December 2023 Tips

4 Sections:
Greening Your Gift Giving
Greening Your Decorating
Greening Your Celebrations
Greening Your Putting Away

“We Three Kings of Orient Are; Bearing Gifts…”

Greening Your Gift Giving

This Christmas season take to heart John Wesley’s Rule for Christian Living: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can!” “Doing good” doesn’t have to be expensive. Be thoughtful about what you give, especially in relation to caring for creation and justice.
 
When you shop online for gifts, check the “About” portion of the website before you buy. Find out what the company is or is not doing to care for creation and justice. Support those sources that help, not harm. Look for 
B Corp and other companies that give back 1% for the planet. 
 
Give Fair Trade presents this Christmas. Buying Fair Trade provides the creators—farmers, laborers, and artisans—fair prices and stable incomes, reduces poverty, creates betters working conditions, and promotes environmentally sustainable practices. It’s a just and good deal for all! If you want to give Fair Trade coffee, explore the Velasquez Family Coffee website (vfamilycoffee.com). 

Choose earth-friendly gifts that keep giving, for example: a shampoo bar, a package of wooden clothes pins to use instead of plastic “chip clips,” jams or other preserves from local farmers, a roll of bamboo toilet paper from Who Gives a Crap, a bracelet made of plastic recovered from an ocean, a bamboo toothbrush, a packet of seeds for native plants or wildflowers. Sustainable presents spark good conversation.
 
Buy children’s gifts with sustainability in mind. Will the toy sustain the child’s interest? Is playing with it 90% kid and 10% toy or 90% toy and only 10% kid? Is it made of sustainable materials? Will it be something that can eventually be passed along to another child? 

Christmas shop without plastic bags. We’ve been learning to take our own reusable bags to the grocery store. The same principle works in retail stores. Carry in your own bags, politely decline the store’s plastic ones, and tell the clerks you are cutting down on single-use plastic. It’s your gift to the planet.

Buying clothes for Christmas gifts, read the labels. Avoid fossil-fuel-based synthetics (polyester, nylon, acrylic, spandex, lycra). When washed, the synthetics release microplastics that enter the water systems and then the food chain, harming marine life and ultimately humans. Choose items made of natural fibers (organic cotton, linen, wool, silk, hemp, bamboo), recycled fibers, or sustainable plant-based Tencel.
 
If giving money is your default, consider purchasing stock on the recipients’ behalf in renewable energy, for example (possibly solar or wind). Add a note that you are investing with hope for their future that they live securely in a sustainable world. Throughout the year, as the stock reports come, the two of you will have opportunity to talk about what you value both in terms of money management and care for the Earth.
 
Thinking big this Christmas? Consider appliances, solar panels, tankless water heater, low-flow water-saving faucets and toilets, replacement windows, additional insulation, LED lights, even an electric car. Prioritize decisions that contribute to energy efficiency. Upgrade your home to care for your other home: Earth.

Give presence, not just presents. Give an adventure—an experience that can be shared, talked about, and remembered long after the usual “stuff” has been covered over in the landfill. 

“Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly…”

Greening Your Decorating

Christmas lights are symbols of the Light that came into the world with the birth of Christ. Enjoy them and use LEDs wherever you can to take care of the world that Jesus lit up with his presence. You can also give a package or two of the lights to someone you love to help them love creation.

Go live! Live trees that you can replant are kindest to the environment. A cut tree harvested from an organic tree farm will likely be replaced with two others that will also combat climate change. If you need a smaller tree, consider a potted tree you can enjoy year-round (with or without the decorations). Whatever size you need, check local nurseries. Some are beginning to rent out trees for the holidays.
 
If you are considering an artificial tree, count the costs to the environment before you buy. Artificial trees are made from a plastic called PVC, which creates hazardous waste and emissions during manufacturing. Most are shipped from China, which increases their carbon footprint much more than real trees. If you already own an artificial tree, use it for at least 10 years. Keep the tree in good condition so that you can pass it on to someone else who will appreciate having it and won’t need to buy one. 
 
