater or an art exhibit create much less waste than complicated toys and gadgets. Some of the best gifts can even be homemade like cookies and cakes, or having guests over for a special home cooked meal or giving the gift of a service you can provide to someone.

Wrapping: Recycle your gift wrap. You can easily reuse gift bags, tissue paper, bows and even wrapping paper. If you just look around the house you'll probably find old posters, maps, sheet music, wallpaper scraps, magazine and newspaper cutouts, and comic pages which all work very well as wrapping paper. Homemade wrapping paper is also a great winter afternoon activity for the kids as well.


Shipping: Avoid Styrofoam packing peanuts and try the biodegradable kind instead. You can also use crumpled up newspaper, or even dry, popped popcorn, with a note inserted inside the box letting the receiver know that they can later treat birds to it.

Christmas Lights: Be sure to purchase lights made with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. These lights are ninety percent more efficient than traditional Christmas lights and last about 200,000 hours. According to one U.S. Department of Energy study, if all families replaced their conventional holiday light strings with LEDs, at least two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity could be saved in a month. The savings alone would be enough to power 200,000 homes for a year.


The Christmas Tree: As you search for that perfect tree, keep in mind that if you purchase a tree from a tree farm you're not damaging forests. Another option is purchasing a potted plant that can be enjoyed year round. Artificial trees are also a good choice since they are reused every year and that saves on the gas you would spend driving to the tree farms.


My favorite for those that don’t want a big tree or are looking for an additional table top tree is the potted rosemary bush. These fragrant plants can be purchased shaped like Christmas trees and are perfect for the cooks in your family. Not only does it serve as a Christmas tree but you will have an endless supply of this wonderful herb as you make your favorite recipes.


Treecycling: Don’t forget to start off the New Years on the right foot by treecycling. Instead of ending up in a landfill, Christmas trees can be ground into wood chips and be reused as mulch gardens, or to prevent erosion. If you visit Earth911.com, you can search your zip code to find the nearest Christmas tree recycling center near you.


Decorations: Give it your family's personal touch by decorating it with memorabilia such as a child's first shoe or grandma's hankie scented with perfume. There's no need to go out and purchase pricey ornaments when cookie cutters, pinecones, stuffed animals and toys, and miniature toy cars work just as well. As you pull these ornaments year after year they will be sure to put a smile on everyone’s face.


The most important thing to remember is that the holiday time is meant to share with those that matter to you most. By taking time to sit back and enjoy each others company you are creating memories that money can not buy.