As Canadians we are all conditioned to react to the words “Green Christmas” with heartbreak and sadness. But thankfully this post is not about having Christmas day with no snow on the ground.

Working on an organic farm we have buckets upon buckets of compost. We recycle. We heat our offices with a wood fire. Our light bulbs are energy efficient. We use both sides of the paper before it gets recycled. I guess you could say we run our operation as greenly as possible. But, in general, Christmas is not the most environmentally friendly holiday.

Did you know that each year more than 6 million Christmas trees are improperly disposed of? Enough cards to wrap around the world 5 times are thrown out? And that foil on your turkey? It will cause over 3,000 pounds of waste alone! This doesn’t even get into the wrapping paper and packaging on all of those gifts we give and receive every year. And this is just for a single country that celebrates Christmas in this fashion. Multiply these numbers by the number of countries that celebrate like this and you will get an idea of the real amount of waste created each year by this holiday.

But have no fear, we are not here to tell you to boycott Christmas! Rather we want to give you suggestions on how to reduce the effect you have on the Earth this holiday season. Stay tuned over the next month as we give you gift, food, and decorating tips on how to have a wonderfully snowy green Christmas!