Christmas is the time of year when we are all encouraged to eat drink and buy too much. To many people it is the "season of excess." the result is too much waste and even too much waist!

Green Gang had put a few quick Christmas tips in our first COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER, which we delivered to some of the homes in the area. And we had some nice comments back; so they then invited the whole school to submit any suggestions and ideas for a 'Greener' more environmentally and healthier Christmas.

Once we had our responses we did a little research about how local recycling affected these tips, that way we could make them as relevant as possible. The children then took some photographs of each other to use in the weekly online parents newsletter. We even sent a copy to the Echo to see if they would help us get the message out to the whole community. It does not mattter if they do or not the point is that we have tried.

One of the nice suggestions that we had back was rather than parents spending lots of money on their children it might be better to spend lots of time with your children playing, reading or even working on the christmas dinner together. Getting deeper into debt can make you worried and anxious and so spoil not just Christmas but the whole year. Not strictly environmental but we loved that tip anyway!

Our choice of top 10 tips for a GREEN CHRISTMAS are:-

1. BUY RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES
2. MAKE A LIST - CHECK IT TWICE 
3. USE BAGS INSTEAD OF WRAPPING PAPER
4. RECYCLE CHRISTMAS CARDS 
5. GET LIVE TREES INSTEAD OF ARTIFICIAL
6. USE NEW ENERGY EFFICIENT LED LIGHTS
7. GIVE THE RIGHT PRESENT GIFT TOKENS
8. MAKE A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION AS A FAMILY TO GET HEALTHIER 
9. GIVE ETHICAL GIFTS & HAVE A FAIRTRADE CHRISTMAS. 
10. CLEAN UP & RECYCLE YOUR WASTE PROPERLY.

1. BUY RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES

These will save you hundreds of pounds throughout the year. Get a spare set of batteries and have them on charge ready to go. You can buy 'ready to use straight out of the packet' rechargeable batteries and can get even get solar chargers too. These can be used over a 1000 times so that is a pretty good saving!

But remember with all items you charge up like ipods, mobile phones, if the charger is left on its using power!

If you have single use batteries make sure you dispose of the properly such as taking them to the collection bins in supermarkets or our big Battery Monster in school, but please do not just dump them in the rubbish bin for landfill.

2. MAKE A LIST - CHECK IT TWICE

A lot of families buy far too much at Christmas and end up just throwing a lot of it away. Make a list of what you need, then after you have checked what you already have and how much room is in the freezer, make your shopping list. You can spend the money you will save on important things -like me!

Remember to put your reusable shopping bags at the top of the list so you do not forget to take them.

3. USE GIFT BOXES & BAGS INSTEAD OF WRAPPING PAPER

Better than buying gift wrap, is to use GIFT BAGS or BOXES that can be reused over and over again. I love the Indian newspaper giftbags from the local Fairtrade shop 'FAIR-Dos' in Canton, for just 50p!

Because of the contaminents from cellotape etc all your wrapping paper in Cardiff goes to landfill rather than be recycled - what a shame! You can just use old newspapers, or wall paper to wrap big gifts.

If you receive presents wrapped just shred it and put it in your garden compost (A bit of glitter will not hurt). Of course if you are able to take if off carefully see if you can keep it and reuse it next year.