Have Yourself a Green Christmas

Celebrate the Light of the World—with a Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb
Each week during Advent replace one regular or incandescent lightbulb with a compact fluorescent (CFL). If every American home did this, we would save over $600 million in annual energy costs.  

Buy Energy-Smart Electric Gifts
Buying a gift that uses electricity? Choose one with the Energy Star Label. If all DVD players in the U.S. were Energy Star machines, it would mean six billion pounds less of carbon released into the atmosphere, the equivalent of taking 75,000 cars off the road.  

Buy Less, Give More
Being generous doesn't have to mean being extravagant and wasteful. Buy fewer gifts and make the ones you do buy truly meaningful. Cutting down your Christmas card list means cutting down fewer trees.  

Plant Your Tree; Don't Throw it Out
There is no ecologically perfect Christmas tree. Cut trees waste energy and resources; artificial trees are made with ecologically problematic materials; and potted trees don't fare well indoors. The best solution: a potted tree that spends a few days inside and then gets planted.  

Set a Local Table
From squash to cranberries to potatoes, lay out your holiday table with locally grown produce. Less long-distance shipping creates less pollution, producing less global warming. And local food tastes better!

To learn more, read Preach What You Practice.