Green Christmas Trees

Again this year we struggled with the concept of a green Christmas Tree and what it should be. As much fun as it sounds to find a vintage white or aluminum tree that we can save and make our own - it's just not happening in time this year. We couldn't find that old artificial tree looking for a good home. But we did enjoy the hunt. Instead of a tree, we happened upon some fabulous retro vintage ornaments and dazzling decorations long forgotten and still quite fabulous. But I digress.

We toyed with a living tree, root ball intact, but it seemed harsh to subject it to our indoor climate, then expect it to adapt again to a garden and thrive after all that excitement.

A tree of recycled paper seems environmentally thoughtful. And some may argue a tree of green bottles is sort of responsible, too.


We're still most enchanted with the trees we featured here last year and think they offer the eco-conscious style and classic beauty we admire and respect in a green holiday tree.

Green Wrapping with Paper

Looking for green wrapping solutions often brings me to patterns in eco-friendly inks on recycled paper or tote bags that can be used again. For sources closer to home, recycling a sheet of newspaper or a map works nicely as an eco-wrapping choice, especially when it's brightened with a colorful bow made from a magazine.

Jessica Jones of How about orange... shares her brilliant and green (well, orange) bow made from a magazine page in a tutorial here.

May your wrapping be inspired and fun!

A Green Christmas Tree

It's difficult to think about Christmas without the Tree. The lights, the ornaments, the tree skirt, the gifts neatly wrapped and stashed beneath all bring us joy. Whether you are organized enough to get your tree the weekend after Thanksgiving or too busy until the week before Christmas, it's a ritual with warm and happy memories.

In spite of those joyful emotions it is increasingly difficult, maybe Scrooge-like, not to consider what a greener kind of Christmas tree would be. Greener might mean a live tree transported with its roots intact or a pesticide-free tree. Greener might mean strung with solar powered LED lights or being reduced to mulch for park trails.

Perhaps you are even more inventive in your approach to the New Green Tree? Suppose you want to use the 3 Rs and do it with style. Here are some artistic inspirations above and below that reduce, re-use, and recycle!

Paul Deakin, a student at the University of Southampton in England, created this tree with 1,050 beer bottles.

The ladder tree via Apartment Therapy via MetaFilter via MeCha.

More details on the 2-D Christmas tree appear in the The Style Files, a daily blog by Danielle de Lange, based in the Netherlands.