A renewable green Christmas

There are a lot of great things about Christmas; the look on your child’s face when he tears open the gift wrapping to see the Star Wars Lego set he’s been asking for, the mouthwatering smell and sight of your family’s Noche Buena spread, the twinkling Christmas lights and jolly Christmas music. There’s no doubt that Christmas is certainly the most wonderful time of the year.

But unfortunately, it is certainly the most wasteful time of the year as well.

If you’re looking to reduce your contributions to our wastes and pollution this Christmas, here are six tips you can follow:

Recycle decorations.

Let’s be real: you don’t really need to keep buying new sets of Christmas decorations every year unless they’re broken or destroyed. Save your decorations for next Christmas and add your own creative twist to it if you really want next Christmas’ theme to be different.

On that note, only buy and make food you can finish.

You absolutely do not need a Noche Buena for the Holy Family and the Three Kings if you’re only two or three in the house. Don’t give in to the pressure of having a mountain of food on Christmas day – only purchase and cook what your family can finish to minimize waste and leftovers. Additionally, when food shopping, choose items that are light on packaging and use your eco-bags to bag your products.

Use LED lights.

Traditional Christmas lights might be pretty, but unfortunately they take up a lot of energy. LED lights on the other hand use 80% less energy and last as much as ten times longer than your usual incandescent bulbs. You won’t have to worry about losing holiday spirirt as LED lights come in many colors and designs as well.

Transform your Christmas leftovers.

Accidentally made too much Christmas ham or fruit salad? Don’t toss it out! Scour the internet for leftover transforming recipes and use up all your leftovers until they’re finished. You might be eating different versions of hamonado every day, but it’s better than wasting perfectly good food and contributing to our rotting landfills. But if you really don’t feel like thinking of creative ways to sneak your Christmas embudito or roast chicken stuffing into your meals, you can always donate your leftovers to those in need.

Better yet, give homemade gifts!

Homemade gifts require little to no wrapping and they’re more personal and intimate than store bought gifts. You could give your friends and family baked goods and food items in tupperwares, paintings, photographs, ceramics, knitwear, ornaments, and just about anything under the sun that you can make. Now’s your chance to use your hobbies and pasttimes to create things for the people you love – with little to no waste.

Wrap your gifts in eco-friendly gift wrapping.

You can:

• Buy gift wrap made from recycled materials

• DIY your own gift wrap using cloth, fabric, newspaper, or manila paper

• Use eco-bags or gift bags made from recycled materials

• Reuse old boxes, tins, and cans Additionally, instead of using Christmas cards for your gifts, try writing on the wrapping or container instead.