Green Holiday Decorations

Are you looking for a unique and green way to decorate for the holidays? How about lighting your tree with eel power?


Check out the following story and video on LiveScience.com "Christmas Eel Makes Tree Lights Electric."


For other ideas that are a little less fishy and closer to home:
Bring a Living Tree Inside
Living Trees
Recycled and Artificial Trees 
What's Wrong With Mylar?
Creating Holiday Decorations From Your Garden

Live Holiday Trees Catching On

When you make sustainable choices, your actions speak directly to others.

A young friend sent me a photo of himself with his live Christmas tree. It’s a tradition in their family for him to have is own small tree that he decorates himself. This year Milo chose to have a live tree that he could enjoy during the holidays and then tend during the year. Hopefully, Milo’s little tree will grow with him for years to come.

Speaking the merits of live trees is one thing, but experiencing our live holiday tree in our livingroom year after year has touched a number of people. The growing pine in the house connects people to the value of this iconic holiday image as a living thing. Our tree is not just a decoration, it is a statement of a sustainable world of interconnected living things.

Next winter is only ten months away. Now is the best time to keep an eye out for a future holiday tree. You might even find one on sale.

Decorating a Living Tree
31 Days of Green Holiday Actions

Green Holiday Actions

Green Holiday Action #31

Over the holidays we went to Disneyland for the day. We were happily surprised that throughout the park all of the plastic bags used at the various stores are now made from 100% recycled materials and are in turn recycleable.


Of course the best choice is to not use a bag, but Disney is making an effort in the right direction. Positive actions need to be applauded.

Everyday you have choices. You can choose to be environmentally responsible - helping the planet and therefore yourself.

This started as an attempt to come up with 31 Green Holiday Actions and became the beginning of a community of friends and strangers sharing ideas about sustainability.

General Green Holiday Actions

• E Holiday Letters
• Holiday Lights
• Say “No” to Plastic Bags
• Helping Others Understand Global Climate Change
• Recycling Electronics and Saving Gorillas
• The Dickens, You Say
• Party Dishware Dilemma
• Classic Holiday Fun - A Christmas Carol
• Santa Route
• Veggie Tuesday and Thursday

Decorating and Wrapping

• Green Holiday Decorations
• Say “No” to the Shiny
• Santa’s Bags
• Christmas Tree? Go Live
• Recycled Holiday Tree
• Decorate a Living Tree
• Holiday Boxes and Bows - Recycling and Reusing
• Recycle Those Holiday Cards
• Recycling Christmas Trees and Greenery
  

Gift Giving

• Shopping On-line
• Trim Your Gift Shopping List
• Give Experiences
  
• Green Holiday Gifts
• Recycled Gifts
• Give From the Heart
• A Better Way to Carry Water
• Give from the Hearth and Yard
• Green Products as Gifts

We all know in our hearts that we are pushing the planet to the edge. We all know that we have to change the way be act on a daily basis, but change can be threatening. Still, if we work together and make little changes that are lasting, maybe we can leave our children a better world rather than one teetering toward calamity.

When I was 7 years old I wrote to then President Nixon about the gray whale that was rapidly disappearing from along the California coast. Enough adults and children kept after our public officials until the Marine Mammals Protection Act was passed in 1972. Given a chance, life on our planet is resilient.

Today the gray whale population has stabilized, blue whales and humpbacks swim in increasing numbers along California's coast. Right whales are breeding along the east coast of the U.S. Are whales and other sea life in trouble because of ship traffic, climate change and pollution in the ocean? Yes. But in the 1960s, we were afraid that whales would cease to exist because of whaling and fishing practices.


We can make positive change, if we work together. Let's make 2010 the year we save the planet.

Problem Gifts

Green Holiday Action #30

A few things make me cringe when I open a package: foam packing peanuts and metallic plastic sheeting.

This year no foam peanuts exploded from a well-packed gift box. That was a blessing. No storing them, no trying to figure out how to use them without setting them free in the environment.

