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Celebrating Christmas in an eco-friendly manner doesn't require you to compromise on festive cheer. There are plenty of ways to celebrate Christmas while also being mindful of the environment.

Send Christmas E-cards

With an estimated 2.6 billion cards sent worldwide, Christmas is the biggest card-sending holiday of the year. Instead of mailing a physical card, why not reduce waste by sending an E-card? You could even take this a step further with a Video E-Card.

Use low energy LED Lighting

GoCompare estimates, on average, a house decorated with traditional Christmas lights uses an extra 22.8 days worth of electricity each year.

Instead of traditional fairy lights, use energy efficient LED Lights to decorate your home. Although you'll pay more for a set of LED fairy lights, they will last a lot longer and use less energy than the old-fashioned type.

If you are switching to LED fairy lights, don't forget to take your old fairy lights to your local recycling centre. Being an electrical item, they need to be recycled under the WEEE regulations.

DIY Decorations

Instead of buying brand new decorations, and thereby contributing to waste, why not create your very own? The Recycle Now website has a bunch of video-tutorials showing you how to make decorations from recycled materials, including a full-size Christmas tree made entirely from cardboard (pictured above).

Recycle your Christmas tree

Though you may not realise it, living Christmas trees can be recycled. Of the six million trees used to brighten up homes and offices across Britain last year, only 10% were recycled, with most going to landfill.

Christmas trees can be recycled for use as wood chips and mulch for landscaping, so check with your local waste collection to see if they will recycle your tree. If you have an artificial tree, save yourself some money and hold on to it until next year.

Recycle everything else!

After all the celebrating is over, don't forget to recycle as much as possible. This includes everything from Christmas Cards, decorations and wrappings, to composting the left-overs from Christmas Dinner. Remember to make use of your council's doorstep collection service or local recycling facilities wherever possible.

So there you have it. Buy less, recycle more and use low-energy LED lights to make your festivities eco-friendly!

If you have any other ideas on how to go green this Christmas, let us know! Leave a comment below or share your thought on our Facebook page.