How to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas
With the holiday season upon us, it is time to start thinking of how we can fit being mindful about the environment into our Christmas plans. Maybe it is time to change some of our habits & traditions and curb our environmental impact during the holiday season.
The Celebration & Gathering
There are lots of ways to celebrate Christmas and other holiday traditions in an ecofriendly manner. Gathering virtually is a great option. It reduces the amount of cars on the road, therefore reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Certainly a win for you and the environment, and where miles are a hinderance, this option brings us together in novel ways that builds relationships. Many people still want to get together , in this case, try to carpool as much as possible, or even taking public transit where available.
The Christmas Tree
There are on-going debates between which is more eco-friendly – a real or fake tree. The answer is complicated. If you already own an artificial tree, stick with what you have until it no longer works for you! You need to use that tree for over 20 years for it to be more sustainable than its natural counterpart. Buying a natural tree when you already have an artificial one is not sustainable. Therefore, if you have a fake tree, use it until it is deemed unusable! If you do not own an artificial tree, your best route is to go with a natural tree. Since the likelihood of keeping an artificial tree for over 20 years is low, real trees are the more eco-friendly way to go. Who would have thought! After the season of Christmas, natural trees are able to be processed as organic waste and composted. When choosing a real Christmas tree, try to opt for one that is grown locally so you can support your local economy/farms.
The Décor
There are lots of options for décor that have a reduced environmental impact.
For lighting, choose LEDs or Energy Star certified light strands – this helps you to reduce your electricity bills and helps to reduce fossil fuel emissions. This applies to all decorative light elements, including indoor and outdoor pieces.
For other décor elements, try using all natural, compostable items to make your house more festive. You are probably thinking – like what? Get outside and enjoy the fresh air while collecting pinecones, trimming tree greenery and fallen birch tree branches. These are all sustainable, compostable, and not to mention free, décor items that will make your home festive without having to purchase more waste to go into the landfill. The tree trimmings will only last the season, but the pinecones and birch tree pieces are storable and re-useable for years to come (& compostable at the end of their life)!
Other décor ideas include getting crafty & making your own ornaments and garlands. Items such as popcorn, dried cranberries/oranges/apple slices, cinnamon sticks, pinecones, nuts and paper (to make snowflakes and other décor) are all colourful, sometimes scented, options to make your home and tree decorative with a reduced environmental impact and are relatively low budget options.
The Gifts
Another thing to consider is reducing the amount of gifts we give everyone this year. Our planet cannot sustain the consistent waste that inherently comes with Christmas. Try to be meaningful with your gifting and aim to support local ecofriendly products when possible. This is hard, don’t get be wrong, but putting your mind to work on these small (but mighty) initiatives is important for you and future generations.
Instead of frivolous spending this year on material items people do not need, consider buying people experiences to create memories with you and others. This is a great idea to help to support our local economy and give people the opportunity to do something different that does not create more landfill waste.
Some alternative gifts you could include are:
• Gift cards for local restaurants (maybe it is your favourite restaurant and perhaps the gift receiver has never eaten there before!)
• Online subscription services for tv shows, movies or music (ex. Spotify or Netflix)
• Virtual classes (cooking, baking, flower arranging)
• Meal kit subscription box
• Annual Parks pass
• Local museum, botanical garden or aviary memberships
• DIY Artwork and eco crafts
• Charitable donation in the recipient’s name
You could also buy items that make someone’s home a little more eco-friendly, this could include beeswax wraps, a reusable coffee mug (if they don’t have one already) and even items such as LED light fixtures or smart thermostat for those with larger budgets.
Christmas comes each year, consider taking this holiday season as an opportunity to rethink how you do Christmas and make habits and traditions a bit more eco-friendly with some of the suggestions above.
Do you have any eco-friendly traditions of your own during the holiday season? We would love to have you share them so we can add to our list!