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Marcus Kazmierczak

Have Yourself a Green Christmas, Part II

Date: Dec 9, 2007

Being environmentally conscious at Christmas time means reducing your impact by conserving energy and producing less waste. The first part of having a Green Christmas focused primarily on gift giving. This second part is focusing on energy saving and conservation.

  • Decorate with Energy-Saving LED Christmas Lights - The time for large glass Christmas light bulbs to decorate with is over. Switch those older lights over to energy-efficient LED Christmas lights.
  • Run Your Lights on a Timer - Don't run Christmas lights during the day or through all hours of the night. Have a timer turn them on and off for you.
  • Buy a Potted Christmas Tree - Instead of going to a lot to pick up an already-chopped-down Christmas tree, you can get a live pine tree in a pot. This allows you to keep the living tree after Christmas. If taken care of properly, you can use the same tree for many Christmases to come. Living Christmas Tree
  • Avoid Fake Plastic Trees - Unless you have allergies or a good reason to not have a real tree, it is best to avoid plastic trees. Cutting down a natural tree is far better for the environment. Ninety eight percent of natural Christmas trees come from tree farms, which are sustainable since growing trees is a renewable source. Plastic is derived from oil, which is not renewable. The National Christmas Tree Association states that 500,000 acres of Christmas trees are grown and harvested in the United States and each acre produces enough oxygen for 18 people.
  • Recycle Your Christmas Tree - After the holidays, be sure to recycle your tree. You can enter your zipcode at Earth 911 and find where to recycle your Christmas tree.

A few more gift giving ideas that were left off the first list:

  • Donate to a Charity - I’m not sure how I managed to leave this one off the first post. Donating to a charity is a great way to help people in need. My friend’s family pools their gift money each year and instead of buying each other gifts they donate it to Heifer.org, which buys a farm animal for a needy family in a developing country.

  • Teas or Coffee - Another gift along the lines of giving consumable gifts: nice teas or coffee. This is appreciated especially when recipients may not splurge on these items themselves. Of course, this is assuming they like tea or coffee.

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