Is decorating for Christmas a highlight of the season for you? It is for me. I think holiday decorating can be environmentally friendly and fun.
If you read last week’s post, Free Yourself from Christmas Consumerism, you might be surprised by this one. One week I am urging readers to consider opting out of exchanging Christmas gifts and the next week I am promoting Christmas decorations. What is up with that?
I Would Rather Decorate than Exchange Christmas Gifts
From a purely environmental perspective, buying Christmas decorations and displaying them year after year is substantially less harmful to the planet than buying and exchanging gifts every year. In addition, exchanging Christmas gifts can be a stressful, exasperating, and expensive activity so opting out might be the best gift you can give yourself and everyone else on your list.
Decorating for Christmas is an activity that you can enjoy doing on your own or with other people. Be kind to the planet by shopping for decorations thoughtfully and buying minimally.
To some people it may seem like environmentalists are always trying to ruin everyone else’s fun by getting things stopped, banned, and prohibited. Others may think that environmentalists want everyone to deprive themselves of the things they find beautiful, delicious, or fun just to save some polar bears in a far distant icy land. Well, polar bears are cool and deserving of our consideration but so is every other living being, including people.
Everyone needs and deserves beauty and joy in their lives, even environmentalists. For some people, like me, decorating for Christmas fulfills that need in some small way.
December is a dark and cold month. In our small town, we do not have streetlights except on the main streets so when it gets dark just after 5:00 p.m. it is indeed dark. At this time of year, it seems like my hands are almost always cold so I often wear fingerless gloves inside. Getting out of bed on cold winter mornings is an act of fortitude. I am already yearning for spring, longer days, and wildflowers.
One way I cheer myself up and renew my spirit is by bringing some color and sparkle into our home in the form of Christmas decorations and a tree (which is the topic of another post). I think taking care of your own well-being is a gift to the people you love.
When January rolls around, I am refreshed and ready to begin a new year.
Below is my take on eco-friendly Christmas decorations. Please feel free to share your own ideas with other readers in the comments section.
Eco-Friendly Christmas Decorating Suggestions
Every time you reuse a Christmas decoration its carbon footprint becomes a little smaller because unlike manufacturing a new decoration, it requires no additional resources or energy and does not create waste. You can find these eco-friendly Christmas decorations in your own garage, antique stores, second-hand shops, and family attics.
Making your own decorations is an environmentally sound and creative endeavor. Give yourself extra eco-credit if you make the decorations using things you already have on hand, recycled components, or foraged natural materials.
There are other ways that you can make your Christmas decorating more eco-friendly even if it involves buying new items that are made mostly with non-renewable materials such as plastic, metal, glass, ceramic, and synthetic fabric.
Minimize First
Unless you are in your first year of buying your own Christmas decorations, you probably already have a collection stashed in your garage or a closet. This month, evaluate what you already own, set aside the items you really, really love, and give away or sell everything else.
Over the past couple of holiday seasons, we have been paring down our Christmas decorations. Divesting ourselves of items that family members and friends have given us has been an agonizing and emotional process. At first, I felt guilty for considering getting rid of things that someone had given me; it was as if I was rejecting that person, which of course is not the case. In the end, I decided that things are just things and that it is okay for me to make decisions about my own belongings.
After you reduce your decoration collection, some vigilance is probably required or you might end up back where you started.
Be Prepared
To me, one of the most dangerous activities this time of year is to go shopping in a store or online unprepared. With so much stuff to buy everywhere, you can easily find yourself putting things in your real or virtual shopping cart that you did not even know you wanted until right then.
Deciding what you want to buy before you hit the stores or log onto the Internet may help you stay focused on that item, which could save you time and money, too. For instance, if you have decided to buy a snow globe, there is no need to be browsing in the wreath section of the store.
I grant you that it is not easy to walk by all the gaily-colored Christmas decorations calling your name, but you increase your odds of ignoring those voices if you are prepared and know what you want.
Be Choosy
Eco-friendly Christmas decorating involves doing it with as little environmental impact as possible, while still enjoying yourself. The more stuff the more impact.
Be very choosy about what you buy. Only purchase items that you really, really like and can envision yourself happily un-boxing and displaying for many years to come. Try to buy quality items that will last.
Beware of decoration churning, which is routinely getting rid of items you own so you can buy new decorations. I am not advocating never getting anything new just suggesting being mindful of what you buy.
Even though I am committed to minimizing the amount of stuff I own, including Christmas decorations, I admit it is challenging.
For instance, I just purchased items to add to my Dickens Village, which is a collection of small buildings, trees, and figurines that I arrange in our dining room bay window each December.
Fortunately, I had decided to buy a new building for my village before I left my house and of the more than fifty on display all saying, “pick me” I selected just one, the honey shop.
If I had walked to the checkout counter at that point, I could be all self-righteous about my shopping self-control, but that is not what happened.
Of course, the honey shop had a companion beekeeper figurine that was sold separately so I had to grab that. Then I noticed a set of four furry animal figurines that would look wonderful gracing my village’s forest so I picked up a box. My self-restraint finally kicked in and I put down the battery-powered streetlights I had been eying.
Why would I share this story of my own not so successful attempt at eco-friendly Christmas decorating? To point out that we are all human. Sometimes we make environmentally sound choices and sometimes we do not.
This holiday season, I hope you will consider minimizing your decorations, preparing before you go shopping, and choosing new decorations carefully.
Merry Christmas!
December 2019 Update: This year I happily decorated with the items I already own. Whew.
Featured Image at Top: Christmas Gnomes Wearing Knitted Sweaters and Hats – Photo Credit iStock/amerto4ka
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- Free Yourself from Christmas Consumerism
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- Which is Greener a Real or Artificial Christmas Tree?
- Winter Solstice is a Time to Pause and Reflect
