12/17/10

This holiday season, give the gift of giving back with a TisBest charity gift card. Instead of giving your loved one a gift card that they can use at a store, a TisBest card can be redeemed by the recipient as a donation to the charity of his or her choice. There are thousands of organizations to choose from at the TisBest website; visit www.tisbest.org.

12/16/10

Many people like to decorate their fireplace mantel or other parts of the house with store-bought fake snow, which is made with non-biodegradable plastics. While the greenest solution is to forgo the artificial winter wonderland altogether, the next greenest tip is to look no further than your linen closet. Rip open an old bed pillow and use the polyester fill inside as snow. It's easy to pull out clumps and decorate, and it won't create a big mess either.

12/15/10

A Christmas dilemma: real or fake? Which is the greenest? While an artificial Christmas tree may seem the greenest because it's reusable, it's the loser here. Most fake trees are made from petroleum sources and are manufactured overseas, using loads of fuel to ship halfway around the world to your home. A real evergreen tree is fully biodegradable, grown on land that might otherwise be used for development and 100 percent recyclable. If you can, go real.