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Written by Milan Clarke   
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Monday, 21 December 2009

My Holiday

May Your Holidays be Green… The holiday season is one of America’s most excessive and extravagant times of year. However, I do confess, there is something about this time that sends chills of joy through me. It is a combination of the lights, people buzzing along the streets, Christmas trees and menorahs lit up all over town, great food and family that will even put the Grinch in a cheery mood.

Most of the time, the holiday season doesn’t take the environment into account. For one example, we farm about 35 million trees a year containing harmful pesticides that contaminate resources like our water supply.1 For information on how you can make your Christmas tree more eco-friendly this year, check out: http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsGuides/Getting-Eco-Friendly-This-Holiday-Season.html

Think about how much you use during the holiday season. By the end of December, millions of families find themselves with an energy bill the size of the North Pole from all those holiday lights, pounds and pounds of old leftovers, piles to the ceiling of ripped wrapping paper and gift boxes, and some even have a dying Christmas tree to deal with.

There are a lot of things out there you can do give your holiday season a green power boost: recycle everything you can, start composting, don’t use disposable dishware/cups/cutlery, buy eco-friendly gifts, etc. For more tips and ideas on how to green your holiday season, check out: http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticles/Green-Your-2009-Holiday-Season.html.

An eco-friendly holiday season is a great way to start your greener lifestyle. My love for the holidays conflicting with my concern for the environment is the exact reason why I have chosen to “green” up my life as a New Years resolution, starting early with Christmas. After months of trying to define what the word “green” means, the personal definition that I created was: the act of living more simply and modestly. My resolution is to simplify my life by limiting any excessive and unnecessary consumption. With a down economy and the temperamental state of our environment, I feel it is my duty to “green” up my life.

As for this Christmas, I have decided to go with an interesting theme. I call it, “A Christmas before electricity was invented.” My plans are to exchange lights for strings of popcorn, go to the second hand store to find old candles, wrap my presents in decorated newspaper, and gather pretty leaves and pine cones from my back yard to create a table centerpiece. With a couple dollars and a bit of creativity, I can make a beautiful old-fashioned Christmas for my family. It will begin a new year with a new resolution to live a more modest lifestyle.

You can green up too! You don’t have to be this extreme to “green” your holiday season. Here are some fun ideas that won’t burn a hole in your wallet or the environment.:

1. You can limit your present spending allowance to a certain amount per family member, or even make your own presents. I admit, the thought of making presents sounds like something only a three year old would do, but it could turn out to be a better present than anything you can buy.

To create your own gifts, research craft ideas on the Internet. Things like knitting scarves, painting pictures and making scrapbooks or funny short films for family members could be even more meaningful than anything you could buy them at a store.

2. Waste is a huge issue during the holidays. It is possible to limit the wrapping paper, plastic plates and cups, excessive lights, without being called a Scrooge. Create beautiful wrapping paper by using old magazines or newspaper. You can cut out interesting pictures, paint on newspapers with sponges, etc. This year, I found some old newspaper, and a wedding magazine. I cut out all the flowers from the magazine and pasted them on the newspaper. It ended up looking like a work of art!

3. For those of you who love the Christmas lights around your house, limit the time you keep them on. If you usually turn on the lights when the sun sets and don’t turn them of until morning, try keeping the lights on for only a couple hours at night. Also, switch to LED lights!

4. As for the disposal of Christmas trees, most cities offer a tree recycling system. However, my friend’s family recycles their Christmas tree in a different way. Every year after Christmas, they plant their tree in the back yard. Although some trees have died, they still have about 8 flourishing trees from 4 to15 years old. If you have the room for it, it makes for a great memory.

With some creativity and thought, you can have an unforgettable low environmental impact holiday. Consider these suggestions when you are preparing for the holidays and you will be sure to have a green and merry time!

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1 http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsGuides/Getting-Eco-Friendly-This-Holiday-Season.html.




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Green Facts

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

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  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

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  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

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  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

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  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.