Ask parents or grandparents to give you an ornament that has been a part of your growing-up Christmas traditions. Pass along its story to your children. Or make your own tree ornaments representing something meaningful to you. Glue family photos to card stock and hang the picture on the tree. Create some new stories to tell each Christmas. 
 
Create less waste by how you wrap your gifts. One of the savviest zero-waste decisions is to save wrapping paper, tissue paper, bows, and ribbons to reuse each year. Or adorn your gift with fabric like a scarf (new or vintage) that can be worn. Look also for old maps, sheet music, newspaper funnies, or plain paper painted with your children’s handprints and art.
 
While it might be fun to rip and tear into a wrapped present, the fancy paper itself is most likely to be laminated with plastic, foil, glitter, or other non-paper materials that contaminate a recycle bin. The short fibers in tissue paper make it unrecyclable too. Rather than wrapping paper, go for reusable gift bags.

Go retro. String popcorn and cranberries on cotton thread. After Christmas, put the strings outside for the birds to munch on or decompose in the soil. However, don’t give in to the temptation to go back to tinsel or fake “snow”—they never decay.  

Rather than buying new decorations, turn to thrift shops and garage sales to find one-of-a-kind used ornaments and holiday decor.

If you do buy new decorations, keep justice in the forefront. Make sure the items are Fair Trade, which means the workers who made them earned a living wage and didn’t labor under sweatshop conditions. Ten Thousand Villages and SERRV International both sell Fair Trade holiday decor.

Invite children to make decorations. Spend time together and show them how to cut snowflakes from recycled paper. Or help them create a collage or ornaments by using greeting cards from a previous year. Or search nature for boughs of holly, evergreens, pinecones, mistletoe to decorate with. (Be mindful of allergies.) Encourage them to find delight in nature and their own creativity in reusing rather than trashing. The learning will carry on past the holidays.

“Good Christian Friends, Rejoice…”

Greening Your Celebrations

Let’s talk turkey. Xmas has become the season of excess. Food waste is a major contributor to our environmental woes. Some food-waste issues are systemic, but 43% comes from homes, and the holidays are especially waste-filled. So, focus on “enough” rather than on “bounty” at your celebrations. 
 
Let’s talk turkey. Avoid food waste, which in landfills becomes methane and exacerbates the climate crisis. Consume less in the first place. Across the globe, near and far, too many people are hungry. Consuming too much and wasting what’s left over aren’t healthy for people or planet. Justice means ensuring enough for all.
 
Let’s talk turkey. Poultry—turkey, chicken, duck—has a 9-times smaller greenhouse gas impact than beef. Poultry is also the heart-healthier option and less expensive for a larger gathering. Plus, the leftovers are as good, maybe better, than the first pass. Put together turkey pot pie or turkey noodle soup and enjoy another great meal.  
 
The #1 food item thrown away is bread (over 240 million slices annually). Before any mold begins, before all the loaf is consumed, put any partial loaves in the freezer. Look up recipes for bread dressing and bread pudding that can add to your holiday feast. Fill the guests, not the landfill.
 
Compost the food scraps from preparation and leftovers. If you are not set up to compost easily, check with your guests, a farmer or gardener friend, or your local government for options. Between the time the scraps are made and when they can be taken to a compost site, put them in a container out of the way or in the fridge or freezer, preferably in a compostable bag. Check online for bag options.

This holiday, visit family and friends electronically. Save emissions with Zoom visits or Facetime. Save trees and manufacturing water waste with digital cards. Explore Jacquie Lawson’s collection.
 
Be mindful of water. Too many places are experiencing drought, which endangers food crops, wildlife, and people whose livelihood suffers. Don’t run the faucet while cleaning vegetables. Rinse them instead in a bowl full of clean water. Then use the water on your indoor or outdoor plants. Likewise, when filling your dishwasher, don’t “pre-wash” with running water. A good scraping—preferably into a compost bucket—or just a splash of water is plenty. 
 
