The holiday season alone generates 40 million TONS of trash. Everybody can do some things to step more lightly on the Earth and avoid waste. Please consider these suggestions.
Use rechargeable batteries for toys and other items used frequently.
When mailing a present, use a brown paper bag to wrap the box. Wrapping paper cannot be recycled due to the inks used. Instead use a gift bag that can be used over and over. Save the bows and ribbons for reuse too.
Make a realistic food shopping list to avoid having too many leftovers.
Decorate the house with natural, handmade, or edible items. Evergreen branches, pine cones, holly, poinsettias, strings of pop corn and/or cranberries, candles made from old candles, decorated cookies (get the kids to help), drape decorative fabric around, and others you may think of. Have fun, be creative. For example: fill a re-usable basket with pine cones and tie a red ribbon around it.
Put your lights on a timer. Save energy and money.
Cancel junk mail and catalogs by contacting: Direct Marketing Association, Inc., 1120 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036-6700. Or visit their website at http://www.dmaconsumers.org
All of these efforts will save you money. But most importantly Happy Holidays to everybody!