Eco-Conscious Christmas Decorations That Will Reduce Your Carbon Footprint This Holiday Season

When many of us think of the holiday season, conservation is often the last thing on our minds. It’s hard to deny that the holidays are a time of massive consumption. In addition to purchasing and receiving large numbers of gifts, many of us leave our homes lit up 24/7 and regularly sit down to sumptuous feasts. However, while Christmastime is synonymous with indulgence, it’s entirely possible to have a spectacular holiday season while reducing your carbon footprint. Eco-conscious Christmas decorations looking to enjoy an Earth-friendly holiday would do well to consider the following décor tips.

Energy-Efficient Christmas Lights

Eye-catching outdoor lighting displays are among the foremost staples of Christmas time. However, given how long these displays are left on, it’s in the best interest of both the environment and your personal finances that you prioritize energy efficiency when searching for the right Christmas lights. Furthermore, make a point of turning off these lights during daylight hours. Since these displays are meant to be viewed after the sun has gone down, leaving them on throughout the day serves no purpose other than to waste energy.

Recycled Paper Ornaments

It just wouldn’t be Christmastime without ornaments. Whether they’re adorning your tree, hallways or communal areas, the right ornaments can imbue any area of your home with a distinctly Christmas-y feel. However, as anyone who regularly purchases ornaments can attest, they typically don’t come cheap. High-end ornaments can easily cost somewhere in the area of $20 to $50 apiece, and when you consider how many ornaments most homes have, you’re looking at quite the expense. Luckily, there’s a convenient way to cut back on ornament costs while doing your part for the environment.

By upcycling the paper from books and magazines your family no longer reads, you can create a bevy of holiday ornaments. With a steady supply of paper and some basic art supplies, you can turn your home into a veritable winter wonderland for pennies. Of course, this isn’t to say that your options are limited to paper. Cardboard can be used in conjunction with upcycled paper to create homemade ornaments on the scale of nothing you’d find in stores.

As an added bonus, ornament creation can be the perfect holiday activity for adults and children alike. So, if your little ones enjoy flexing their creative muscles, take care to include them in this activity.

Toilet Roll Reindeer

Creating their own ornaments isn’t the only holiday-themed crafting activity your kids are sure to love. Putting together toilet roll reindeer can provide your entire family with hours of Christmastime fun and facilitate the creation of endearing holiday décor. As the name suggests, toilet roll reindeer are created using toilet paper rolls – although any sort of paper towel roll will do – and a small assortment of commonplace art supplies. Additionally, depending on how ambitious you and your little ones are, these reindeer can run the gamut from cartoony to realistic. While some toilet roll reindeer are just heads, others have full bodies and proportions that reflect their real-life counterparts.

Reusable Trees

While once considered something of a joke, reusable Christmas trees have become increasingly commonplace in recent years. This is another eco-conscious Christmas decoration thing that you should think about. Decorations Frankly, given the cost of high-quality authentic trees, it isn’t hard to see why. Compared to shelling out cash for a new tree every year, paying a flat fee for an artificial tree that can be used for many years is simply more economical. However, this isn’t to say that artificial trees are completely eco-friendly.

In addition to being created in factories, many artificial trees are shipped from overseas, which entails a fair amount of fossil fuel usage. In the interest of minimizing the carbon footprint used in the creation of artificial trees, make a point of purchasing trees created from recycled and/or organic materials.

Excess is often synonymous with the holiday season. Not only do many of us spend a tremendous amount on gifts, we also go all-out when it comes to food and décor. For many families, enjoying Christmastime without seasonal decorations simply isn’t an option. However, this doesn’t mean you’ll need to break the bank or increase your household’s carbon footprint in service of getting your home ready for the holidays. Families looking to keep things environmentally-friendly this holiday season can benefit from the décor options discussed above.

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