How To Make Christmas Eco and Wallet-Friendly

The fairy lights are up, the turkey’s in the oven… and the energy bill’s going up accordingly.

While we’re all getting ready for winter festivities, nobody’s celebrating the recently raised energy price cap and the ensuing higher bills. But it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. There are ways to help the planet and lower your energy bill while enjoying Christmas.

In fact, there are many ways to enjoy the holidays while reducing the impact on your bank balance – and helping the environment at the same time, to boot.

Here are a few simple changes you can make so you can enjoy a greener Christmas, guilt-free.

Use energy-saving Christmas lights

We wrote an article on the benefits of finding eco-friendly ways to dispose of your Christmas tree. But knowing how to work with your Christmas lights is also important.

Switching your old string lights for LEDs will not only reduce your electricity bill (as LEDs use less energy) but also save you from having to buy them again soon because they last a lot longer.

Even better – consider using solar lights, especially for decorating outside your house. Because solar lights work by collecting energy from the sun during the day, you won’t be using any of your own electricity to power them. This is one of the things that the Wildlife Trust suggests in its article on having an eco-friendly holiday.

A lot of modern lights also come with timers, which allow you to either use a preset mode or set your own times for the lights to come on and off. Doing this eliminates the chances of you forgetting to switch the lights off when not needed, saving even more energy.

To save extra money, you can also switch your energy provider to one that offers discounts. Utility Warehouse (UW) in particular offers lower rates to customers who bundle multiple services with them.

UW also offersoffer their customers free upgrades to smart meters. Smart meters don’t directly make you use less energy, but their features like displaying your use in near-real-time, and in pounds and pence, make it easier for you to see where you can take action to save energy in your home day to day.

Heat the house for less

Another way to reduce your energy use is to make sure your home is well-insulated, so it doesn’t lose more heat than it has to and you don’t have to switch the heating on higher or for longer.

Block draughts around doors and windows and close your curtains for extra protection against cold air coming in and warm air going out. The heavier the curtains, the more effective they’ll be.

When using your oven, make sure you don’t open it while the food is cooking and let the heat out, which makes your oven work harder to get the temperature back up again. But, once you’re done and switch the oven off, leave it open a crack so the residual heat can warm your home up.

You can also follow UW’s easy energy saving tips to keep your energy use (and bills) down.

Use eco-friendly gift wrapping and decorations

According to GWP Group, the UK uses 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year, and the amount of paper used for Christmas cards would stretch between Lapland and London over 100 times.

While a small amount get recycled, a lot of it ends up in landfills. Little actions like saving and reusing wrapping paper and reusing decorations go a long way in reducing waste, as well as sparing you the extra expense of buying more.

You can also get creative with your wrapping, for example using old newspapers and maps instead of glossy wrapping paper, or even a scarf (which doubles as an extra gift).

DIY Christmas tree decorations can also be a fun family activity, for example foraging for pinecones or cutting out paper snowflakes.

Love your leftovers

Don’t bin your Christmas dinner leftovers – properly wrap them up and store them in the fridge to get an extra few days’ meals out of them.

You can also get creative with how they’re served. Roast turkey makes fantastic sandwiches, but you can also make curry, noodle soup, pie and lots more with it. If you’re sick of Christmas cake but still have some lying around, it can be mixed with melted chocolate and rolled into balls to make truffles. Leftover mince pies can be churned into homemade ice cream – and so on.

Having a green Christmas doesn’t have to mean changing your whole lifestyle. Just a few small swaps and habit changes go a long way. But the more you do, the more impact you’ll have… and the more you’ll see a difference on your energy bill, too.

Whether you stop opening the oven to peak at the roast potatoes or get a smart meter with Utility Warehouse, every step helps you save more energy, and the environment along with it.