I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas

I grew up addicted to paper. Luscious cards, velvety papers, indulgent gift wraps. In my house, gift wrap was a sort of status symbol and Christmas cards were always sent out to all 100+ of the extended family. Needless to say, Christmas is a very eco-unfriendly time of the year.

I was sitting down wrapping presents the other night and I cringed at the thought of the number of boxes that will not be reused (all of the ones we have are reused since, oh, I don't know, 2003), the bags that will just be trashed, and the paper that will not be recycled. It almost made me cry.

So I spent the night cutting old Christmas cards into cute gift tags, using salvaged tissue paper from other shipments/gifts, and checking the post-consumer recycled content of my wrapping papers. When we unwrapped presents (Jeff *said* we could!), I salvaged what I could and recycled the remainder.

It got me thinking how we could continue on a green Christmas. I now have some presents wrapped in fabric bandanas, I'm using yarn scraps in those clear glass ornaments to dress them up, and we haven't sent cards out (okay, so that's also procrastination, but let it never be said that being a slacker isn't occasionally eco-friendly). I'd like to, someday, switch back to a real Christmas tree. They are more eco-friendly - they're grown specifically for that purpose, so they don't contribute to deforestation, they don't have a manufacturing process like the artificial ones do (and who knows what the impact of *that* is), they provide wildlife habitats until they are cut down, they provide oxygen and CO2 reduction while they are alive, and they can be chipped into mulch when they retire. A wonderful cycle. If I could just figure out how to get rid of our fake tree...

I know there are other ways of reducing the impact, some of which I already employ. Giving experiences instead of gifts (like tickets to a game instead of a team hoodie), sending emailed cards (okay, I think this is tacky, but maybe it'll grow on me), thrifting for presents (guilty as charged), not wrapping presents (can't bring myself to do that), reducing wrapping (I started by buying a to/from stamp so we don't waste a tag/sticker), and countless others. But for now, we'll start where we are, and hope to improve next year.