The Environmental Impact of Christmas

The Environmental Impact of Christmas

⏱ 2 minute read

Christmas is the most famous holiday in the United States, and probably even throughout the globe. According to Google Trends, Christmas has been searched more than other popular holidays year-after-year in the United States.

Christmas began as a religious holiday to honor the birth of Jesus Christ. Even though the holiday is still a high holiday for the Christian faith, it has largely turned into a commercial holiday. Christmas season begins on Black Friday, a day infamous for overconsumption.

Recommended: The Environmental Impact of Black Friday

Christmas Trees

Each year, millions of Christmas trees are sold. There are two types of Christmas trees; the first is the artificial tree that is usually made from plastic, and the other type is the real tree. We need trees to balance the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and surprisingly, real Christmas trees support forest growth. The Nature Conservancy says, "Buying real trees will help keep tree farms in business – and in turn keep their lands covered in the healthy forest habitat that wildlife depends on to survive." If you find yourself looking for a Christmas tree, shop for real trees!

Gifts 

In our Black Friday post, we discussed the effects of over-consumption. Basically, the process of manufacturing gifts emits fossil fuels into the atmosphere, negatively impacting the environment. However, online subscriptions such as Netflix and Spotify have lower carbon footprints because they aren't physical goods.

Gift wrap is environmentally dangerous as well. It creates waste and can end up in our oceans. A greener option would be to use biodegradable gift wrap.

Final Thoughts

Christmas has grown into a holiday of consumerism. Even though consumerism has a large impact, Christmas doesn't have to be that way. We must be careful what choices we make, and if we buy the right gifts and support wildlife by buying a real Christmas tree, the holiday can be done right. 

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