A Greener Christmas Guide
The holidays are our favorite time of year. We love the spirit of the season and the way it brings out the best in everybody. We love being with our families and laughing and sharing. But then, when Christmas is over, I panic. I’m afraid to step out of the house because come garbage day, every neighborhood in the United States has depressing images like this:
It’s not really a holiday image any of us likes to see, is it? I’m sorry. All the joy I have felt for the season is replaced with remorse – for my community, for our planet, and for future generations that are going to have to deal with our excess waste. It’s the week after Christmas, and I’m ashamed. I know none of us is perfect.
We try to do a little bit more each year at our house. Now we’re going a little bit further and bringing you…
There are a lot of easy ways we can have a lighter impact on the earth. And many of them can happen without even changing the way you celebrate the holidays. It’s pretty cool.
This post marks the first of A Greener Christmas Guide series and will serve as the main directory. Here you will find a continuous, updated list of every Greener Christmas Guide post. And for quick reference, click on the Christmas tree icon any time you see it, and you’ll be back at this list.
A Greener Christmas Guide
2 Greener Christmas Card Solutions: You could fill our house 325 times every Christmas with all of the tossed holiday cards. Have you thought of digital pdf cards? Or post-consumer cards with plant-based dyes and other not-totally-toxic materials?
4 Steps to a Greener Christmas with Wrapping Paper: Americans generate wrapping paper waste to the tune of 4 million tons every year. (insert panic attack) But there’s a greener way to wrap gifts with things you already have and things people can use. Check out this mega-list, and let the ideas flow!
Your Guide to Local Holiday Shopping: Wondering how to snag a few holiday gifts that aren’t made in China? Here’s a lovely list of local food and gift ideas that make giving a little greener.
Easy Fabric Gift Bag Tutorial: Make this easy gift bag perfect for ornaments, candies, and small gift exchanges.
Shopping for Locally Grown Poinsettias: Local nurseries often grow huge selections of poinsettias. We visited ours and had a pick between 3,000 different plants of various sizes and colors – my heart was pattering! Click here to read more. Or in the very least, see the beautiful poinsettia photos we took at our nursery.
The Greenest Wrapping Paper You Can Make (for free!): Decorate old blueprints with stamps and paint with this simple tutorial for more (free) wrapping paper than you’ll know what to do with.
Make Handmade Gift Tags from the Stuff in Your House: Handmade gift tags are easy. And when you use things like cardboard inserts from the t-shirts you just bought, they became cheap and green, too. Here’s lots of ideas for scraps at your house.
Switch to Cloth Bags: Make or buy these cloth bags to fill with presents. Recipients can carry the bags in their purses and help decrease the number of plastic bags going to the trash (currently 100 billion in the US each year).
Sending Paperless Thank You Notes: It’s one thing to say your thanks. It’s another to show it. Why not consider this simple idea for sending thank you emails with personal photos attached?
Donate Old Holiday Cards: St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, a hospital for children with cancer, collects old card fronts for the children to make new cards that the organization then sells to raise money. All you do is pop the card fronts in the mail. Easy peasy and extra resourceful.
If there are any particular green issues you’d like us to address, post a comment or email me.
The Christmas experience doesn’t have to include a lot of unnecessary waste. We’ll just take the joy…
November 14th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I think it is a great idea to eliminate all the waste we don’t give a second thought about. A great thought and I hope it helps the wase problem. Thank you for a ‘green’ post today.
Hugs…Jeanne
November 14th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I know what you mean about the garbage issue… my parents leave in a townhouse community, their little house happens to be just across from the neighborhood garbage station, and every day is an ordeal for them with the garbage people leave all around, some times they even have to do the cleaning themselves and hose down garbage to prevent flies and get rid of some more disgusting things… if just everyone would cooperate…. ;)
Thanks for visiting the house in the roses
cielo
November 14th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Oh yes! Normal trash day depresses me let alone after the holidays. I have become very conscience of what we are throwing out and making sure we recycle as much as possible. We have tried to lessen our trash so much and are doing a great job, but on the way to preschool on Friday morning I can’t help but notice the amounts of garbage that neighbors have out – one house on our street sets out two huge toters of trash! Two! ~sigh~ And then the cardboard boxes sitting on top of their trash…. I need to stop.
GREAT GREAT series. I look forward to it. And I may link you up to share the info with others. :)
November 14th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
What the world needs now is less garbage! Good post…
November 14th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
some ideas to reduce waste during the holidays:
I have started saving packaging from bought items to reuse for gifting. just because it didn’t come in a plastic bag with the label “tissue paper” on it, doesn’t mean it can’t be used as gift stuffing.
my family has been recycling gift wrapping and reusing boxes, bags and bows for years now .
reducing waste doesn’t just apply to christmas- i have started buying plain white boxes for wedding presents. i tie a ribbon around it and it’s done. no wrapping paper included.
this christmas we are giving reusable shopping bags ($1.99- same price as some gift bags) to family and friends and packing the gift into the bag.
and I find that gifts bought at local stores like paper goods and crafts, tend to have less packaging to start with and therefore less trash in the end.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Every year I become more and more aware of the waste we produce. I do what little bits I can, knowing it’s not nearly enough…but at least it’s a start. Something I don’t do, is give cards. I usually don’t even put tags on gifts. I write names on the bottom of them…and with kids, this is great. You can put presents out early and not worry about shaking if you use a coding system. :) I save every handled bag I get and reuse it, even the “craft” colored ones from stores. I just put a scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper) over the logos and use again!
November 15th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I use the leftover paper sometimes to go under the cat bowls. Normally we just wipe up the linoleum, but there are special circumstances where the paper comes in handy. They are terribly messy when they eat and it is easier if we are having company coming just to take up the paper right before the guests arrive. Same with the litterbox. Then, after we use the paper, it’s recycle time. I also reuse bows, ribbon, bubble wrap, tissue paper, etc. If I could use the tape again, I surely would! My family has always done this as a cost cutting measure, also. It saves bunches come Christmas time! (Or birthday, anniversary, etc. time.) Ooh, now I am in the Christmas mood and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!
November 16th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Oh my sweet lil Katie girl…You did tell it like it is…LOL Maybe we’ll learn to do better, I wish! Hugs, ;-) Bo
November 16th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
My grandmother used to reuse all the greeting cards she received, regardless of the occasion. She’d cut out images, embellish with a little glitter and add a bit of paper doily and maybe some lick-em stickers and create a whole new card on construction paper. In fact, I honestly don’t recall ever getting a store-bought card from her, yet she never forgot a birthday. :-)
November 16th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Stumbled upon your blog. I’m an American living in Copenhagen. I have had a look around your blog. I can definitely relate to living in a small space. We also redid our kitchen this past year and are finally done with it! I look forward to reading more.
I always try to do something with the wrapping paper. I think it is always such a waste to just throw it away. I also made cute paper ornaments out of all my families Christmas cards and have used some in scrapbooking.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:09 am
Great post! Thank you for leaving a comment on my blog with the suggestion to use recycled wrapping paper. I will definitely do it and thanks for bringing that to my attention!
I grew up on the coast of Texas and all the trees are taken to the beach to help form sand dunes. Other than that, everything seems to wasteful. KV
December 1st, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I am all about greening it up! Great ideas!
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Thanks for doing this series! My immediate family and my parents have been getting greener every Christmas and finding that it’s at least as much fun, if not more!
My partner and I made our own Christmas tree for our first Christmas together, and we just decorated it for the 12th time. See link behind my name.