I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas…

By:  Stephanie Benney

Now that the left-overs are neatly packed away in their storage containers and crazy Aunt Louise has been safely poured into a cab, it’s time to get serious about Christmas.  For many who celebrate Christmas, it is the biggest holiday of the year, yielding the most preparation and financial involvement.  However, there is relief; I found this article by our friends at Green Living to be quite helpful in ways to green your holiday season.   Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

You can enjoy and savor the winter holiday season much more this year by not allowing it to overwhelm you with its unhealthy demands on your frame of mind, your waistline, and your pocketbook.

Instead of joining the frenzied mobs of harried shoppers jostling to accomplish holiday tasks, save yourself grief and credit card debt by going green, putting the demands of the holidays into proper perspective, and celebrating as a conscious consumer: sustainably, powerfully, and, yes, even happily!

Both the art and spirit of gift-giving can get lost in the great shuffle of commercial expectations during the holidays.  How many people do you know who miserably and perfunctorily slog through their holiday shopping lists trying to find all the suitable gifts they feel obliged to buy?  How many spend the first few months of the new year trying to lose the ten pounds they packed on during the holiday season?

The holidays have come to symbolize excess to the extreme. 

Celebrating them in this fashion is not a sustainable practice—not for our bodies, our bank accounts, or our planet.  Millions of tons of gift wrap and other post-consumer paper products end up in landfills every year.  The average American with a credit card adds $1,000 to his or her debt balance during the  Christmas shopping season.

By making conscious choices when it comes to the holidays, you can reduce seasonal waste.  According to a U.S. Department of Energy study, if everyone replaced their conventional holiday lights with LEDs (light-emitting diodes that use computer chip technology rather than incandescent filaments), at least two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity could be saved in one month.  We are fortunate to have more options than ever for green products that save energy, reduce waste, and are ethically manufactured.  By advocating alternatives to wasteful practices, you utilize your consumer power in a way that makes a difference.

Ask yourself these few key questions before buying anything in order to reduce your spending on gifts that are not eco-friendly:

                   How far did it have to travel from where it was made?  Was more energy spent getting it here than in making it?

                   Was it manufactured ethically?  What pollution and by-products were created as a result of its production? What human resources were involved?

                   Does the person I am buying this for really need it?  Will he or she use it?

                   Can I afford it?  How many hours of work will it take me to pay for this?  Is it really worth it?

For some specific green gift ideas, click on over to our Green Gift Giving article for ideas about food gifts, gift baskets, charitable gifts, homemade gifts, and gifts of thought and time, as well as sustainable packaging ideas.  There is no end to the possibilities of gifts that come from the heart.  Something you have made with a special person in mind will be a special gift, whether it is a small work of art, a photograph, a delicious meal, a bar of homemade soap, or a sincere compliment.

You can give someone a memory by doing something special such as volunteering together, seeing a theatrical or musical performance, or taking a long walk in some part of town where you’ve never adventured.  Get your friends together for a potluck-style dinner made with local, seasonal food.

If you find yourself with a surplus of leftover food after your holiday feast, you can donate it to your local shelter or food bank, which can also benefit from the donation of your leftover decorations.

The simplest decorations can have the most elegant effect:

                   Fashion a centerpiece for your table made from leaves you have gathered and seasonal fruits.

                   Have an ornament-making party using materials found in nature and pretty scraps you have around the house: pine cones, flowers, cranberries, and popcorn all make festive decorations that cost little or nothing.

                   You can have a gift exchange party with several friends, drawing names out of a hat and buying one present for the person whose name you have drawn.

Giving gifts that encourage others to live healthier and be more environmentally conscious—such as a subscription to a green living magazine or weekly deliveries of organic produce from a local CSA—keeps giving on multiple levels throughout the year without leaving a lot of barely used rubbish for the garbageman. 

Stephanie Benney is a “Sustainable Visionary” and also the new Pittsburgh Representative for Fuzed Marketing, where she helps companies increase their brand presence. stephaniebenney@yahoo.com