You’ve written your list, now check it twice

Harvard Professor Tom Lehrer sang
‘Hark the Herald Tribune sings advertising wondrous things . . .
God rest ye merry merchants may ye make the yuletide pay . . .
Angels we have heard on high, tell us to go out and buy.”

And so right he is. It seems that little of the original spirit of Christmas remains in this age of consumerism. Never mind the true meaning of Christmas, now it is merely a time for frenetic buying, rushing, overeating and general immoderation. Quite apart from the central need to put the Christ child and all that He stands for back into Christmas, there is another problem with these excesses during Christmastime: they damage the environment.

Our earth is already overused and damaged, with poisoned water and polluted air. We waste energy, water and other essential natural resources; dump mountains of non-degradable waste and spew out vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the air – so excessive that we have managed to change the earth’s climate as a result of our actions.

We have wreaked havoc on the earth and continue to do so. At Christmastime, our destruction peaks. We buy quantities of gifts housed in packaging (plastic bags, boxes, rigifoam packing) and deck the halls with mounds of plastic and tinsel that add to our mountainous solid waste; we purchase wrapping paper in which to wrap our gifts and contribute to the decimation of forests; we race here and there to pick up something we’ve forgotten to buy, belching carbon dioxide from our vehicles and make our contribution to climate change; we string up lights that twinkle round the clock and waste electricity; we cook vast quantities of food, often leaving boiling pots open and waste even more energy; we clean and polish till everything sparkles and spray more chemicals that pollute the air and poison the waters.

a) Am I sending unnecessary Christmas cards? Can I not send e-cards to people who have email?
b) Instead of buying cards, can I not encourage children to be creative and make Christmas cards out of old Christmas cards and scraps of material or paper that are lying around in my home?
c) Am I buying unnecessary wrapping paper? Can I not re-use old wrapping paper or buy recycled wrapping paper (available now at ODEL, House of Fashion and Uthum Pathum outlets). Can I not make fancy wrapping paper from old newspapers by stencilling colourful designs or pasting colourful cut outs (such as old Christmas cards)?
d) If I do want fancy wrapping, can I not use gift tote bags that can be reused?
e) Am I buying unnecessary gift tags instead of using old Christmas cards to make gift tags?

2. Am I reducing the use of plastic and other non-degradable items this Christmas season?

a) When I buy gifts, am I also collecting unnecessary plastic bags?
b) When I buy gifts, can I consciously choose gifts that are degradable – for example, can I buy cloth dolls instead of plastic dolls?
c) When I decorate my house, am I using tinsel and plastic to do so? (Both of these are not degradable.) Instead, can I not use seeds, dried branches and used paper for my decorations?
d) Am I buying mega plastic bottles of soft drinks, plastic paper plates and cups for various parties that I will have this season? (Glass bottles can be recycled and ceramic plates can be used again.)
e) Am I reusing plastic when I can’t avoid buying it?

a) When I decorate my house, am I stringing up an excessive number of lights all of which use up energy?
b) Am I conscious about reducing energy use - do I put out lights, fans and air conditioners when I am not in the room?
c) Do I use energy (and cost) saving bulbs?
d) When I cook my Christmas meal, do I boil food in a large volume of water in open saucepans or do I use the minimum quantity of water and a closed pan?

a) Am I minimising the amount of waste I put back into the environment? (see question 2a)
b) Am I composting my garden waste and other degradable waste such as eggshells (from making my Christmas cake), vegetable refuse, coconut refuse, coffee grinds and tea leaves?
c) What do I do with glass, plastic, aluminum, newspaper and paper that collect in my house over the Christmas season? (Note that there is a Recycle Kiosk at Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha.)

a) Do I really need to use a Christmas tree that has been cut down merely for decoration?
b) Can I not plant a coniferous horticultural tree in a large pot, nurture it through the year, and use this potted tree as my Christmas tree each year?
c) Alternatively, can I not use a dried branch creatively decorated to make a Christmas tree?
d) When I buy a plastic Christmas tree, am I thinking of the solid waste I will generate in about six years’ time when I have to throw it away, and the carbon dioxide that was emitted in bringing it to Sri Lanka?
e) In general, am I conscious about not cutting trees? If I have to cut a tree, do I make an effort to plant another?

a) When I buy gifts, do I make an effort to buy local gifts? With clothes, our garment industries flood the market with local products but what about crafts and other gifts?
b) When I buy food for Christmas, do I look for local products instead of imported products? (Most of the ingredients for Christmas cake are locally produced.)
c) Do I really need an imported turkey for Christmas lunch?
d) When I buy local products, do I check whether it is legal to do so? For example, do I buy turtle shell ornaments, coral jewellery and shells – some of which may be threatened and protected?

a) When I want to freshen the air in toilets or closed spaces, do I reach for a chemical aerosol, or do I use natural ventilation or natural air fresheners such as flowers or aromatic oils?
b) When I clean surfaces and launder my clothes, am I using chlorine bleach – which is a hazardous chemical?
c) Do I check the labels of cleaning fluids to find out whether they are environmentally friendly?
d) When I use dishwashing liquids and other cleaning fluids such as disinfectant, do I use them at full strength or do I dilute them before use? (This is just as effective and saves money too.)

a) Do I eat too much at Christmastime? Can I be conscious of the damage that I am doing to the environment that is my own body and reduce just a little of everything?
b) Do I know what I can legally buy and eat during Christmastime?
c) Do I choose food that is legal but so exotic that it had to be flown many thousands of miles to my dining table?
d) When I buy food, am I trying to buy organically grown products or products without preservatives?

a) Am I buying wastefully – i.e., just because it is on sale?
b) Am I buying things just because everybody else has them and it is the ‘in’ thing to do?
c) Or am I buying things because I need them?
d) Is my cupboard full of clothes that I don’t use and can’t use because I am overweight? Am I storing them for years in the hope that I will fit into them, or can I not give them away this season?

10. Am I sufficiently conscious about those less fortunate than me at this Christmas season?

a) Am I giving gifts only to my friends and relatives or am I consciously making an effort to give to those less fortunate than I?
b) Am I chucking the odd Rs. 500/- note at a begg ar and feeling happy that my charity quota is okay or am I making the effort to make someone’s life better in the long term?