Around this time of each year lots of digital ink is spent suggesting ways on how we can celebrate the holidays the eco-friendly way. (Check out our post last year about eco-friendly parties.)
Greening up the holidays is as easy as 1,2,3. (Image from Wengerna.com)K
Corny or not, over-the-top or not, there’s always good sense in giving those advices a listen. After all, it’s easy to get caught up with the holiday frenzy and let the environment take the backseat. What we’re saying here is that partying and managing our eco-footprint at the same time is possible. It all boils down to a few simple conscious choices about eco-friendly holidays.
Below, we list three key areas in which we can green up the holiday season.
One. Lights, Please
Bright and sparkling: Cities are all lit up during the holidays. The Rockefeller Center
What would Christmas be like without the bright, sparkly, colourful lights? As entire cities light up their building façades, parks, bridges, giant Christmas trees, and whatever else that can be lit up (often in exaggerated proportions), it’s not surprising that the holiday season can be such an energy hog.
- Use only LED Christmas lights. By now we all know LED bulbs are more power-efficient, do not get hot, and last for years. More than enough reason to make the switch to LEDs this holiday season. Plus, regular light bulbs are so ‘80s.
- But don’t overdo the lights. Just because LEDs have a small carbon footprint doesn’t mean you can use as much as you’d like in lighting up your home or office.
- Turn off the lights too. Trust us, you don’t really need to keep the Christmas lights on until the wee hours of the morning.
Two. Gifts and More Gifts
Why spend on expensive Christmas wrappers when the Sunday paper will do?
(Image from how-to-recycle.blogspot.com)
The season of giving doesn’t have to have an aftermath of garbage. The products we buy in malls are already excessively packaged as it is (Think cardboard wraps inside plastic bags inside boxes within shopping bags.) So let’s not add to the waste stream anymore by unnecessarily wrapping our Christmas gifts.
- Reuse gift wraps. You’ve been saving last Christmas’ gift wraps, have you?
- Try unlikely gift wraps. An old calendar page, the Sunday paper’s comics section, donut boxes, etc.
- The classic gift within a gift. A flash drive inside a pair of socks, cookies inside shiny reusable tin cans, a journal wrapped in a scarf.
- Buy your gifts locally. For eco-friendly holidays, choose gifts that are locally available, instead of imported ones.
- Give practical gifts instead of useless, disposable trinkets. It lets your recipient know that you care a lot about them. Think reusable shopping bag, for example, instead of ref magnets.
Three. Food Matters
Christmas dinners with a green twist. (Image from GreenKitchenStories.com)
J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” That said, the holiday season fills up our tables with feasts galore. The eco-friendliness of that feast depends on a few simple tweaks.
- Buy locally-grown food. They’re fresher, more nutritious, they support your local farmers, and they didn’t have to be flown in from faraway places.
- Have a healthy feast. The holidays is no excuse to be reckless with our diet. Christmas dinners can be healthy and sumptuous at the same time.
- Get your portions right. Know how many guests are coming so you know just how much to cook and serve. When you plan before setting out to cook, you get portions that are perfect without the risk of wastage.
- Mind your leftovers. Oftentimes, leftovers are the best part of Christmas dinners. Find creative ways to reuse leftovers from last night’s party.
- Compost. If you have to toss out wasted food, put them in the compost.
With that, we’re hoping everyone will have an enjoyable December. Here’s to more eco-friendly holidays from now on.
