The ho-ho-ho: We gave a lot of gifts in reusable tins, bought gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, zoo animal sponsorships and hockey tickets in lieu of giving people more stuff (none of the kids in our life got toys), and composted every last scrap of paper and waste from the Christmas feast.
The coal in the stocking: I still used wrapping paper -- actual, bona fide wrapping paper -- on some presents. Although I got rid of some of the guilt by forgoing the usual schmancy additions and tacking on a brightly-painted, wooden stocking as a name tag, the guilt over the wrapping paper, she lingers. And then there's the e-commerce question: because we have many far-flung friends and relatives, I did some online ordering and let the merchants handle the shipping issue. But that's not exactly green, is it?
Overall, I'd give our efforts a C -- we did adequately, but there's always room for improvement. How about your holiday?
I compromised where I could. I also used some wrapping paper -- though I did wrap my mother's present in a page from a magazine that had pretty flowers on it. Instead of buying my own roll for just a couple presents, I used the paper and tags my fiance's father already had handy. This either makes me green or cheap; maybe both.
I got a couple of presents, Wii games, used instead of new. I got some others from independent artisans instead of major retailers. Some of the presents we handed out were consumables, like chocolate and tea, so we know they'll be used and enjoyed. I mailed all the presents for my family in one box instead of sending several to separate addresses. And we got the father-in-law a gift certificate to a local playhouse instead of another doodad he doesn't need.
But I also bought new electronics for people, got cards instead of making them myself, used some e-shopping. So it wasn't perfect by any means, but I was trying to keep improvements in mind. Hopefully that helped.
Posted by: drunken monkey | 2007.12.27 at 17:54
I just bought a butt-load of 100% recycled, soy-ink holiday wrapping paper on clearance that I'll use next year (and quite possibly the year after--I really bought a lot). Yay!
DM, I am right with you on the green-and-cheap thing.
Posted by: Polly | 2007.12.28 at 09:43
I'd say I had a moderately Green Christmas. I did some good reducing, reusing, and recycling. It's hard for me to cut back at Christmas -- even though there's a lot of obvious excess it can make me feel a little Scroogey-Grinchy.
Like, this year I didn't bring any food to Christmas Eve at my mother's house. I knew there would be vastly more food than we could possibly eat, but I still hated to show up empty-handed (that is, empty-handed except for the presents and the two bottles of wine). I did make a pumpkin pie for another Christmas event, and I used local pumpkin from my CSA.
I didn't buy any new wrapping paper, although I did get a couple of reusable gift-card tins, one of which has already been re-used twice that I know of. I wrapped some of my presents in previously-used brown paper. My gifts were fairly low-impact -- handmade stuff and gift cards that I know will get used, and Kiva gift certificates.
On the other hand, I ate more meat during the week between Christmas Eve and the 30th than I had in the two months previous (I'm trying the "flexitarian" thing), and I received some excessive gifts. I travelled more than usual (though I successfully fought the urge to rent a car, so it was all train and carpool). There was plenty of excess, all around. I think my project for next year will be to somehow convince my mother to make less food for Christmas Eve.
Posted by: Kyle | 2008.01.01 at 06:58