A Green Christmas

Christmas is not usually what one thinks of when thinking Green. This year let's green up our holidays.

There are many ways we can reduce our energy consumption and reduce waste during this time of year.

1. Switch from traditional Christmas lights to L.E.D. Lights. They will reduce your energy consumption greatly, the average string of 50 lights uses 300 watts of energy, the same 50 set of LED lights only uses 4 watts of energy and last up to 100,000 hours.

Talk about savings! Not only are we saving a huge amount of energy, we are also keeping precious dollars in our bank accounts.

2. Put all your lights on timers. By putting all your lights on timers (inside and out), you will save energy by controlling the amount of hours your lights are on.

I don't know about you, but I've fallen asleep with the lights on many times!

3.  Decorate using nature.  Try decorating your home using natural items.  Pinecones and fresh greens make a beautiful centerpiece for a table or swag for the mantle.  Adding pinecones or holly berries to your Christmas tree will give it an elegant, natural touch.  White Pine Roping is made from the trimming of the trees and is a great way to decorate the outside.  It can also be mulched or composted after the season is over.

4. Try buying gifts that will actually get used for more than a week or two. Books, movies, actual toys like soccer balls or roller skates, toys that use kid power. Buying all that plastic crap that the kids see on TV is just like throwing money down the drain, and polluting our environment. Buy them art supplies that will foster their creativity or a musical instrument. We are so caught up in giving our kids what the marketing companies tell us will make them happy. The toy of the month is not going to make them happy. It may satisfy them for a week or two, but not more than that.

Help them to find their passion, something they will love and grow with.

5. Don't waste food. The holidays are the biggest eating time of the year. We cook more, we bake like crazy, we basically overindulge. This means that much food gets wasted. Make sure any and all food scraps go into the compost, not the trash can! Freeze or share what you cannot eat yourselves. If you have an abundance of leftovers, take it to your local homeless shelter, a shut in neighbor, or maybe invite someone less fortunate to share your meal. Cookies, cakes and pies given to a shelter or nursing home would be greatly appreciated.

6.  When setting your holiday table, go ahead and use the good china!  If you have them, cloth napkins are the way to go.  It makes the table look beautiful, sophisticated and it saves waste from entering our landfills.  Paper napkins, plastic ware and plastic or paper plates is a huge tax on our landfills and they take a lot of energy and trees to make.  If you are going to use paper napkins and plates, please do not throw them into the trashcan!  Paper napkins and paper plates can be easily composted with your kitchen scraps.  This will make clean up a breeze.

6. Use eco friendly wrappings. Use recycled gift bags, Comics, decorate brown paper bags for wrapping paper. At the very least do not throw your wrapping paper into the trash! Wrapping paper can be recycled just like any other paper.

7.  Make lists and condense your shopping trips as much as possible, or better yet, do your shopping online.  This will save lots of $$ on fuel and also keep your life simpler and less aggravating.

These are easy tips anyone can implement to Green up your Christmas.