But this glittery problem was given to us by well-meaning friends. This is the metallic plastic sheeting or polyester film that I warned against in "Just Say 'No' to The Shiny." And in this case, it is already shredded into small bits.

If I "throw it away," it won't be gone. It will fly up into the air or cling to the side of the trash bin. It will find a way to escape from the trash truck. Next it will tumble down the street, wash down a gutter, make its way to the ocean and into the gullet of a bird or fish. It is bad news.

If I keep the shiny menace, how can I reuse it? If I pass it on to someone else, they will have the same problem I'm having. It's like passing on a virus.

If you have a good idea on what action can be taken to deal with this flashy shredded polyester film, let me know. The only thing I've come up with is using it in a few experiments to show how hazardous it really is.

Don't make this mistake. Don't curse your friends and family with a needless environmental burden.

Veggie Tuesdays and Thursdays

Green Holiday Action #29

I am not a vegetarian. I'm an omnivore and I admit that I like the taste of meat. But it is a fact that when you eat higher up in the foodweb, you are consuming more resources.

For example: If you eat a salad, the lettuce, tomato, carrots, cucumber, etc., the plants are all "producers" who take in energy from the sun and convert it to energy stored in their leaves, roots and fruit. When you eat meat, the animal had to eat plants or other animals to get the energy it needed. Animals are "consumers" of "producers." The further away you get from a producer who converted the sun's energy to its own use, the more resources are needed to create the same about of energy. So when you eat a piece of meat, you are also eating all of the food that that animal ate.

Vast tracts of land around the world has been lost from native forests and grasslands to provide grazing areas for domestic animals that provide meat. A great deal of plant food and fresh water goes to raising animals for food. Waste from domestic animals also creates pollution problems. Reducing the amount of meat we consume could help the planet significantly.

With that in mind the Union of Reform Judaism is proposing the Green Table/Just Table initiative. They are supporting eating locally produced plants and animals, eating food grown and harvested by people that are treated justly, and reducing meat consumption.

The food we eat is part of the Earth's splendor and it should be treated with respect.

Because we don't have to catch it, raise it, or butcher it ourselves, meat has become very easy to consume in the last 100 years. I'm going to aim for eating low on the foodweb twice a week.

Won't you join me in Veggie Tuesdays and Thursdays?

Green Products as Gifts

Green Holiday Action #28

As we approach the beginning of a new year, I'm making a resolution to bring a Green Practice into our daily living each month.

We have a great place to start with some of the gifts we received this holiday season:

• organic cotton dish towels - Pay attention to the fibers you surround yourself with. Cotton is a natural plant fiber. People and other animals have been using the soft, insulating fibers of cotton for thousands of years. But growing cotton can be hard on the land, especially if pesticides and herbicides are used. Organic cotton is more expensive in the store, but less expensive in the long run because it does not contribute to other environmental problems.
• e-cloth - This is a new product for me, it is a special cloth that allows you to clean glass and polish surfaces using only water. I'm excited to give it a try. I'll keep you posted on how it works.

The choices you make on everyday items, especially cleaning products can make a big difference in the environment. Not only are you making choices that are healthier and more sustainable, but you are also letting the producers of products know that you will stand up for the environment with your pocketbook. The best way to take a polluting product off the market is to not buy it.

Recycling Christmas Trees and Greenery

Green Holiday Action #27

Pine boughs and yard greenery have been decorating the house inside and out for the past couple of weeks. (Green Holiday Decorations)

Today I got in the mood to take some of it down. But I'm still using some of these branches because now they are providing mulch on areas of the hillside that have bare earth. Smaller branches went into our household green bin provided by the city. This green matter will be chipped and composted by the city.

Our live tree went back out into the yard. But if you have a cut holiday tree, you can still make green choices. If at all possible, don't send your tree to a landfill.

