Make Your ‘Festival of Lights’ Green and Healthy

Since Hanukkah is only a few days away, I thought it would be a good time to go over some eco-friendly tips to keep in mind. While lighting your menorah can cut back on your electricity for the week, there is still room to add some green to your eight day celebration. This year, why not go green and use candles made from natural and renewable resources instead of paraffin candles? Candles made from palm oil, beeswax, or soy burn clean and are healthy options for the environment and for your family. If you want to stay away from candles, electric menorahs are also wonderful options around the holidays. For an energy-saving option, choose an LED powered menorah. They use 90% less energy than incandescent lights and can last up to 200,000 hours which is approximately 10 times longer than regular lights.

Green Your Holiday with Eco-Friendly Decor

Nearly every household has their holiday traditions from trimming the tree to baking cookies. I know for me, a wonderful tradition that I have shared with my family for years is opening all of the cardboard boxes labeled 'Christmas' and finding the keepsake ornaments that we enjoy placing throughout our home each year.

When buying new ornaments for your new home or to give as a gift, keep in mind that there is a wonderful selection of eco-friendly holiday decor that can green your holiday this year. 3R Living has a fantastic site filled with a whole list of items to add to your eco-friendly home. I immediately fell in love with the hand-blown recycled glass ornaments and home spun stockings!

An Eco-Friendly eBay Marketplace

I have to give my parents some credit – they discovered the ins and outs of eBay long before I ever typed in the web address. Each time I come home for a weekend or special holiday, the biggest updates my parents have to give is what they either bought or sold on eBay. I’ve heard of people become obsessed with the site – a marketplace where one can be competitive and the salesperson they’ve always wanted to be.

While researching a few products on eBay, I came across ‘World of Good’, eBay’s eco-friendly marketplace. Along with the product image and description, World of Good includes what they call a ‘goodprint’ which indicates your purchase impact on people, the environment, and animals. Take a look around the site – you’re bound to find a few green holiday gifts for your loved ones!

Green Holiday Gift Guide: Green MacBook

If you’re looking to start your eco-friendly New Year’s resolution early this year, Apple computers has got you covered. More PC users are switching to Macs at an overwhelming rate and now is definitely the time to go green with the technology we use on a daily basis. What makes this computer so green? First off, the 13” MacBook’s body is made from a solid piece of aluminum, making this the greenest computer on the market. This aluminum body makes the MacBook feel almost as light as a feather and looks sleek and modern. Also, this irresistible gadget comes equipped with an LED backlight display, an energy saving solution that is sure to cut down on your energy bill.

Eco-Friendly Gift Wrapping Paper

While growing up, I can remember how excited I was to wake up on Christmas morning and see what Santa brought me that particular year. The holidays were all about anticipation and excitement. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the gifts lying under the Christmas tree and see what toy or doll I could play with for the rest of the day. I remember how my brother and I would always roll our eyes at how my Dad would always make a point to open gifts slowly; eliminating any rips or tears in the wrapping paper. I didn’t quite grasp the idea of saving wrapping paper at the time but I’ve learned to appreciate doing so now. In addition to gift wrapping paper, holiday cards are great items to save to reuse for the following year. Since I can remember my Dad has been reusing wrapping paper and my mom has been cutting out Christmas cards for customized gift tags.

Today, I wanted to highlight a wonderful post I found on Eco-Chick which featured some fabulous green gift wrapping options. As mentioned by Stephanie in her post, companies like Whimsy, Amy Butler, and Erin Ruth have vibrant, eco-friendly gift wrapping collections that are perfect for your green holiday season.

Eco-Friendly Interior Design: Leather Belt Floors

There's nothing more stylish than merging fashion with sustainability. Through my research and experience with eco-friendly design, I have come across a few different green flooring options to use in a home but have never seen something as unique as TING’s leather floor idea. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, founder Inghua Ting began developing a collection of luxurious, unique products for personal and home use that not only looked amazing but were all made from sustainable materials. Within the TING HOME collection, the vintage belt flooring is a must-see. Each floor tile is made up of a number of salvaged leather belts that are trimmed and glued side by side to create a sophisticated and chic design.

Follow Greener Home Designs!

Time to take care of a little Greener Home Designs housekeeping. I wanted to let all of my readers aware of the 'Followers' widget that I have added to the right hand column of the blog. This is a great tool to use when you want to organize all of the blogs you visit on a regular basis into one convenient place. Be sure to sign up on the Greener Home Designs 'Follower' widget to get your share of the latest in green designs for your home, family, and lifestyle.


Kick off your green home decorating off with these beautiful recycled glass candle holders from RosannaInc.com. These are a perfect addition for any upcoming holiday party or for when you just want to add a little color and cheer to your home. Once filled with the warmth of a tea light, these glass candle votives truly come to life and fill any room with a colorful ambiance.