It’s hard for me to believe Thanksgiving is two weeks away and that means the kick off of the holiday season. With Americans generating an additional 5 million tons of trash during this time, (4 million of which is wrapping paper and shopping bags), it’s time to commit to the eco-resolution for November which is to decorate, shop and wrap responsibly for the holidays.
There’s a lot to talk about so we’ll break it up in three posts, provide timely tips and address a few key areas for each point. And while it may be impossible to achieve 100% accuracy, with a little pre-planning and a few ideas to tuck in our back pocket before we get started, it is possible to accomplish a little bit.
Decorate
- Deck the Halls: Yes it’s fun to buy new ornaments and decorations but do you need to? How well are they made? What are they made of? Will they survive beyond this one season? Is it a sentimental piece or does it inspire or evoke warm feelings to hand down? While I love the traditional Santa decorations, I like
ornaments that tell a bit about our family, where we went to school, places we have visited, small photos in frames from days gone by and of our dogs both past and present. It’s fun for us to open up our decoration box every year and be reunited with those sentimental ornaments.
- Lights: Is making that last minute run to the corner store for another string of lights an annual event when decorating your tree? If so you might want to consider upgrading to
LED lights which use less energy and last longer. Between now and November 14th, you can take your old, used or broken incandescent tree lights to Home Depot for recycling and receive $3.00 off your in-store purchase of LED Christmas lights.
- Tree Trimmings: Don’t discard! Find other uses for those excess branches and trimmings like garland or just arrange on the table or mantle. Cut into smaller pieces and add pine cones, holly berries or whatever your surrounding area might provide and place into a pretty bowl. Add a few drops of peppermint essential oil for an easy holiday potpourri.
- Celebrate Green: Need more ideas? This helpful book and website by Corey and Lynn Colwell offer up great tips and
suggestions to decorate and celebrate any holiday with eco-friendly exuberance. One idea in particular I like is taking on old baby shoe or toy and adding the child’s name and date for another sentimental and unique ornament. What do you have that can make a meaningful decoration for your home or tree?
A few ideas to get started and please share in the comment section any of yours. Stay tuned for the second post in this series to talk about how we can shop responsibly.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Celebrate Green! book is using a marketing platform called ‘The Whole Story’ which would bring their entire marketing campaign to your post. ‘The Whole Story’ can be embedded as an image or hyperlink. The embed code can be found on their website http://www.celebrategreen.net. Look for ‘The Whole Story’ image on the right, click to activate and select the ‘share’ menu option to obtain the embed code. Why not use it in your post and increase viewing rate by increasing interaction with the story?