Christmas trees...make your Christmas greener!

18 November 2008

So unless you have a old favourite fake tree in the loft and plan on reusing for as long as possible make sure that this Christmas you buy a real living tree.

• The best choice is a tree with roots, if you keep it in a pot and water then you can pop it outside after Christmas and use the next year
• You can find out where you can buy a Forestry Commision Christmas tree by checking out their website, they also have handy tips on which variety of tree to choose
• If you don't like the idea of a Christmas tree and prefer to gift a community with a tree why not choose the Christmas Berry tree from Trees for Cities 

Once you've decided on your tree then comes the choice of decoration; traditional, modern or what the kids want! We've got a few ideas on how to make decorations that are kinder to the planet than plastic baubles.

Eco friendly ideas for decorations:

• String popcorn and drape over your tree
• Go foraging in your local woods and hunt out holly, mistletoe, pine cones or pretty skeleton leaves
• Reuse old Christmas cards, cut out motifs and hang with string or ribbon
• Solar powered fairy lights (safer too)
• Salt dough decorations (recipe below)
• Cookie decorations (recipe below)
• Gingerbread decorations (recipe below)

Salt dough:

You will need:

• 1 1/2 Cups Flour
• 1/2 Cup Salt
• Cold Water
• Food Dye
• Optional: Lemon juice (dough dries harder), Oil (for more elastic dough).

Mix flour and salt in a bowl and add cold water a little at a time to form a rough dough. Do not make it runny or sticky. Mix in food dye if you want to make a coloured dough. Kneed the dough until it is smooth. Leave in an airtight container for at least an hour or until you are ready to use it. Then you can let your imagination run wild!

• 100g butter, softened
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 250g plain flour
• 30g cornflour
• ½tsp ground mixed spice
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 large star-shaped cookie cutter
• Fruit-flavoured hard-boiled sweets
• 1 round cookie cutter, slightly bigger than the sweets
• 1 large baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper
• Ribbon to hang

Mix the sugar and butter in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Add the beaten egg a little at a time. Sift the flour, cornflour, mixed spice and cinnamon into the bowl and mix it until it forms a dough. Dust flour over a surface and roll out the dough to ½cm thick. Cut out the stars, then place on a baking tray and make a small hole at the top for the ribbon. Cut out the round shape in the centre of the cookie and place in the oven for 5 minutes. Take out and place the hard boiled sweet in the centre and return to the oven for 5 further minutes. By now the cookie should be browned and the sweet melted in the middle. Leave to cool and then thread with ribbon.

Gingerbread decorations:

• 350g plain flour
• Up to 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 100g butter or margarine
• 175g soft light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup or organic honey

Makes about 20 biscuits.

Put the flour, ginger and soda into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add sugar and stir in the syrup and egg to make a firm dough.

Roll out to about 5mm thick and cut out your gingerbread men. If you don't have a gingerbread man cutter then use whatever you have - stars and hearts are just as tasty.

Bake at 190 C /Gas 5 for 10 to 15 mins until golden brown. Leave to firm up for a couple of minutes before placing on a wire rack to cook. Once cooled, decorate with icing.

Swap the ginger for cinnamon or a few drops of vanilla essence if you don't like ginger.