Tips for a Green Holiday Season

Looking for sustainable holiday tips? From eco friendly travel to buying a few cloth napkins, you can have a sustainable Christmas and eco friendly Thanksgiving with just a few small changes. Here are a few easy tips for a green holiday season to incorporate into your life this year.

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eco friendly christmas items on a table with text overlay 'Sustainable Holiday Tips'

Why should you worry about sustainable holidays?

It’s only one or two days, right? Why bother planning a zero waste Christmas or a sustainable Thanksgiving meal? I mean, come on. How much extra waste is created during the winter holiday season, right? IT IS CRAZY!

According to Stanford University, Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week!

There is less than one month until Thanksgiving. Before you know it, chaos will reign with shopping, baking, kids birthdays (both in November and December!) and entertaining friends and family.

A green holiday season is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and simplify your life. Not to mention, how much the earth will appreciate your reduced waste production!

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Simple Green Holiday Tips

If striving for eco friendly holidays this year, you need to plan ahead a bit. Not sure how to plan a green Christmas? There are a lot of things you can do to ensure a slightly more sustainable  holiday season this year.

While we shop, eat, and be merry, our carbon footprint grows and grows! In order to take a step back and reduce our environmental footprint, try a few of these green holiday tips while you are planning your schedule.

slice of homemade pumpkin pie on a white plate

Choose Sustainable Holiday Food  

Sustainable holiday food comes in a lot of forms. Make it from scratch like my homemade eggnog recipe, buy organic and/or local foods, recycle every piece of packaging you possibly can and then enjoy the feasts of your labor.

Get a free range turkey this year if you can’t afford to buy organic. I make most of the dishes from scratch although I will admit to buying store bought rolls. I just can’t seem to figure out how to make them as light and fluffy as the ones in the store.

It’s not all or nothing. Do what you can and don’t feel too guilty about the rest. Check out my post on how to save money on organic food to help you stay within your food budget.

tips for a green holiday season

Use Eco Friendly Holiday Decor

I get so tired of all the plastic garbage in department stores. The best way to have a green holiday season is to use natural decor items, cloth napkins and tablecloths.

Serve your meal on real dishes instead of disposable, and ditch as much of the plastic as you can. Yes, you can save the planet one fork at a time!

Ask your kids to make you paper pumpkins or turkeys out of construction paper and put them on the walls and windows. I would much rather see a homemade pumpkin craft that is slightly lopsided than mass produced plastic stuff any day.

What is better a real Christmas tree or a fake Christmas tree? Well, that is a WHOLE big discussion right there.  If you are trying to decide on whether to get a real or fake tree check out my article on greener Christmas trees. There are pluses and minuses to both so you need to decide what is best for your own family.

More tips for a green holiday season:

Tips for a Green Holiday Season

Make your travel eco friendly

From pre trip car maintenance to eco travel destinations, your carbon footprint depends a lot on your budget and your destination.  Holidays are all about spending time with friends and family and sometimes we need to travel in order to do it. And that is totally okay! 

Check out my article on green travel suggestions for ideas on how to reduce the carbon footprint of your next road trip.

From your car to your kids,  there are a ton of ways to lessen the environmental impact of your trip to see family this holiday season. Remember, pick the green holiday tips that work best for your family and don’t sweat the rest of them!

person wringing out rag over bucket of water

Green Cleaning and Organizing

This is the time of year that people like to purge their house of old things to make way for new toys and gadgets. Make sure you find new homes for your unwanted stuff so it does not end up in landfills.

One of my biggest tips for a green holiday season is to be mindful of what you throw away. Donate clothing to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

Recycle stuff animals in creative ways, donate books to the library and make sure that household chemicals are properly disposed of. Use Earth 911 to figure out how to dispose of your household items properly. Or, just grab an old toothbrush and tackle the bathroom sink. 

green holiday tips

Choose Sustainable Gifts  

This is an area that many people could make a huge difference in when it comes to creating a green holiday season. Make gifts from scratch like my Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Scrub. Package it in a glass jar with a decorative card or ribbon and it is the perfect way to spoil someone who needs a little pampering this holiday season.

Make a donation in someone’s name if they really don’t NEED anything but you want to show you care. Check out my post on World Vision and give a gift to someone who truly needs it.

Talk to your family and friends and ask how they feel about second-hand gifts. It may seem a bit cheesy but honestly, a book is a book whether it has been read a hundred times or is brand new.

Choose organic or natural fiber clothing options for the fashionista on your gift list and do some research to find fair trade or hand made gift ideas that people can enjoy.

Zero waste home made gifts for Christmas and other holidays. Rustic, reusable, eco friendly packaging without plastic. Ecological holiday idea

Sustainable Holiday Items to Consider

The holidays have a very large carbon footprint, however there are many choices that we can make to lessen our personal impact on the environment. Check out these eco friendly holiday projects on Amazon. Great for you, or give as gifts!

Preparing care package, seasonal gift box with kitchen utensils,

More easy eco friendly holiday tips

Need a few more tips for a green holiday season?  Here are a few you should try this year:

  • Make your own wrapping paper. Use a tea towel or an old brown grocery bag.
  • Get a pesticide free tree.  Call around to your local tree farms and ask.
  • Recycle your Christmas tree.  Ask your local Scouting troop if they do it!
  • Recycle your old technology if you are buying new.
  • Offset your holiday footprint by making a donation to an environmental charity.
  • Buy a reusable advent calendar.
  • Use LED lights for your holiday decorations

When you are organizing your festivities and writing out your gift list, keep a few of these green holiday tips in mind!  Have any other green holiday tips to share? 

 


4 thoughts on “Tips for a Green Holiday Season”

  1. Love you post! I did a series on Eco-Friendly Weddings and learned so much–a lot was similar to what you mentioned above. Once you start thinking about it and looking more closely, it’s amazing how much we waste we produce on a daily basis (and I am by far no exception–but at least I realize it now!)

    ~ Brooke ~

    Reply
    • thanks so much for visiting and glad you found the article helpful. We as humans really do create a lot of waste but hopefully people are starting to understand the need to reduce our carbon footprint!

      Reply
  2. So many great ideas! I agree with you on the homemade crafts for decor. It gives our family a great opportunity to engage in some bonding time making creative objects for holiday decor that will additionally be trinkets of memories. This tip has come a long way in our family!

    Reply
    • Im glad you found my tips helpful. I am hoping to get to do some homemade crafts with my kids this season. Now that they are teens it is getting harder and harder to convince them to do them with me!

      Reply

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