In Los Angeles, you can cut up your tree and put it in your green bin for vegetation. You can also recycle the whole tree by taking it to a number of drop-off locations at parks and fire stations throughout the city. For a location near you, check out the L.A. City Bureau of Sanitation website. The designated locations in L.A. will only be recycling whole trees next weekend, Jan. 2-3, 2010. Follow the directions on the city website for how to prepare the tree for recycling.

If you live outside of the Los Angeles area do a web search with key words "recycling Christmas trees" and your city name. Many cities offer some way for you to recycle holiday trees.

Recycle Those Holiday Cards

Green Holiday Action #26

Holiday cards come in such a beautiful array of colors and themes. When the season is over repurpose those beautiful scenes and sentiments. Here's a wonderful suggestion from my friend Kim:

I always enjoy seeing green suggestions around the holidays. I don't think this actually started as a "green" idea, but something I've been doing since I was a kid is making gift tags out of last year's holiday cards. I tear off the fronts and fold them to make little tags with designs from the card's artwork. I don't do anything particularly fancy with them, but I usually get some comments about it being creative. I think my parents were just trying to save money by not buying gift tags, but now I think of it as a green tradition. And I don't have to feel bad about tossing away a stack of Christmas cards that people have sent me. - Kim

I been doing this for years myself. Sometimes a beautiful tag made from a holiday card can become the focus of a gift's wrapping. You can fold them, cut them into shapes, or just use parts of a card's decoration that you like the best.

Have you noticed that there is an added benefit to getting multiple use out of resources? It saves financial resources as well.

Holiday Boxes and Bows - Recycling and Reusing

Green Holiday Action #25

This year at our family holiday gathering we tried to act green while opening presents. We placed two large containers in the room for wrapping paper that was recycleable, a basket to collect reuseable bows and ribbon, and a container for trash.















I'm so proud of everyone because we:

• reduced the number of physical gifts and therefore cut the amount of wrapping in half (Trim Your Gift Shopping List)
  
• no one used plastic or polyester film wrapping (Say "No" to the Shiny)
• most of the wrapping was recycleable paper, only a little was foil paper that went in the trash
• boxes were reused from years before and those that were still viable were gathered up for next year
• bows were at a minimum and gathered up for use again next year
• numerous gifts were wrapped in reuseable fabric Santa Bags
• a number of the gifts given were green (Shopping On-line, Give Experiences, Green Holiday Gifts, Give from the Hearth and Yard)
  

A couple of the gifts were inspiring and creative, more on that later.

Hope you had a day filled with joy and giving.

Decorate a Living Christmas Tree

Green Holiday Action #24

Here's a photo and suggestion from my friend Eleanor - decorate a living tree outside.


A living tree is never perfect, but it is always part of the earth. When you decorate a tree that is already living and growing in your yard or garden, you are demonstrating your connection with the world around you.

Throughout the year this tree in Santa Clarita is habitat for birds and insects. Though it dresses up for the holidays, it continues to be part of the environment.

Whether you bring a living tree into your home, use a recycled tree, or decorate a tree in your yard, you are making a choice for a more sustainable future.

Plan Your Santa Route

Green Holiday Action #23

Santa has a very green practice, he plans his route for greatest efficiency.

Whether it is last minute shopping or delivering gifts from your hearth, plan your route. Making one well-mapped-out sweep to all of your intended destinations, rather than multiple trips, will save resources and time.

Recycled Holiday Trees

Green Holiday Action #22

Recycling can come in a variety of forms. What we used to call antiques are actually recycled items–furniture, glassware, china, and even decorations–that are passed on from one generation to the next rather than being disposable.

