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21 eco-friendly Christmas tips: Decorations (15-18)

How to ease off the rampant consumerism without seeming a bit of a Scrooge at Christmas. Our 21 cockle-warming tips for a greener festive season.. Decorations

Most of us love a bit of festive decoration and fancy wrapping, and who doesn’t like getting Christmas cards? But research suggests that the paper waste over the Christmas period is equivalent to 5-12 million litres of biofuel – enough to power a bus to go to the moon 20 times.

So why not recycle or make your own Christmas decorations? It’s a great excuse to have fun, and keep kids busy, if there’s any around. You can also try getting creative with dried fruit peel, pine cones, Christmas tree offcuts and the like.

15. Green gift wrapping

Support Friends of the Earth by buying our eco-friendly set of 10 recycled newspaper gift bags. Or use newspapers or magazines saved from your recycling – the more colourful the better.

16. Cut your card footprint

An unbelievable 1.5 billion Christmas cards are thrown away by UK households each year, according to Imperial College researchers.

E-cards (sent online) are an increasingly popular alternative. They cut your carbon footprint, save trees and save money – see Friends of the Earth’s free e-cards.

If you do prefer to buy paper cards, take a look at our eco-friendly Christmas cards range.

17. Decorations

A lot of decorations – sadly including staples like tinsel and glitter – are made from plastic, often PVC. They’re hardly environmentally-friendly. The Friends of the Earth shop stocks some eco-friendly and Fairtrade Christmas goodies – including:

  • Christmas stockings made from recycled sari fabric;
  • felt dove and robin decorations;
  • recycled sari bunting;
  • distressed glass baubles;
  • and a cloth advent calendar kit.

If you’re using fairy lights, make sure you get LED ones – they’re the most energy-efficient. And put them on a timer so they’re not on all day.

18. Have a DIY crafty Christmas

How do you fancy creating your own edible Christmas decorations , or a homemade Advent calendar , or even making a natural Christmas wreath  from carefully foraged materials?

 

 

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