Sorry to be a downer Santa but Christmas, along with many festivals, has become an environmental nightmare but with a Lil'Bit of research and some handy tips, you can still have an awesome and beautiful Christmas.

What's the eco-footprint of Christmas here in Australia?

With approximately $75 billion spent on Christmas gifts, 1.9 billion cards sent, and 20.8 million Christmas trees cut, the impact of this one holiday is immense. While worldwide information is hard to come by, the Australian Conservation Foundation reports a minimum of 2,285,000 tonnes of greenhouse pollution contributed to Christmas in Australia alone!

Green Christmas ideas abound. But from gift giving to decorating and more, the first thing to keep in mind is the same as always: Simplify. Making things simple reduces cost, stress and waste.

Below are just a few things to get you started, but the more you experiment and reevaluate your choices this holiday season, the more Green Christmas ideas will come to you.

Gift giving and Christmas are nearly synonymous. It's perhaps the biggest part of Christmas' impact and the first place to start.

Less Really Is More: Forego an excess of "stuff" that will end up at the OP Shop and purchase things with value, purpose and meaning.

Choose Sustainable Materials: Organic cotton, hemp, silk, wood...all are natural, renewable materials. They add texture and character to gifts. And they support sustainable farmers.

Shop Local: Support your community and local economy by shopping small stores, especially if those stores also sell locally made items.

Sustainable Wrapping Paper: Ditch the rolls of wrapping paper and avoid glossy or metallic gift wrap. Instead, check out fabric gift wrap or these creative gift wrap ideas. Use the greeting cards received last year or any other recycled material to make gift tags. For gift bags that come with tags attached, write "Reuse this bag!" on it instead of the recipient's name. (Just don't forget who it goes to.)

Eco Decorations: Not only will these handmade decorations be used again and again, you can also give them as gifts!http://blog.gruborpub.com/diy-christmas-decoration/

Make It Fun and Easy: Decrease spending, stress and waste by having family members draw names and sticking to a 'one gift' rule. This allows each person to get one especially thoughtful and unique gift from someone who had the time to dedicate their effort.

Lastly, Buy Handmade or make something yourself:Handcrafted Products Are More 'Green'. Work done by hand takes less energy than a mass production assembly line, which makes it more environmentally sustainable. This is particularly true if the commercial alternative is produced overseas.Handcrafted Products Are Worth More. A number of experiments have shown that people value an object more highly when they are led to believe it contains an “air of authenticity". This means that artisan products, be they jewellery, clothing or even jam, are perceived to have more value in society. One of the most prevalent, although least quantifiable, reasons people choose to purchase handcrafted goods is that they just like having something that didn’t come from a big, boring company. The nature of handmade goods means that there are fewer of them, so whatever you’re wearing, eating or adding to your home is as unique as you are (Cleaning your home too). We’ve seen that supporting your local artisans is good for the community, but it’s also good for the art. As technology makes it possible to replace skilled workers with machines it’s important to keep hand-making goods a financially feasible career choice. But more importantly, handmade items have a story, they made with love, passion and the makers work tirelessly to provide the highest quality products. You can find some awesome gifts right here: www.loveaustralianhandmade.com

We are increasingly bombarded with products claiming to be green these days. Packaging evoking nature and the environment with natural colours, leaf graphics, blooming flowers, frolicking dolphins and streams flowing down a mountainside. Add to that a stack of branding and fancy words and these companies can easily mislead us – well meaning consumers – into thinking we are buying the right products.

This is known as Greenwashing. Greenwashing is the practice of making an unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product to make a something appear more environmentally friendly than it really is.

Luckily for us, this issue is being recognised worldwide and there are initiatives underway to help us identify the good guys from the bad ones.

The Australian Trade Practices Act has now included clauses that will punish companies that provide misleading information and environmental claims with hefty fines. We still have a long way to go and many companies are still getting away with these claims – so buyers beware.

Eco labels are a good place to start and have been recognised internationally as a response to Greenwashing. These products have been independently tested and monitored for environmental impact.

Lil’ Bit doesn’t yet have official eco credentials, but we will strive to attain them as our little business develops. Our products are thoroughly researched and formulated to have minimum impact on the environment. Our ingredients, packaging and practices are as environmentally friendly as we can possibly make them, because this is a cause we truly believe in.

You can read more about Greenwashing here: