By Jose Luis Gallego, environmental communicator (@ecogallego)

Decorating our homes for the holidays is a deeply rooted social custom. In addition to upholding tradition and celebrating one of the most joyful times of year, the choices we make in decorating our home can also show our respect for the environment. 

Christmas decorations incorporating natural elements 

Recycled materials provide excellent ornamental opportunities, as do natural elements that we can find in nearby forests. This can be done without altering or inflicting harm on those who call our natural surroundings home, starting with the main attraction: the tree.

Contrary to what many might think, the firs sold as certified Christmas trees at garden centres and Christmas markets are a forestry product cultivated under regulated conditions. This means that buying a Christmas tree neither encourages deforestation nor contributes to climate change. Quite the opposite in fact.

Christmas Trees: Always Go Natural

Certified trees grown and sold in Spain have a label attached to their tip which guarantees that they stem from renewable tree farms where a new tree is planted for each one that is felled. This is why it is important to check the tree for this certification prior to purchasing it.

Natural fir tree decorated with baubles, pinecones, and lights 

Furthermore, trees legally grown on Christmas tree farms exemplify the circular economy, because while the pines and firs are alive in the forest, they act as carbon sinks. As such, they contribute to the fight against the climate crisis in addition to fomenting woodland biodiversity and providing a refuge for a great many plant and animal species. 

Plus, every day each planted hectare produces the amount of oxygen consumed by up to forty people. Once their useful life comes to an end, and we have removed all the ornaments and packed them away for next year, we can leave the trees at the collection sites set up by municipal authorities. They are then processed as organic waste, producing a rich and nutritious compost that can be used to fertilize city parks and gardens. 

By contrast, artificial trees are made from plastic, a petroleum-based product, and their production consumes a lot of energy. Furthermore, they generate a great deal of waste and harmful emissions, and at the end of their useful life, they turn into a non-biodegradable waste product that is difficult to recycle since there are no designated bins for the collection of plastic trees.   

As far as Christmas ornaments go, instead of heading to shops selling cheap decorations and filling our homes with plastic and colourful lights, we can make them ourselves. We can find all the necessary raw materials on our walks through the forest: wood, leaves, pinecones, cork, or fallen tree branches. This is a great activity to do with family or friends as a way of getting the festive season off to a fun start. 

While engaging in this activity, we should treat nature with respect and avoid uprooting plants, cutting off tree branches or gathering samples of protected species, the collection of which is prohibited or regulated. This includes butcher’s broom, moss, and holly. 

Mistletoe, which is traditionally arranged into small bouquets and given as a token of good luck for the coming year or integrated into Christmas decorations, is not a protected species – in fact, it is a parasite of the pine tree. What we should avoid, however, is the unfortunately common practice of cutting down the entire tree to rip the mistletoe off the branches once it has been felled. This is incredibly damaging to the forest.

Centrepieces

To decorate our holiday table, we can create a centrepiece using a tray with a candle in the middle, surrounded by twigs and leaves, pine bark, and fallen pinecones. We can also incorporate other materials carefully gathered from the forest floor in place of moss, which, as previously mentioned, should not be disturbed. Moss plays a crucial role in the forest ecosystem by contributing decisively to maintaining the woodland microclimate, acting as a natural humidifier and providing a refuge for a great many species whose lives are inextricably linked to the plant. This is why we should never rip moss from the ground.  

Fruity Decorations

Fruit offers fantastic decorative possibilities. All we need to do is cut lemons and oranges into round slices, remove any excess water with a towel, and place them on an oven rack at 45ºC for a few hours. After they are sufficiently dried, we let them cool for a couple of days. Once ready, we can arrange them into beautiful garlands using a needle and string or colourful thread. They look lovely draped across door frames or hung on Christmas trees, and in addition to being original, they will make our home smell simply spectacular.

Natural fir tree adorned with dried orange slices  

Decorative Sprays 

We can add an elegant touch to our Christmas place settings with arrangements of rosemary or fir twigs tied with a ribbon or string and placed alongside cutlery, plates or napkins. Our guests will surely be charmed by this original decorative touch, which will also fill the air with an elegant and subtle Christmas aroma. 

Table with everything we need to make decorative sprays 

Recycled corks

Few materials are as closely associated with the holiday season as wine and sparkling wine corks – which also happen to offer an almost infinite number of decorative possibilities. We can craft little Christmas trees, starting with a small round base made from wood or cardboard and then attaching the corks to create a tree shape. Once the form is in place, we can adorn the trees as we like! Another idea is to make ornamental figurines to hang from the tree. All we need are some coloured markers, some cloth to dress the figurines in, glue, and ribbon to hang them from the tree – and some imagination, of course. We can also transform corks into original handcrafted gift ideas, such as small photo frames or coasters. 

Decorative garland with Christmas motifs