Happy Christmas!

Michael and I decided that this past Sunday was to be the day to make our little apartment festive for the holiday season. Our decorating - and any other holiday activities - will be done with sustainability in mind. Leaving as small an ecological footprint as possible is really important to us, and the holiday season is no exception. In fact, it's the perfect time of year to make that a priority.

We set out to the farmers market on Saturday, and picked up the cutest little tree. It really is tiny, about 3 feet high. Before getting a real tree, we went back and forth on whether or not that was a good idea, and finally found a ton of information online that confirmed for us that real is okay. In fact, it's better than artificial. Of course, we don't have to have a tree at all, and we may not always get one.

Contrary to what most folks have on their tree (myself in years past, included), we have committed to only having ornaments that mean something. Whether they were given as gifts to one or both of us, or were handed down..whatever. They're all personal.

I'm amazed at how little I'm affected by the pull to head out to Target for the latest decorations, only to want a different "theme" throughout the house every year, which was certainly not the case in years past. Only in the last year have we limited our shopping at big box stores, and kept our money in our community. Before that, I was like a crack addict for Target, and Michael didn't buy any of his clothes anywhere except Express. Don't get me started on the weekly trips to IKEA!

Simplifying our life means simplifying all holiday "stuff" around the house, as well as the tree. Michael made paper rings out of some papers we had sitting around, and I made some snow flakes to hang in the window (sounds juvenile, but it really is fun and satisfying). We already had a few strings of lights, and of course, they wouldn't all fit on our tiny tree. We strung one around the front windows and one is lighting the perimeter of our bedroom. Having picked up our tree at the St. Paul Farmers Market, I also eyed some dogwood being sold there, so I bought a bundle to spread around the house.

Michael has blogged about "greening" your holidays, over at his blog, Uptown Green. For more ideas and inspiration, take a peek.

Happy (green) holidays!!