Dreaming of a Green Christmas

After going on vacation to New Orleans last week, and not wanting to decorate until we got back, we got a bit of a late start on our 2010 holiday decorating, but here it finally is. Our colors are green, cream, copper, gold & silver for the most part. These are the colors we love and that go well with our house.

So real tree or fake tree? People are always asking me which one is more sustainable. That and paper plates vs. washing real plates. We always buy a real tree for several reasons,

1. Trees provide habitat, oxygen, carbon sequestering, shade, and beauty for their entire life cycle. A real tree has an opportunity to contribute all of these things to the environment while it grows.

2. Real Christmas trees are farmed, often locally, and cutting them down does not contribute to deforestation.

3. Real trees can be recycled into mulch after the holiday. Most cities even have curbside programs for this!

4. Fake trees are made of dangerous plastic chemicals(PVC)  that pose a threat to the workers who make them as well as to the environment. They're pretty toxic.

5. Fake trees are made in overseas and shipped here creating pollution all along the way.

6. We love the look and smell of a real tree.

This year we got another little noble fir since they are my favorite. I love their tiered branches and naturally woodsy look.

Our Little Noble

With Lights and a Curious Persephone

Persephone Plotting

Ornament Made by {re}cork'd

Complete with ornaments but minus gifts since I hadn't wrapped them yet.

We have lots of bird ornaments.

Copper skeleton leaves I've made into ornaments. 

Another bird ornament.

We decided to do an angel as a topper this year instead of last year's owl.

Minimal Dining Room Decor

Another great {re}cork'd creation. 

Minimal decor on our TV stand.

We don't have a fireplace, but a vanilla candle works just as well right? We use soy candles since other candles are made with petroleum and contribute to indoor air pollution. 

Another tv stand detail. 

Living room in a complete disaster as I prepare to start wrapping gifts. Persephone had other ideas. That's her swatting some paper. 

Some of our holiday greetings.

Our recycled paper and soy ink Christmas cards. I also picked some toyon at work to add some natural elements to our decor.

The tree complete with gifts. 

Coordinating and recycled wrapping paper. 

90% of our gifts this year came from Etsy. It was important to us to skip the low quality, massed produced junk shipped from across the globe and instead we purchased all kinds of great things for the people on our list from  jewelry and handmade soaps and candles, to items specific to hobbies. I'll post a complete list once everyone has opened their gifts and let you know how they liked them.

So we green our Christmas by buying a real tree, decorating with nature, using found and existing decorations,  using recycled paper and real (reusable) ribbons for some of the gifts and sending recycled holiday cards.

Happy Holidays!