I love having a live holiday tree in my house, but a number of people have commented that they have artificial trees they have used for years. Here is one of my favorite comments from my friend Marie:

We live in a condo and do not have a place to plant living Christmas Trees. However, 15 years ago we were passing an antique store in Silver Lake and saw an aluminum Christmas Tree in the window. We decided we had to have it, but the owner wouldn't let us have the one in the window. But searching through the backroom he came across another one in it's original 1950's White Front box. We were old enough to remember when there were lots of White Front stores around Los Angeles, so we scooped it up, and it has been our tree ever since. And every year we add more homemade ornaments or ornaments picked up on our travels. We love our shiny little tree which we recycle each year, even though we didn't even know the word "recycle" when we bought it--we just didn't like the idea of throwing away a once beautiful, but eventually dried out and crumbly tree. - Marie

Think of your holiday decorations as a resource investment. Skip the cheap disposable items and make your purchases something you can use for years to come.

Give From the Hearth and Yard

Green Holiday Action #21

One of the important actions you can take for the planet and yourself is to know the ingredients that go into the food you eat. Palm oil is a common ingredient in packaged foods and even cosmetics and soaps.

While some palm oil is grown in sustainable ways, most is grown on large plantations that are chopped out of important tropical forests. Vast areas of Indonesian forest, vital to plant and animal biodiversity, are lost to supply palm oil for products sold in the U.S. The choices you make when you buy soap products or a box of cookies can have a direct effect on creatures a world away, like wild orangutans. I was surprised when palm oil was an ingredient in my dog's favorite natural dog cookie. For more on orangutan issues: Orangutan Conservancy.

When you give a gift from your own hearth you can make the decisions about ingredients–healthy, local, fresh. Some of my friends make wonderful gifts in their kitchens. For example:

• My friend Brian makes an incredible mustard. I made sure that I was on his Santa list again this year.
  
• Homemade baked goods typically have lower fat levels and calories because they don't include palm oil and fats with a long shelf life.
  
• My lemon tree has a bumper crop this year. With lemons in the market at 50 cents a piece, a bag of lemons in a repurposed net bag has been a welcome gift for many of my friends and neighbors.
  
• I tried a new recipe and made a cranberry liquor. People are asking to be on that Santa list for next year. But don't tell my sister, because I made it as a gift for her.

When you give from your hearth, you give from your heart and you make the choice for that heart to be green.

For more Green Gift ideas:

• Shopping On-line
• Trim Your Gift Shopping List
• Give Experiences
  
• Green Holiday Gifts
• Recycled Gifts
• Give From the Heart
• Recycling Electronics and Saving Gorillas
• A Better Way to Carry Water
  

Classic Holiday Fun - A Christmas Carol

Green Holiday Action #20

How about a party that is low in impact and high on Holiday Spirit. Friends of ours, Douglas and Rosanne, started this party tradition four years ago.

A group of us gets together to read Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol aloud for a live audio production on the Internet. Not only is this a different kind of interactive event, the kids that have participated are growing up to be exceptional readers and confident public speakers. They started out doing sound effects - chains and creaking doors. Now they read and for our Halloween Ghost Stories reading this year, they came with their own material.

You can listen to A Christmas Carol LIVE or even participate via the Internet. We will be live at 3 PM Pacific Standard Time.

To Download the mp3 file of the audio: Reading of A Christmas Carol

You can also watch the video captured live on uStream.tv.

Watch the 4th Annual Reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"


To listen to previous audio productions check out Eclipse-1 Media.

Party Dishware Dilemma

Green Holiday Action #19

Party planning always brings into question whether to use paper, plastic or dishware that needs washing.

Plastic is out. Some plastic can be washed and reused. But in the end, it is still plastic. There are some new products made from biodegradable plant starches that do offer a disposable option. Unfortunately, they aren't always easy to find.

For napkins, I went with cocktail napkins made from 100% recycled paper - 50% post consumer - with water based inks. And better yet, they were made in the U.S. Do they have pictures of snowmen or poinsettias? No. But they are neutral with a leaf pattern.

In the end I decided to use my stainless steel silverware and some restaurant grade glass plates leftover from my days as a caterer. These glass plates are durable, go with everything and wash easily.

