Green decor
Photo by Lumn (Pexels.com)
Christmas lights are symbols of the Light that came into the world with the birth of Christ. Enjoy them and use LEDs wherever you can to take care of the world that Jesus lit up with his presence. You can also give a package or two of the lights to someone you love to help them love creation.
Go live! Live trees that you can replant are kindest to the environment. A cut tree harvested from an organic tree farm will likely be replaced with two others that will also combat climate change. If you need a smaller tree, consider a potted tree you can enjoy year-round (with or without the decorations). Whatever size you need, check local nurseries. Some are beginning to rent out trees for the holidays.
Creation Justice ident
If you are considering an artificial tree, count the costs to the environment before you buy. Artificial trees are made from a plastic called PVC, which creates hazardous waste and emissions during manufacturing. Most are shipped from China, which increases their carbon footprint much more than real trees. If you already own an artificial tree, use it for at least 10 years. Keep the tree in good condition so that you can pass it on to someone else who will appreciate having it and won’t need to buy one.
Ask parents or grandparents to give you an ornament that has been a part of your growing-up Christmas traditions. Pass along its story to your children. Or make your own tree ornaments representing something meaningful to you. Glue family photos to card stock and hang the picture on the tree. Create some new stories to tell each Christmas.
Create less waste by how you wrap your gifts. One of the savviest zero-waste decisions is to save wrapping paper, tissue paper, bows, and ribbons to reuse each year. Or adorn your gift with fabric like a scarf (new or vintage) that can be worn. Look also for old maps, sheet music, newspaper funnies, or plain paper painted with your children’s handprints and art.
While it might be fun to rip and tear into a wrapped present, the fancy paper itself is most likely to be laminated with plastic, foil, glitter, or other non-paper materials that contaminate a recycle bin. The short fibers in tissue paper make it unrecyclable too. Rather than wrapping paper, go for reusable gift bags.
Go retro. String popcorn and cranberries on cotton thread. After Christmas, put the strings outside for the birds to munch on or decompose in the soil. However, don't give in to the temptation to go back to tinsel or fake "snow"—they never decay.
Rather than buying new decorations, turn to thrift shops and garage sales to find one-of-a-kind used ornaments and holiday decor.
If you do buy new decorations, keep justice in the forefront. Make sure the items are Fair Trade, which means the workers who made them earned a living wage and didn’t labor under sweatshop conditions. Ten Thousand Villages and SERRV International both sell Fair Trade holiday decor.
Invite children to make decorations. Spend time together and show them how to cut snowflakes from recycled paper. Or help them create a collage or ornaments by using greeting cards from a previous year. Or search nature for boughs of holly, evergreens, pinecones, mistletoe to decorate with. (Be mindful of allergies.) Encourage them to find delight in nature and their own creativity in reusing rather than trashing. The learning will carry on past the holidays.