How to Make Your Christmas a Little More Eco-Friendly This Year
If you want to celebrate a sustainable Christmas, there are plenty of ways to do so. Learn how in this festive blog!
How to Make Your Christmas a Little More Eco-Friendly This Year
The Christmas season is rapidly approaching, and many people are now hunting for gifts or scrambling to put up decorations. As you are hanging up those decorations and fighting with your wrapping paper, don’t forget to be conscious of the environmental sustainability of those decorations and wrapping paper. During Christmas, overconsumption and waste increase. Making small, environmentally friendly changes to our Holidays will help the environment immensely. Here are some ways you can make this season a bit more eco-conscious.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is the staple centerpiece of Christmas decor; a must-have during the holiday season. The most eco-friendly option would be to use a real Christmas tree. However, many people may not be comfortable with a real tree sitting in their living room, not wanting to deal with the mess. So, if you are adamant about having a fake tree, there are some eco-friendly alternatives to those as well.
A study done by the New York Times suggests that a plastic tree would have to be used for 10–20 years to lessen its environmental impact. Most plastic trees are made with products that produce lots of greenhouse gases, which are later dumped in a landfill for those chemicals to seep into the land. So, if possible, it is best to avoid plastic trees and opt for a wooden or metal one instead. Renting a Christmas tree, whether it is real or fake, would also be a great eco-friendly alternative.
For plant lovers who already have an abundance of plants in their home, decorating the plants you already own in place of buying a tree is a cute, unique, eco-friendly, and less costly alternative. For those who don’t already own plants, buying a potted plant to decorate would be a fun alternative to buying a full tree. Not to mention, the process of putting up, decorating, and then taking down the plant would be much less tedious.
Christmas Light Replacements
If you want to blind your neighbors by covering your house in Christmas lights, consider ditching the traditional incandescent lights and switching to LED or solar-powered lights. LED lights consume up to 80% less energy than traditional Christmas lights. Alternatively, powering your lights with the natural energy that comes from the sun would not only save energy but also save money on power bills.
Christmas Decorations
When buying decorations, try to stay away from plastic. Not only does it harm the environment, but they’re typically cheaper and more flimsy, so you’d get less use out of it compared to a decoration made of wood, for example. Some sustainable alternatives to plastic would be wood, bamboo, cork, paper, felt, wool, and polyester. Additionally, an ornament made out of wood or fabric can seem much more authentic than one made of cheap plastic.
For those with a knack for arts and crafts, making your decorations would not only be a fun date idea or family activity, but it would also be more sustainable. Turning dried oranges or popcorn into garlands or ornaments can be an amazing bonding activity. Instead of buying a tree topper, you can make an origami star out of scrap paper or old magazines. In your spare time, you can forage for some holly or laurel to make a natural, homemade wreath to hang on your doorstep, rather than a synthetic one. If you have kids, have your kids make ornaments out of pinecones or paper, a memento of their youth that you can reuse every season.
The easiest way to decorate sustainably is to reuse the decorations you already have. Why replace your stockings every year when you can keep your old ones that have been loved and used for many Christmases? It’s not like Santa leaves more goodies in freshly bought stockings rather than older ones. Unless a decoration has been broken beyond repair, there’s no need to toss it out just to buy another. Even those synthetic Christmas trees, wreaths, and plastic ornaments can be environmentally sustainable as long as you use them for a few years. Reusing decorations for a decade or two would not only help you save money and the environment, but it could also create some family heirlooms that can be passed down for generations.
Sustainable Gifting
There are plenty of sustainable gifts you could give people, such as gifts that are handmade or bought from free trade brands. If that isn’t possible, the best way to gift sustainably is to get the person what they actually want. While many people would appreciate a hand-knitted scarf, maybe your 14-year-old nephew, who asked for a PS5, is not the demographic for such a gift. It’s better to give someone a gift you know they will like and use than to get them something they will just throw away. Talk to your loved ones and ask them what they want from you. If it is possible to obtain the gift they desire sustainably, then perfect! If not, then get it anyway so your handmade scarf isn’t going to end up tossed in a landfill.
However, while you may not be able to give everyone on your list a perfectly environmentally sustainable gift, you can certainly give them a gift with environmentally sustainable wrapping. Much of the waste on Christmas comes from the abundance of gift wrap thrown away each year, but there are a variety of alternatives that would leave a smaller stain on the environment. Instead of traditional wrapping paper, try using recycled paper, fabric, or beeswax instead. The fabric and beeswax could be recycled for future Christmases as well. If you receive gifts packaged in bags, you can reuse those as well. Not only is this more eco-friendly, but it’s also much less costly.
Summary
If you want to celebrate a sustainable Christmas, there are plenty of ways to do so. You could replace your plastic tree with a real or rented one, or decorate your houseplants instead; replace your traditional Christmas lights with LED lights or solar-powered lights; reuse past decorations, or if you need new ones, buy decorations made of wood, fabric, or paper. You could also make your own; make it a fun activity for the family. When gift-giving, it’s better to give the person what they actually want rather than something they will just throw away in the future. However, homemade gifts and gifts bought from free-trade brands are also an option if the person receiving the gift would be pleased. When wrapping said gifts, use recycled paper, fabrics, or beeswax rather than normal gift wrap, and reuse any wrappings or bags if possible. Let’s try to keep this Christmas as eco-friendly as possible, so our future Christmases will continue to be white.
References
https://www.sustainably-chic.com/blog/sustainable-christmas-decorations)
https://sosfuture.org/blogs/diy-eco-home/10-zero-waste-decorations-for-christmas?gad_source=1
https://www.econyl.com/magazine/how-to-sustainably-buy-decorate-your-christmas-tree/
https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/how-to-have-an-eco-friendly-and-zero-waste-christmas/