5 Tips On How To Have A 'Green' Holiday
Zero-Waste Decorations
Lower your plastic footprint by making your own ornaments out of dried citrus fruits, rosemary, cinnamon sticks. You could also visit your local thrift store and pick up some second-hand decorations. Since I love my decorations to be nostalgic, thrift store decorations are usually my go-to! You could also make snowflakes or garland out of newspapers and other recyclable materials, or check your local farm stand for real garland.
Here’s a list of decorations we typically make:
Salt Dough Ornaments
Paper Chains
Paper Christmas Stars
Gift Giving
Gifting experiences during the Holidays (and other gifting times) is one of my favorite zero-waste tips.
DIY gifts - We usually have a big gift for our family and then a homemade gift. Last year we made candles and sugar scrubs! There are so many great DIY gifts ideas out there that you can make with products you already have. You can check out my Pinterest for more ideas!
Gift Wrapping
Instead of using wrapping paper as your default wrapping option, you could try other forms! We had a friend use pages of their newspaper as a wrap and they would choose the pages that reminded them most of the receiver. You could get thrifted cloth and wrap them using the Japanese method of Furoshiki, the art of cloth gift wrapping. I’ve seen a lot of stores getting cloth bags and the reusable vinyl bags in their gifting sections. My favorite is to find the bags or the decorative boxes and tins after everything goes on sale because you can save and reuse them! Every year my friends and I swap cookie tins full of little goodies and I hope to be able to do that with boxes in the future.
Cards
I think bringing back homemade items is such a heartfelt idea, especially for the holidays. So, why not make your own DIY cards? And if that just isn’t your specialty, I always wait until everything goes on sale at the end of the year and pick up our cards for the next year!
Get A Real Christmas Tree
We cut our tree for the first time from the Huron Tree Farm this year!
A quick synopses of why artificial trees are bad:
10 million artificial trees are purchased a season
90% are shipped worldwide, resulting in excessive carbon emissions and resources.
Excessive chemicals are used in artificial trees
Cannot be recycled
Artificial trees are made using PVC, lead, and flame retardants, which can leach out and have been known to cause health issues - especially in children and pets.
When you purchase a real tree from a local stand or tree farm,
You are supporting forests
You are supporting local businesses
You are supporting local wildlife
Can be recycled and composted
For every tree purchased, farmers plant 1-3 seedlings in its place
You can do your part for nature by picking out a real tree and supporting local this holiday season!
