Regardless of where you live, you can dream of a green Christmas. It may not snow, but you can be environmentally friendly no matter what. Green living is easy – especially around the holidays. With everyone using so much wrapping paper and spending so much time driving around to different stores and holiday parties, this is the best time of the year to go green. You can start your green living when you do a lot of your family cooking. Instead of reaching for canned goods in the grocery store, use fresh produce. If you have an herb or vegetable garden, you can provide a lot of your own products. If you don’t have a garden, there are plenty of farmer’s markets around, you can do your shopping there.

If you’re like most people, you’ll have leftovers. You have two green living options with leftovers. The first is that you can use the leftovers for lunches and other meals so all of that food doesn’t end up in the garbage. If you can’t eat it all, then use some of the vegetable leftovers for a compost pile to help with your garden.

As you do a lot of driving around town, that is a lot of gas – and a lot of pollution into the air. You can be more environmentally responsible by doing some carpooling. Whether it’s with neighbors or with co-workers, if all of you are headed to the same party, you may be able to combine rides so there are less vehicles on the road.

When it comes to your holiday shopping, you can spend less time on the roads, too. Think about doing some online shopping. All of the presents can come to you so you don’t have to drive from store to store. If you do have to go out, write a list of what you need to buy and see if you can choose one or two stores to get all of your presents from.

The gifts you give can promote green living, too. You should think about giving live plants as gifts. This will add more oxygen to the air and ensure there are more plants sticking around. People will appreciate plants more than they will bouquets of flowers because they will last longer, too.

All throughout the holidays, you can be environmentally friendly. Think about all the lights outside and on your tree. If you are done entertaining for the night, turn the lights off. If you haven’t gone shopping for lights yet, buy LEDs. They use less electricity and they don’t burn hot.

Dreaming of a green Christmas is possible in everything that you do. Before you get behind the wheel of a car, shop for a present or do any cooking, stop and think how you can be a little more conscientious of the environment.