Save trees at your holiday events. Use cloth napkins, which you can simply toss in the washing machine with other items. Check with thrift stores; they may have holiday themed napkins. If you need to use paper ones, arrange for them and any paper towels to be composted. Once alive as trees, they can be composted and then used to feed the soil. Keep the circle of life going. 
 
Make a statement with party favors that give back. Look for something plantable, like herbs, succulents, or seed packets. Or display a sign indicating that in honor of your guests, you’ve given a monetary gift, such as planting new trees in an area harmed by wildfires. Any such option can lead to conversations about caring for God’s earthly garden. 
 
Engage children in treating the birds to a Christmas feast. Gather large pinecones, twine or medium gauge string, scissors, peanut butter, spatula, a large tray, and birdseed (with no red millet or oats). Invite the children to carefully tie the twine around the pinecones, use a spatula to coat the pinecones with peanut butter, roll it in birdseed, and hang it on a branch outside. Talk about caring for all God’s critters.

“Joy to the World…and Heaven and Nature Sing”

Greening Your Putting Away

“God so loved the world…” Most often Christians hear John 3:16 in relationship to personal salvation. But look again at what God loves enough to send God’s own Son—the world! All of creation, not just humans. If God so loved the world, then we need to also. Choose at least one aspect of creation and love it through your action and advocacy.
 
Recycle your Christmas cards. Plain paper Christmas cards can go straight into the paper recycling bin, no questions asked. But shiny cards, ones printed on photo paper, and ones with metallic embossing or glitter are no-no’s. However, look closely—even they may have a half that is free of the contaminants. Cut apart and safely recycle the good side. Before you dispose of the cards, take an extra minute to reread them and give thanks for your friends.

Reuse shiny Christmas bows and ribbons. They do not recycle because they are a composite of plastic and paper and a no-no in the recycling bin. Ribbons are notorious for snagging recycling machinery. So, reuse. Make a game of tossing the bows into a large paper bag to save for another season. When the bow or ribbon is truly dead, you’ll need to trash it.

Those shipping boxes easily recycle because cardboard is clean and easy to reprocess. Every ton of it that’s reclaimed saves 17 trees. Simply break the boxes down flat so that they don’t take up so much room in the recycling trucks that they require extra trips, use up more energy, and eat up the good you hoped for by recycling in the first place.
 
Dispose of your tree carefully. Replanted is best. Composted or chipped for trail footing in parks is good. Find out the possibilities in your area. Commercial companies or local government may offer this service. Do not burn a tree. That releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Reuse and reuse a plastic tree and then find someone else who will enjoy it. Check with local charities, shelters, and churches. Do your best to keep it out of a landfill.
 
Volunteer for your community’s treecycling program, which transforms cast-off Christmas trees into mulch for parks, playgrounds, trails, and other public spaces. Offer help to your neighbors for getting their tree to the program rather than the dump.
 
Have a conversation—not a confrontation—with your teen about any gifted money. Invite them to think about investing in their future and Creation’s. Help them explore possibilities related to their interests or concerns, such as organizations that care for wildlife, replant trees, support ocean clean up, or address justice issues. Perhaps it’s time to set up an environmentally focused stock portfolio. Ultimately, remember the money was a gift to them—not you. Your gift is to be a thinking partner.
 
As you put away your new clothes, scrutinize your closets and drawers for clothing you can donate. Put those to work for someone else. Clear away the excess and discover the joy of simplicity. 

Engage your children in passing along gently-used toys they have outgrown. Talk with them about the fun they had and now they can help other children have a good time too. Make the task an after-Christmas tradition to encourage the children to care for their toys and for other children.

With your children, collect their broken, worn out, or barely used crayons and ship them to Crazy Crayons, The National Crayon Recycling Program, to remold. They’ve already kept more than 120,000 pounds from landfills. Doing this task together, you can introduce your children to the concept of recycling and show them they too can do something to take care of God’s earth.

The United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is providing these Tips 
as a tool to equip church members, families, and individuals to respond to God’s call to care for creation and do justice with our neighbors.