This year, don’t just spread goodwill toward men. With a few easy steps, you can also spread goodwill toward the earth and have a greener, more eco-friendly holiday. Here are some ideas.

If you’re planning to purchase a cut Christmas tree, consider getting a living tree instead. You can find live trees during the holidays at many nurseries. Then after Christmas, you can plant it in your tree or call a local school or the parks department to see if they’ll take it to replant.

For lighting the tree, be sure to decorate with LED Christmas tree lights that are now available at most retail stores. You can’t tell the difference in LED lights from traditional lights as far as looks go yet they are helping to conserve the earth’s energy by saving power.

You can also purchase LED light strings and lighted decorations for the outside of your home and your yard. Use an automatic timer to make sure your lights don’t go on before sunset and you don’t forget to turn them off.

To green your Christmas cards and letters, shop for recycled Christmas cards and use a Christmas letter template to create your own holidays at home on recycled paper that you can purchase from the local office store.

When it’s time to start your Christmas shopping, grab your reusable shopping bags along and leave the plastic ones at the store. Whenever possible, choose eco Christmas gifts by looking for locally made items or gifts made from recycled products or sustainable materials. If you’re buying toys or other electronics that require batteries, include rechargeable batteries and a charger to make it easy for your gift recipient to keep it charged in an eco-friendly way.

And remember that not every gift has to be purchased at the store. Some of the best gifts are homemade. Homemade gift baskets or gift jars make great gifts without contributing to landfill waste.

With these few simple steps, you can turn your white Christmas into a green one!

Selecting the perfect holiday gift for friends and acquaintances can be difficult, particularly if the person is someone you don’t know very well. And if your budget is already tight during the holidays, the problem becomes even more difficult.

Christmas gift cookies or other baked goods are an inexpensive yet personal solution to many gift-giving dilemmas. And they’re easy on the budget, too!

Homemade candies, holiday cookies and treats can be a perfect present. After all, everyone enjoys eating. Even Santa Claus loves it when people leave cookies for him on Christmas Eve! This means your gift will surely be appreciated and used. The fact that you have made your gift trays with your own hands also adds a unique personal touch to your presents that an item grabbed off a store shelf could never capture. Additionally, the process of making the items can be fun and relaxing, giving you an opportunity to enjoy the holidays.

So what should type of culinary treats should you create in your Christmas gift factory? Traditional options include decorated sugar cookies, gingerbread men, or goodies such as fudge. If these require more time or skill than you have available in this busy time, you may want to make something simple but delicious such as saltine cracker toffee.

On the other hand, if you’re feeling a little adventurous, consider making cookies from around the world for an internationally themed holiday tray.

If you need ideas for cookies or other goodies, check some recipe sites such as Allrecipes.com or Recipezaar.

Any of these Christmas gift cookies or treats can be baked ahead of time and presented in a colorful holiday tin, basket or cookie tray. You can find these for a small price at your local dollar store, drug store or superstore. You can stick with one treat or mix and match recipes to build a tasty variety.

Giving tasty holiday treats will surely brighten anyone’s holidays and they’re far less expensive than many less personal items you could buy. So this season, head to your kitchen instead of the mall!

Reprinted with permissionfrom Christmas Gift Cookies and Other Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen on Free Santa Letters blog.

Don’t overextend your budget by trying to purchase items that cost even more than you can pay to impress your family and friends. You can remain within your budget and give some really neat gifts. Nearly all of the best gifts for Christmas can be bought off-season.

You can discover discount buys like coats and electronics in the spring or summer time. Department stores are perfect places to discover clothing at affordable prices along with off-season sales also. Bookstore warehouses have great buys for readers and writers. You can also search on the Internet for sales at discount outlets. Designer apparel and goods can be found on Ebay and you can save a bundle. Electronics and video games are a few of the most expensive things to give and by doing some homework and searching for better deals, you can find new and used items at a lower price.

Christmas shopping for the children can be a headache and a hassle, but by buying online you can lay aside time and find some good sale items. Do not forget to do it way up-front of the holiday period. Most online stores will offer free shipping.

If you aren’t shopping for a primary holiday, you can still shop on an allowance. A wonderful concept for your friends can be time spent together talking over a bottle of wine and some good food. A movie with the young girls and dinner after can be the best gift for women or someone you are close to. You can likewise show them how special they are by preparing dinner or helping them buy something they have really been wanting. A gift card to their favorite outlet or stores can make what they wish less costly and it is easy on your purse.

Personalized items can be inexpensive but made special with an engraving or special message. Two hearts necklaces or matching bracelets are excellent ideas and make the best gift ideas for best friends who might be leaving for college.

Special occasions like a graduation or a wedding party don’t require an expensive gift. You may encounter some items that can be expensive, but you can afford items that will appear as if you spent a lot. Pictures, trinkets, lingerie, and gift certificates are great ideas and can be located in various price categories. It may also rely upon who you are purchasing for that determines what you spend. You can expend less on friends and more on mothers and fathers, spouses and children.

By Elisabeth Kuhn

Are you worried about spending too much on Christmas presents? Don’t be. Great gifts don’t have to cost much at all. Read on for some easy and dollar-stretching edible Christmas gift ideas.

We all need to eat. But sometimes, especially during tough times, we deprive ourselves. And that’s when edible gifts can be especially welcome — cool treats that your gifts’ recipients wouldn’t have made for themselves.

Of course, the traditional way to approach edible gifts was to go to a gourmet store and order a very expensive gift basket. Or order it from a catalogue. I’m sure you know which ones I’m talking about.

But it doesn’t have to be that expensive. In fact, there are some downright cheap Christmas gifts that can bring a lot of joy and pleasure. Here are a few ideas of varying degrees of thriftiness:

1) Store bought goods

One of our most treasured edible gifts when I grew up in Germany was a Stollen, a German Christmas cake that keeps well, ships well, and tastes utterly delicious (especially the kind filled with marzipan — or the ones that are spiked with rum). And it’s not very expensive either. Neither are a lot of other ready-made Holiday cookies or cakes you can buy at the store.

2) Store bought ingredients, assembled at home

You can create your own gift baskets by assembling some choice fruits and cheeses. If you pick well, you can get a great assortment for less than $10. And for a few dollars more, you can create a veritable gourmet feast. Read on for a variation on that concept…

3) Home-made edibles

Of course, you can also bake cakes or cookies, or create other fancy edibles, wrap them nicely, and send them on their way.

4) Home-made do-it-yourself edibles

This last one is my favorite: Home-made do-it-yourself edible Christmas gifts! Just assemble the ingredients, pack them up nicely, attach a recipe card, and send them to the lucky recipient.

Of course, as a nice bonus, you can use the same recipes to make some treats for yourself. In fact, I would highly recommend that you try out everything you plan to make to ensure the result is what you were hoping for. You might even try out several recipes to find the ones you like best.

Another big advantage to the do-it-yourself edible Christmas gifts is that they will usually keep for quite a long time. This means, they will keep until all the perishable holiday goodies are long gone — and can bring back the glow of Christmas even when the snow is but a distant memory!

But where are you going to find the right kind of recipes for easy to assemble edible Christmas gifts? Here’s my FREE gift for you: A huge collection of yummy edible Christmas gift recipes that you can instantly download — so you can get started right away! Just click on this link: http://www.EdibleChristmasGifts.com.

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