Christmas is a time for your family to spend quality time together and enjoy the fun and festivities, but the celebration of Christmas can create a lot of waste and excess! Think of how much wrapping paper is used across the world, and how many Christmas cards are produced each year! We all know that going green is a healthy way to live. That’s why it’s a great idea to teach your kids to go green at Christmas – this will help reduce the negative impact on the environment. This may sound like a big challenge, but it takes only a little effort from each of us to save our environment. Here are some tips for an eco-friendly Christmas that will reduce waste.
Easy Eco-Friendly Christmas Tips
Eco-friendly Christmas celebrations are a wonderful way to enjoy the holiday season while minimizing environmental impact. Here are some ideas:
Eco-Friendly Christmas Cards
Why not send e-cards or make your own Christmas cards this year? Your family and friends will love receiving cards that your children helped to make. It’s a great way to get into the holiday spirit – and it also is a great way to save money, too! You can make Christmas cards using recycled paper or old Christmas cards. Cut the pictures from the old Christmas cards and paste them onto recycled paper or card stock. Let your kids be creative by coloring or painting the Christmas cards. Add ribbons, cotton wool and buttons to decorate the Christmas cards.
Eco-Friendly Christmas Gifts and Wrapping
Rather than splurge on Christmas shopping, consider buying recycled gifts or donating some of the money you would have spent to a charity. You can also ask your kids to help make Christmas presents – homemade ornaments and crafts make great presents. Or purchase sustainable eco-friendly gifts.
You can make wrapping paper from recycled materials like newspapers, paper bags, magazines, and even pieces of your children’s artwork! People who receive these presents will appreciate the time and energy that went into making them. After the gifts are unwrapped, you can also save the wrapping and ribbons for future use – or you can recycle them!
Eco-friendly Christmas Tree and Decorations
Another eco-friendly Christmas tip to celebrate the holidays is to purchase a Christmas tree that you can plant in your yard when the holiday is over. You can also choose try your hand at DIY ornaments from nature and decorations that you can use again, year after year.
Although Christmas lights are beautiful, they consume a lot of energy. To save energy, go without lights or choose energy efficient LED lights. Or, how about decorating your tree with other things instead of lights? You can cut out strips of paper from old magazines or Christmas cards and let your kids make paper chains to hang on the Christmas tree.
Eco-Friendly Christmas Food
Food is such an important part of the Christmas season! However, it helps to have a plan and a shopping list. This way, you won’t accidentally buy too much food, which will go to waste. Be sure to prepare for the inevitable leftovers, and have bowls or containers ready to store any leftovers in the freezer and a plan for how you can incorporate them in upcoming meals.
Consider eco-friendly food options such as organic, locally grown, bulk purchases, and items with little to no packaging. Have fun Christmas cooking with kids this holiday season and sharing with your children how you are making eco-friendly choices in the kitchen. There are many simple Christmas recipes that kids can help prepare.
Recharge Those Batteries
So many holiday gifts—especially for kids—require batteries. About 40 percent of battery sales happen during the holidays! I suggest that to avoid the disposal of extra batteries that are harmful to the environment, you should purchase rechargeable batteries (or gifts that don’t require batteries). You may also want to think about including a battery charger as part of your gift. There are new sustainable organic batteries you can check out!
Conclusion
Use natural materials like pine cones, twigs, and branches for decorations. Avoid plastic decorations and opt for items that can be reused or composted. By incorporating these eco-friendly practices into your Christmas celebrations, you can enjoy a more sustainable holiday season while reducing waste and supporting the environment.
These are just a few tips for an eco-friendly Christmas. What are some eco-friendly Christmas tips that you make around Christmas time? Share with us @familyfocusblog and I’ll add your idea in here!
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Ellen Christian says
I love these tips. I made our Christmas cards this year. They came out really nice!
Shala Howell says
One of my favorite things to do is to wrap smaller gifts for my 8-year old and younger nieces in pretty little bandanas instead of paper or gift bags. They get to enjoy the gift inside and have a fun bandana to play dress up with. You can get a set of 12 bandanas in fun prints for surprisingly little money on Amazon.
Suzanne Holt says
Another great tip for reusing Christmas cards is cutting out designs on the cover and using them for gift tags.