I also decided to use small dishwasher-safe glass wine glasses for everyone, even the kids. (P.S. no breakage and glass actually made everyone pay more attention to their drinks. 50+ people and no spills.)

Yes, I will be using water to wash my dishware, but I think it was my greenest choice. Maybe next year my holiday party will have an island theme and we'll have everyone eat off of banana leaves.

The holiday tree is live.

Decorations all came from yard cuttings and trimmed pine boughs.

P.S. All those people generated only one small bag of trash and a large container of recyclables. The best part, we collected donations for a charity.

The Dickens, You Say

Holiday Green Action #18

"Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it."
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Here's a lovely green suggestion from my husband Michael:

Try a true candlelight dinner! Through most of our history, we lived under available light - sunrise to just several hours after sunset. Take an evening this year and turn off all of your electric lights. Don't use your appliances except to heat up your dinner. Use a candle, or a small RECHARGEABLE light source to illuminate only what you need, not the whole house. It'll get you in the holiday mood and save you some money, as well. You'll wind up going to bed earlier and getting more sleep! - Michael

Our Holiday Party a few years ago was lit only by candlelight. It was beautiful and very relaxing. Use common sense when lighting with candles. Make sure nothing flammable is near open flames. Provide at least 4 feet of open air above burning candles, otherwise you may have the opportunity to visualize carbon as it appears as soot on walls or ceilings.

To get into a holiday mood, join in a:

Live Reading of Dickens' A Christmas Carol
December 20, 2009 from 3pm to 5pm – Online Join us live for our 4th annual LIVE reading of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/douglas-e.-welch-live

A Better Way to Carry Water

Green Holiday Action #17

Give up the bottle, the packaged plastic water bottle.

This is a simple and dramatic action you can take to reduce plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

We are very fortunate in the United States. Most of our drinking water is just as clean as the water that can be purchased in plastic bottles. Add in filtration through a modern refrigerator and you have clean water coveted by most of the world. You really don’t appreciate the luxury of available clean water until you travel to places where bottled water is a necessity - Turkey.

But all of those empty individual-serving plastic bottles are a waste problem, not to mention the resources needed to produce them. Recycling helps, but each manufactured bottle is traveling by air or by truck for miles from its bottling origin to get to its point of sales.

Refillable water bottles are everywhere this holiday season. But all bottles are not created equal. Bottles that will maintain the healthy quality of your water are made of stainless steel or copolyester, a new polycarbonate that is free of bisphenol A (BPA for short). A third option is aluminum WITH a copolyester lining. Look for a quality product because your health matters. Name brands like Nalgene (U.S.), Camelback (imported) Klean Kanteen (imported) and others provide information about the materials in their container. You want a bottle that will last through many work days and adventures. The green and orange bottles pictured here have been all the way to outer Mongolia and back.


So drop a hint to your friends and family that a refillable water bottle would be a great gift item for you. You’ll make a difference and maybe they will wonder why you want such a thing. Then you’ll have a second action–passing on the message that it is time to give up the prepackaged plastic water bottle.

Recycling Electronics and Saving Gorillas

Green Holiday Action #16 has a global impact. This is from my friend Laurel who has been working on gorilla conservation:

Lots of folks get new electronics like cell phones as gifts this time of year. Perhaps you could remind them not to throw away their old cell phones, DVD players, GPS's or other electronics that contain coltan and other minerals. They can recycle them instead. - Laurel

(photos courtesy of Laurel Colton)

What does recycling your cell phone or MP3 player have to do with gorillas, African forests and the welfare of millions of people?

Inside your cell phone, personal computer and a variety of small electronic items there are capacitors coated in special minerals with a high tolerance for heat. These minerals reduce the transferal of heat within your appliance. What does this have to do with gorillas? Every resource comes from somewhere.

Columbite and tantalite are two of these rare minerals. In processed form, they may be listed as tantalum on a label. The ore they are refined from goes by the shortened name coltan. Coltan is found primarily in Australia and central Africa. Legal mining in Australia has all but shut down because of the illegal mining in the Congo which is providing artificially inexpensive coltan.

