Have a Green Christmas this year!

I'm trying to have a green Christmas,
save money, reduce my carbon footprint,
and have a more eco friendly and sustainable
holiday season!

Christmas Cards
I'm making my own cards, using recycled
paper when I can, next year I plan on
making my own paper.

Holiday meals
Remember for your holiday meals, shop locally
and buy what's in season!

Packaging and wrapping materials
Try and save boxes throughout the year to
reuse at Christmas. Use your imagination and be
creative! If you can't recycle paper there
are many places you can buy recycled paper
products! (it's less expensive if you save it).

Gifts
Lets face it, most of us give something
we'd either love ourselves, or if you're
like me, anguish over the perfect item for
that hard to buy for person in your life.

For me, there's only one way to shop, keeping a
'Green Christmas' in mind,(unless someone has
asked for a high tech gift), there
isn't a reason why a person, couldn't shop
early and find the perfect gift for everyone
on their list, from their local
thrift store! Seriously! The prices are great too!
I've dressed my granddaughters and for
that matter myself, except for undies,(for
which I prefer new), from our local Thrifty's!

Christmas is a wonderful time to start living green!
What does 'eco friendly' mean to YOU?
I understand 'buying green' or 'going green' mean
different things to each individual, I believe,
if each of us is making an effort,
even better, if we're doing all we can possibly
do as an individual, to reduce 'OUR OWN CARBON FOOTPRINT' , we're being eco friendly.
Some of us reduce, and therefore someone else
benefits from that, by reusing the
found items the other person decided to
give away. Some clever artsy people repurpose items
giving new life to an unwanted item for themselves,
or to sell. They may even make a living by doing this
and keep these repurposed/upcycled things out of
our monstrous landfills!
All of these 'eco conscious' ideas would
be wonderful to keep in mind this
holiday season.
So when you make your lists, look around
your home first, then check out your local
thrift stores or consignment shops, they're
full of new and almost new items 'YOU' would
love for the people on your list!

If each of us did a little more
to reduce our consumption, and reuse the things
we have just a little longer, and try and
repurpose what we can to make it do.
I believe we'd get more fullfilment
out of giving this holiday season!
The life lesson our children would learn from our
lead, about what the true spirit of Christmas really is,
and how we're working towards being better stewards
of this beautiful Earth, is truely the "BEST GIFT"
we can give them.

"Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or do without"