Holiday decorating at its best and worst

I think tree farms are probably the best source of x-mas trees, because they're grown every year specifically for that purpose.  If you're cutting down a tree from your backyard, are you going to replace it?

Probably the worst option is buying an artificial tree because of some of the chemicals involved, and eventually it's just going to end up as waste in a landfill.

A nice discussion of real vs. fake trees here.

As for most eco unfriendly decorations, I hate to be a fuddy duddy, but generally speaking the houses with a bazillion lights and ornaments with motors and moving parts suck down a lot of unnecessary energy.

And as for the greenest, a great alternative to those are solar lighting.  You can put down a bunch of solar x-mas lights and not waste any energy at all.  Or at least get LEDs.

After being inspired by some of the threads here on Huddler, I've been saving up all my junk mail to be used for gift wrapping - I think that'll be fun to try.

...junk mail for gift wrap!?!  Love it!!!  You should take a picture of one and send it to the sender of the mail and let them know "how useful" their junk mail was.  LOL!!! 

We have been getting real trees for the last 16 years of our marriage... but this year the wife convinced me that maybe an artificial one is our best bet.  So we are trying it out.  I know - I know ... let the lashings begin.  OW!!!  OUCH!!! UGH!!! 

Real have gotten very expensive down here in Orange County, and ALL the trees are shipped in from as far away as Oregon and such... so not all that green an option.  AND we have not found any in our area that are plantable afterwards.  My Mom's artificial tree lasted 20 years before it finally was beyond repair.  I doubt this one will last THAT long, but we will hopefully make it last several years.  It is usually very dry here so there is the whole "fire hazard" issue of real trees as well.

FYI - our area does have a program that Waste Management accepts the used real trees curbside (so it is easy) for pickup and mulching for use by the county landscaping crews.

OW!!! Enough with the lashings already!!!!!!  :-0

Growing up, my brother was allergic to most evergreens, so we always had fake trees.  We used the same one until I was in high school, then got a new one and they have been using that for the past 10 years or so.  Since I've been on my own, I have decorated a fake ficus that is in my living room, but lately, I've started a new tradition.  I buy a potted tree, use it, then depending on the size I might keep it for a few years, and when it is too big, I plant it.  This year I bought a Norfolk Island pine tree from Sam's club, not at all organic and sadly, for some reason they had sprayed it with glitter, but it was only $15 and it is about 4 ft. tall.  It looks very healthy though and I love its shape.  I don't use lights really, I just use ornaments and ribbon.  Most of the ornaments are home made and others were gifts. 

I also love candles and it is a perfect time to light them during the holidays.  It gives the room a nice warm glow and allows you to turn off the lights for a couple of hours.

I make quite a few of my gifts for people, but some people are so difficult and I mostly buy online.  The good part about that is I get boxes and lots of packing paper.  Anytime I order something, I flatten out the packing paper and keep it in the closet until I need to wrap something.  The brown and white papers are perfect because you can draw on them.  That means the same paper can be good for birthdays and holidays, whatever your imagination decides.  I like to draw holly branches on the presents for Christmas, acrylic paint, markers, sharpies, crayons, it all works.

One last thing, as I said, I don't really use lights, just seems like a waste of money for me, but at my office they bought some LEDs.  They are gorgeous, they flicker between blue and white and they use a fraction of the electricity by far.  (I think those are also from Sam's)

And I forgot to mention, Waste Management picks up our used real trees too.  The Arkansas Game and Fish uses them for fish habitats I think, they put them in the rivers and lakes last I heard.

So first let's talk Christmas trees...(no lashings, SoCal!  Maybe a tsk tsk though.  :-) )

I've been doing a little research.  As we know most artificial trees are made in China and made with PVC...so it's definitely not ideal when it comes to manufacturing, as well as when it comes to PVC off-gassing.  But either way, I'm sure there are quite a few ways to green your trees...and so!  I started this wiki all about greening fake and real Christmas Trees.

As far as other decorations...my family tends to use the same ones we always have.  Back when my brother and I were kids, my mom would take us to make stuff out of clay.  We also made a lot of things out of felt (both to decorate our home and to give away as presents)....I think my favorite is still this little door hanging decoration (basically it's ribbon with cut-out felt trees and felt hearts glued on alternately).

For wrapping paper...I usually either try to go with gift bags or I go with brown paper bags (which I tend to cut apart and draw on, similar to srj)...but I think I might have to start collecting packing paper as that's probably a tad more elegant looking than the inside of paper bags.....for small gifts, it's fun to use magazine pages too (I particularly gravitate to the nature magazines for that one).

For years I've been moving away from many of the traditions of Christmas. The more I think about what it has become the less fun it is. We went from the house that could be seen from space to a simple single stand of white lights across the front with ribbons and a 6' fake tree in the front room to last year where we put a wreath and a few large ribbons outside and had a 2' tall potted evergreen with a single present for each member of the family. I make sure to spend time with family members, we cook and bake together we share photos and stories, and in general reconnect with those that we havn't made time for during the rest of the year. This year we decided to only buy gifts for the children, we had reduced gift giving to shopping with the person or exchanging gift cards for many people on our lists. So this year the only people I will shop for are my neice and nephews and my son. I will try to keep the environment in mind while shopping. I ususlly give gifts of experiences, a trip to a formal tea house, a special show, tickets to museums etc. I have also spent a good amount of time canning and freezing items from my garden and the farmers markets which I will share with friends and family.

I will use old maps for wrapping paper for the few gifts that I have, I also like to use reusable grocery bags as a gift bag.

That's a great idea!  I hadn't thought of using maps before.  I added it to the holiday waste wiki.