Eco-Friendly Christmas Decoration Tips and Ideas

This Christmas, you can save money and be Earth friendly with these great decorating tips and ideas. It's important to be Earth friendly. Not only does it save money, but it also is very beneficial to the environment; and most of all- you! To save money in electricity expenses, and keeping your Christmas lights lasting even longer, use LED lights for decorating. LED lights are made of semi-conducting material, instead of incandescent filaments. Using LED lights is 90 percent more efficient than using traditional Christmas lights. LED lights also last longer. They release little or no heat, and if one goes out, the rest will keep glowing! This is great, because it gets frustrating going through a whole strand of Christmas lights to find which one is burnt out. Also, you may want to put a timer on your lights, or turn them off while you are asleep- this will save you even more energy and money. There are also solar-powered Christmas lights available for purchase this year as well. These are great for outdoor Christmas lighting, and will also save you even more energy and money!

Use recycled material to make Christmas ornaments out of. Instead of throwing away old materials such as Cd's, that can be reused to create something, cut them in to shapes for ornaments, or use them to make photo ornaments. This is a great idea if you are looking to make your own ornaments this year. CD ornaments look amazing next to a Christmas tree. The lights reflect off of the Cd's and make these handmade ornaments stand out even more. For a how-to on these CD ornaments, and more Photo ornament ideas, see here..

Make edible Christmas garland. Christmas garland can be made out of pretty much anything. This includes edible foods, such as:Cherri-o's, cranberries, popcorn, fruit loops, and more! Be creative. Most of these edible garlands are pretty simple for you or your kids to make. All you need is a needle, some fishing line or thread, and the food! Just string the food onto the thread, and when you're done make sure to double knot the ends. Then, decorate! It's as simple as that. When the holidays are over, you might not want to eat this food- but it's a nice treat for the birds, squirrels, or pet to nibble on.

Find items at your local park or woods. The parks around the area in which I live in are filled with pine cones lying all over the ground. These make nice garlands, wreaths, ornaments, or center piece beddings. Around Christmas time, I take my kids to the park, and we find pine cones and leafless branches lying on the ground. We take these home and I gather the branches and tie them together in a circular shape. This will be the base for my door wreath. I hot glue gun the pine cones and other decorative accents I might find onto the base of the wreath. I also tie a ribbon at the top for more of a Holiday look. These wreaths I make cost me next to nothing, and make a great gift as well.

Make Christmas Ornaments out of your old Christmas cards. Cut out some of the images from Christmas cards that you've kept over the years (You kept them, right?), and make some cute ornaments out of them! It's simple, and all you need is a hole puncher, some felt or construction paper to back them with, glue, some ribbon, and the picture! This is a great idea, especially if you are looking for something simple to make, and very cute. Why keep old Christmas cards, when you can turn them into ornaments, and keep them on your tree?

Make Christmas ornaments out of small stuffed animals.

Buying Your Christmas Tree For The Year. Deciding on whether or not to buy an artificial tree that will last year after year, or a real tree for the holiday, which can be later on recycled into mulch, is always a hard decision to make. There are pros and cons both ways. Buying an artificial tree will last you years and years, and also will eliminate your yearly car trip to the Christmas tree farm. But of course, there are cons with even buying an artificial tree. It takes large quantities of fossil fuel in the course of it's production, and on the other hand, when it goes to the landfill it takes millennia to biodegrade.

When you purchase a real tree, it's both good and bad for the environment as well. The real tree releases much carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere during the cutting process, and if (hopefully not) burned in your back yard after-wards. The best idea when you purchase a real tree would to find tree recycling centers to recycle your tree into something more useful, instead of disposing of the tree in the landfill. I would suggest going to the National Christmas Tree Association web site, or Earth 911. These websites will provide you with information about the tree recycling center locations around you. Do not use tinsel or spray your tree with fake snow, because these cannot be recycled.

Gingerbread Christmas Ornaments. Gingerbread Christmas ornaments are a great idea for cheap and creative Christmas ornaments! They smell and look like real gingerbread cookies. Don't eat them though, because these are meant to be ornaments, and become extremely hard after baking.This recipe was meant to be used for ornaments.

You'll need:
-Shortening
-Sugar
-Molasses
-Baking soda
-Ground cloves
-Ginger
-Cinnamon
-Flour
-Water
-Cookie cutters
-Ribbon

Step 1) Mix sugar and shortening in a large bowl. Beat the mixture and stir in molasses.
Step 2) In a separate bowl, sift baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, flour, and ground cloves together. Stir this mixture, plus a few tablespoons of water into the sugar and shortening mixture.
Step 3) Stir until mixed very thoroughly. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours.
Step 4) Preheat oven to 350.
Step 5) Cut dough into 3 different sections. Knead each piece lightly and use a rolling pin to roll out each to a 1/4 inch thickness.
Step 6) You can use holiday cookie cutters to form shapes of gingerbread people or houses.
Step 7) Take a medium sized drinking straw or the end of a chopstick to make a hole at the top of each shape.
Step 8) Bake cookies on cookie sheets for about 20 minutes. Turn off oven and allow cookies to cool and harden in the oven.
Place cookies on racks to completely harden. Place them in a cool dry place, and let sit for two to three days.
Step 9) Decorate as desired. Be creative!
Step 10) When dry and finished, take desired length of ribbon and string them through the holes in your new gingerbread ornaments.