Have Green Christmas

We stand in the midst of holiday season. Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanzaa are around the corner. It's odd how that corner gets closer every year. This means more time to celebrate and enjoy the festivities. Are you willing to take small steps to make it a greener Christmas? Regardless of whether you've been green for a few months or taken ecological care for years, there's always the next step we can take in our commitment to conserve our resources and respect our planet.

Green holiday ideas:

• Buy energy-saving "LED" holiday lights. Now you can decorate your house with LED lights that use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights, and can save your family up to $50 on your energy bills during the holiday season! LED lights are available at many major retailers, including Target, CostCo, and Ace Hardware. * Source the Sierra Club

• Make your own wrapping paper from items in your home - maybe some old fabric.

• Wrap gifts with a gift such as scarves, handkerchiefs or bandannas. Wrap with old posters and maps or pages from a child's coloring book taped together (especially nice for relatives who would enjoy the artwork). Use old sheet music, home-sewn cloth bags or wallpaper scraps.

• Give gift memberships to green organizations for presents such as The Sierra Club http://www.sierraclub.org/ , Green America http://www.greenamericatoday.org/ or http://webecoist.com/2008/09/24/25-environmental-agencies-and-organizations/ ( a list of 25 environmental organizations).

• Give gifts to charities rather than to your spouse. My husband and I give a donation to a cause on holidays, anniversaries and birthdays, usually in lieu of a personal gift. We already have too much stuff and if either of us needs anything we just buy it as needed.

• Buy fair trade items. This assures the people involved in the production were not harmed, the earth was not harmed and the people who manufactured or crafted the item received fair wages.

• Buy carbon offsets to cover your holiday travel http://www.carbonfund.org/

• Buy eco friendly gifts such as things made of bamboo or recycled glass. Give cloth napkins.

• Pack gifts in popcorn with a note inside asking the recipient to feed it to the birds.

Let's be creative about being green. It's fun to get on the bandwagon and feel as if we're making a difference.

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 2009 Montgomery County Democratic Party Newsletter.