Make Every Celebration a Sustainable Holiday With These Tips

The holidays feel better when they are sustainable holidays. How can you make that a reality every year, no matter what? These ideas will adjust your mindset to practice a progressively greener holiday season, every month, for the foreseeable future.

Universal Advice

Many holidays embrace the same toxic habits, including excessive consumption, food waste, and excessive travel. Therefore, many tips and tricks apply to all holidays, even ones specific to different seasons and cultures. They include, but are not limited to:

• Purchasing as many decorations secondhand and avoiding fast decor
• Composting food scraps and leftovers, or donating them
• Cooking meat-free meals with locally sourced ingredients
• Use LED lights, which are more energy-efficient
• Volunteer your time to help those who need it, to practice gratitude and cheer
• Practice sustainable travel by carpooling or taking low-emission flights
• Use better waste management systems by recycling
• Adjust thermostats and energy use to be comfortable during hot and cold seasons without exerting on machinery

Gift-giving should also come from a less capitalist and more eco-friendly place. Creating instead of consuming is always a good rule, and rehoming objects that were destined for landfills is also great. You can also purchase items from outlets that prioritize sustainability.

Additionally, most holidays include alcohol. Despite it being a consumable, alcohol has a deceptively high environmental impact. Embrace the dry revolution or create mocktails to lower adverse effects. You can also purchase from brands that commit to sustainability.

Tips for Every Sustainable Holiday

Here are holiday-specific tricks for making every celebration sit better in your mind and on the planet. Most of these are U.S.-centric holidays, but the ideas apply to similar celebrations in other nations.

New Year’s Day

• Forgo sparklers and similar disposables. Opt for eco-friendly candles where you can compost the ingredients.
• Make resolutions to be more eco-friendly in the coming year.

Valentine’s Day

• Many chocolates are produced in unethical working conditions. Choose Fair Trade options to gift or bake your sweets for loved ones.
• Gift potted plants instead of cut flowers to keep the love of nature blooming long after the Valentine’s Day celebration.

Mardi Gras

• Instead of purchasing tons of plastic beads and throwing trash into the streets, celebrate by throwing red beans or other food for birds to pick up. At the very least, these ingredients are easier to clean up and are compostable.
• New Orleans has several recycling programs for the Mardi Gras season, through which people can responsibly dispose of trash on the parade routes.

St. Patrick’s Day

• Host a green clothing swap instead of buying new and trendy clothes.
• Support local businesses and bars to stimulate the economy.

April Fools’ Day

• Do not practice this holiday, as most pranks involve waste.
• Research demonstrations, like Fossil Fools Day, which is a direct parody of April Fools with an environmentalist spin.

Easter

• Reimagine Easter baskets by ignoring plastic grass, streamers, and eggs. UInstead, use colorful, recyclable shredded paper
• Choose larger candy instead of individually wrapped small ones to save on trash.

Memorial Day

• Host community barbecues to reduce fuel consumption.
• Cook with vegetarian burgers and hot dogs to reduce meat consumption.

Juneteenth

• Educate yourself on the issues surrounding marginalized communities and climate inequity.
• Practice intersectional environmentalism.

Independence Day

• Nix the fireworks and use solar-powered light displays instead.
• Incorporate reusable dishware or have people bring their dishes to gatherings.

Labor Day

• Dedicate your time to helping neighbors with tasks by sharing resources and tools.
• Find a local Labor Day parade and volunteer to clean up afterward.

Columbus Day

• Forgo celebrating this holiday at all in support of Indigenous Peoples Day. If you are not part of this demographic, educate yourself on the controversies surrounding this holiday’s inception and work to normalize its rebrand.

Halloween

• Do “closet costumes” by making outfits from what you already own. 
• Host a community costume swap so children can choose from various new outfits.

Thanksgiving

• Many people still line up in front of stores on Thanksgiving evening to support Black Friday. Instead of supporting megacorporations and promoting unnecessary consumerism, donate money to a charity
• Cook with in-season produce.

Christmas

• Rent or adopt a tree from a local farm instead of purchasing a cut tree destined to die.
• Do not use glitter at all costs, as these microplastics easily spread and pollute nature.

Hanukkah

• Use eco-friendly candles from beeswax or soy to reduce reliance on petroleum-based options.
• Choose edible or handmade gifts for some of the days to prevent overconsumption.

FAQs on Sustainable Holidays

Want to learn more details about how to make celebrations eco-friendly?

What Is the Most Environmentally Friendly Holiday?

The most obvious answer is Earth Day, because it celebrates taking care of the planet and reducing negative environmental impacts. The best ways to embrace an Earth Day celebration are to go to a community gathering, like a garbage cleanup, plant trees, take recycling, protest, or call your representatives to discuss things that matter to you.

What Are the Most-Polluting Holidays?

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the most environmentally destructive holidays. Food is the top contributor, with many other elements, including travel, waste generation, and hyperconsumerism, making it even worse. For context, waste consumption increases by 25%, which includes things like leftovers, wrapping paper, cards, bows, and other decorations.

How Bad Is Christmas for the Environment?

Christmas and similar gift-giving holidays have many aspects that concern activists. First, there is food waste. Like Thanksgiving, many families cook massive meals with too much to spare — most of it goes to the trash. Cutting natural trees for living rooms, which inevitably die, contributes to habitat destruction unless sourced from ethical forests. 

Finally, the gift-giving culture promotes consumerism and additional waste, especially if people discard unwanted stuff instead of finding ways to rehome it.

Sustainable Holiday Becomes the Norm

More people are concerned with reducing their carbon footprint, and during the most excessive and consumptive times of the year, reducing impact is essential. These are the most creative solutions to carry to every party and gathering. Spread awareness to friends and family to make the good cheer continue in other households and communities.