Your Christmas decorations can be green and energy efficient. The holidays are almost here so it’s time to put out the Christmas lights and put the home in a festive mood. There are many different Christmas lights you can choose from. Here are a few ways you can put up Christmas decorations and still be green.

Use fresh holiday decorations: You can decorate your home with live evergreen boughs and other cold-weather plants like holly trees and poinsettias. Green decorations are biodegradable, won’t end up in a landfill and add an unexpected touch to any home’s decor. They’re lots of holiday decorations that do not use electricity at all.

Use LED Christmas lights: You can save up to 40% on your energy costs for Christmas lights if you switch to LED decorations. Some home improvement stores are trying out Christmas decoration trade-in rebates to help encourage people to change to LED Christmas lights. But be careful, light emitting diode Christmas lights are not always a good deal. LED (light-emitting-diode) Christmas lights cost a little more new but they offer large energy savings over incandescent light bulbs.

Reuse decorations you already own: One of the greatest ways to save money is to go shopping in your own basement! By reusing Christmas decorations again and again you are keeping lots of wires out of your local landfill and being smart about using resources. Try to skip buying all new Christmas decorations each year.

Don’t forget that your choices today can be a perfect gift for tomorrow’s children. As long as your holiday lights are in adequate shape it should be safe to reuse them again and again. Many of these environmentally friendly decorating ideas will put more cash in your wallet that you can spend on holiday gifts! With a little planning you can put up decorations for Christmas and still be green.

Searching for more great holiday decorating ideas and tricks? Check out our site for all sorts of diy for home articles for Christmas or any time of the year!