We're Dreaming of a "Green" Christmas

The holidays are a time for giving—we give presents, cards, food and our time to those we love. We at Lobster Press believe that it’s also important to give back to the planet during the holiday season! So in conjunction with our interview with author Tim O’Shei, we came up with three “eco-friendly” holiday crafts to add some cheer to your holiday season!

1. Make your own holiday gift-wrap!
   Use newspaper or brown wrapping paper and decorate it with your own designs. For a cool twist, cut cookie cutter shapes out of sponges to dip in paint, or use old holiday cards as decoration. Pick your favourite holiday card shapes and glue them to your presents. For another cool “green” twist, use these holiday card shapes as gift tags for presents.

More tips:

• Instead of buying wrapping paper this year, stick to gift boxes and gift bags (which can be reused)!

• Buy string, yarn or fabric ribbon for presents. Reuse them next season!

2. Make your own decorations!
   Start by cutting out pieces of cardboard from old boxes. Make them around four inches tall. Cover the cardboard in reused aluminium foil. Then, cut out your favourite images from old holiday greeting cards. Using these images, paste them onto the cut-outs. Punch a hole through the new ornament, put string through and voila: brand new ornaments for the tree or to hang along the fireplace

More tips:

• Instead of buying traditional ornaments made from glass, stick to handmade ornaments… these are generally made from earth materials (which are biodegradable).

• Buy a live tree… as crazy as it sounds, live trees are grown for this purpose. They’re also biodegradable whereas fake trees are not.

3. Make Holiday Streamers
   Take a fabric ribbon and place your family’s favourite holiday greeting cards along the strip. This can be hung from doorframes, along the fireplace, or the windowsill. To add more flair to this new decoration, you can decorate the ribbon itself. Using the cookie cutter sponge shapes from the gift-wrapper idea, stamp the ribbon with these images.

More tips:

• Buy the new LED holiday lights. These last longer and don’t use as much energy.