8 Green & Thrifty Holiday Tips
Author: Sara | Category: Finance
Photo Credit: Parents for ethical Marketing
The holidays are so beautiful and special for you and all the extraordinary people in your life. You, naturally want to make these events as meaningful as possible, so you dedicate a large percentage of your free time to creating a magical and festive home for the celebrations to come. With all of this busy activity, it’s easy to get caught up in these events and forget that the environment pays a very heavy price while we are having fun. During the holiday season, you do a lot more shopping, which requires a lot more driving and gasoline consumption. It really can’t be avoided. Your budget and the environment can be less encumbered, if you make some wise choices right now.
The decorations, both inside and outside, require a much greater demand for electricity. Between the lights, movable angels, inflatable objects of every kind that use powered compressors to produce the volume of necessary air, lighted trees, wreaths and reindeer; your energy bill will be soaring.
Friends and family will gather from near and far to spend some quality time together and celebrate the blessings that loving relationships create. Unfortunately, more fossil fuels are used to accommodate the increased travel and shopping trips.
Since you want to be responsible about the eco-system, and need to be consistent in reducing your carbon footprint, it’s necessary to put in place a plan to have a budget and eco-friendly holiday season.
Try these tips to achieve the kind of celebration you want to create:
1. When you entertain during the holidays, encourage your guests to car pool with each other. Not only will you have a designated driver, if needed, your guests will be happily cutting emissions from the air.
2. If you must have a live tree this holiday season, and can arrange it, get a pine which has been harvested with a root ball of soil or a potted tree. This way you can replant the tree when your soil is warm enough, and can keep the tree alive and hydrated in the interim. Trees not only help the environment, they add to the value of your home.
3. Try to use less lighting, both indoors and out, to conserve power and reduce your energy bill. If you have small bulb lighting, please reduce your lighting time to from 4 to 6 hours. Leaving lights on all night is not only dangerous; it is a great waste of energy.
4. In place of wax jar candles and pillars, why not try soy or beeswax candles, this year. The candle light will be as beautiful as ever, and these candles burn much more slowly. Not only are beeswax candles cost effective, they burn cleaner and have no negative impact on your environs.
5. Create eco-decorations by using twigs and branches, pine cones, berries, bay and laurel leaves, and bay berry from your yard or neighborhood.
6. Dial down the temperature of your home, just before your guests begin to arrive. The house will be warm enough to be comfortable for your guests, and will not get too warm by the increased numbers of people in the room. This will also save energy usage.
7. Use eco-friendly wrappings for your gifts. Re-purposing baskets, ribbons and paper, saved from previous celebrations, is cost effective and smart. Plain brown paper bags can be decorated with rubber stamps and ink or markers for a totally unique look. Use your imagination. Your guests will be impressed with your personal touches. It’s a great way to express yourself. Everything you have put to use creates zero waste.
8. Instead of using expensive fragrance sprays in your home, why not simmer some cinnamon sticks in a small pan of water. The wonderful, natural and welcoming holiday scent of cinnamon is energizing, gentle, and so welcoming.
There are many ways to have a beautiful and memorable celebration this season, which do not have a negative impact on the earth or your budget. Using recycled materials which are cost effect and beautiful, such as solar lighting, cloth napkins and tablecloths, soy and beeswax candles, natural decorations and replanting or recycling your tree, are just a few of the positive steps you can take for a wonderful merry occasion and a renewed green planet.