Very much like the blood diamond situation, coltan mining attracts militaries and war lords who use the profits from these precious minerals to fund their activities. Coltan is mined in open pits, destroying normal vegetation. Some of the major mining locations are within previously protected areas like Kahuzi-Biega National Park. This U.N. World Heritage Site is home to one of the last groups of eastern lowland gorillas. With illegal mining activity comes additional cutting down of the forest for building and firewood. Armed parties have driven off park employees and threaten wildlife. The thousands of people digging the minerals require food; protected animals, including gorillas, are hunted for human food. Many of the people working in the mines are children or captives.

We can all play a role in stopping this habitat destruction and human tragedy. These minerals, as well as gold and silver, can all be collected from electronic devices and reused through recycling.

Many cell phone companies will take back your old phone for recycling, but you have to ASK. Find out more about recycling your cell phone or electronics at eco-cell.com and watch the video The Secret Life of Cell Phones

The Enough! Project is working to increase understanding of this issue. Just like with blood diamonds, the worst of the trade can be stopped if major corporations are required to purchase tantalum from legal sources. The Congo Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (HR 4128) is making its way through Congress, you can tell your elected officials you support this legislation through the Enough Project's Action Page

2009 has been the Year of the Gorilla. If you are giving an electronic gift this season, or if you receive one, don't throw away that old device.

Help yourself, the gorilla and the planet by recycling old cell phones and electronics.

For more on coltan mining in Congo:

Go to the FREE screening of Return to Virunga: The Battle to Save the Mountain Gorillas with film maker Stefan Lovgren this Saturday, Dec. 19 at 3:30 PM at:

Hasting's Branch Library 3325 East Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena
Please RSVP to: lmcolton@hotmail.com

Watch the video from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting VIDEO

Coltan mining facts from the Jane Goodall Institute

Support Gorilla Conservation

Two Weeks of Green Holiday Actions

Green Holiday Action #15

Here's a great green gift idea from my friend Kim and her cat Hedley. They've started something new this year:

We have a lot of cats in our family. My sister, my mother, and my mother-in-law all have cats. Rather than buying yet another cat toy, I made donations to a stray cat organization.

What are you doing to make this a Green Holiday Season? Leave a comment or send me an e-mail at 4animalbytes@gmail.com.

How can you have a Greener Holiday Season?

In General

• E Holiday Letters
• Holiday Lights
• Say “No” to Plastic Bags
• Helping Others Understand Global Climate Change
  

Decorating and Wrapping

• Green Holiday Decorations
• Say “No” to the Shiny
• Santa’s Bags
• Christmas Tree? Go Live
  

Gift Giving

• Shopping On-line
• Trim Your Gift Shopping List
• Give Experiences
  
• Green Holiday Gifts
• Recycled Gifts
• Give From the Heart

Give from Your Heart

Green Holiday Action #14

The Greenest gift is one that is directly from your heart to someone else.

When you write a poem or a story, compose music or a song, or create artwork for someone, you are giving a gift of the mind and soul.

My mother carved this stone bear for us as a gift.

Frequently, I stop short of doing this because I am afraid of rejection. But whenever I have been courageous and given a gift of the mind, it has always been deeply appreciated.

Here is a poem for all of you busily juggling everyday life this Holiday Season.


The Cure
There's a cure
For breathless days
For scattered minds
Schedules that never end

A balm for lives spread thin
Minds turned in
Feet that no longer hug the ground

Pick something
From bush or tree
From earth or stream
Clutch firmly in your hand

Smell the miracle of growing things
Sink your teeth into terrestrial texture
Savor the taste of timelessness

Pick something
from its earthly womb
and eat it


- Keri Dearborn 2009

For other Green Holiday Gift ideas see:

• Green Holiday Gifts
• Recycled Gifts
  
• Give Experiences