Decorating for Christmas Without Wasting Electricity

When I was a young boy growing up in the Ozarks, my mother had a Christmas tree without electric lights on it. At first I thought that Christmas would not be the same. However, I was wrong. It turned out to be one that I would never forget. We made a long red and green chain from colored paper. We also made a popcorn string that encircled our tree. She placed the tree in a corner of the room with a standing reading light behind it. We then proceeded to decorate our tree with other ornaments as well. She took a mirror and placed it on the floor underneath the tree stand. When the reading light hit the mirror, it reflected back up from underneath the tree. We also tied small colored bows on the branches. These were very inexpensive.

Here are some thoughts about conserving electricity during this holiday season. Most of these ideas are just common sense. They will not work though unless you are diligent enough to stick to a plan.

First, consider having a natural Christmas tree. Don't over decorate it. Just place a few ornaments on it and try to keep it looking natural. You can even place a natural manger scene under the tree. Many trees get loaded down with so many items that it detracts from the tree's look.

If you need light in that particular room, consider using candles. Just keep the candles away from the tree branches. Trees dry out in a hurry and can catch on fire rather quickly. There are also battery powered lights too. I have seen ornaments that have small batteries in them. Just click them on and off as you need them. There are even solar type of tree lights that are powered by the suns rays.

Luminaries are paper bags with candles in them. The candles light up the bad to produce a reduced light. Like candles, these can be very dangerous.

There use to be an electrical appliance that used a sun light bulb. The item had a small electric motor that would allow for a different colored reflection the tree to pass over the sunlight. I don't see these too much anymore. It turned out that those sunlights used more power than a regular string of lights.