12 Green Days of Christmas: Day 10 Holiday

With all the hustle and bustle of the season, it might seem like "one more thing to do" when considering how to be green. Here are a few simple and easy things you can do this holiday to be a little more eco-friendly.

1. LED Lights
Target, Costco and many other stores now sell LED Christmas lights. These lights will save energy and look the same as the other version of lights.

2. Recycle your Christmas Tree
Every year 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfill. Think of how many wood chips, paper, boxes, etc could come if those were all recycled! Many cities offer programs for recycling your tree. It's as easy as calling (800) CLEANUP or just visiting www.earth911.org to find the tree-recycling program near you.

3. Recycle your old cellphone
Many people may be getting a new phone or gadget this year. So what to do with your old phones? Over 130 million cell phones are thrown out each year! Can you imagine the 65,000 tons of wastes that creates in our landfills? And all of the hazardous chemicals that are then leached into the environment? Instead of throwing them out, the Sierra Club has a program where you can drop off your phone at any Staples and they'll recycle it for you!

4. Make your own wrapping paper
Did you know that most wrapping paper is not recycable? So instead of using store bought paper, become creative and use the comic section of the newspaper, old maps or have your kids make some pictures and use that to wrap your gift. Or use brown paper and have your kids stamp it to make it look more festive.

5. Reuse the Bubble packaging

Family Fun magazine has some great ideas for the family and decorating. One was to use bubble packaging and cut it out into the shape of a tree. Ahere numbers to each day and let the kids pop away each day!