Lindsay Coulter, the David Suzuki Foundation's Queen of Green, shows you how to have an eco-friendly holiday season.

1. Recycle your holiday lights.
Eco-friendly LEDs use 95 per cent less energy than traditional lights, last 10 times longer and are more durable because they don't have filaments or glass bulbs. Recycle that old tangled string of lights. Check with retail stores or your utility provider for take-back programs.

2. Stick with sustainable seafood.
Fill your appetizer trays with tasty crab cakes or other eco-friendly choices. Canada's Seafood Guide can help you set your menu.

3. Give the gift of time.
According to Statistics Canada, there are 900,000 tonnes of garbage produced between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year. Rather than buying your dad another sweater he'll wear only once or buying your mom even more storage containers destined to be passed down, consume less. Try spending some quality time together, instead, by looking through an old family photo album.

4. Make cranberry sauce.
Bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone-disrupting chemical, is found in the epoxy resin which lines many food cans. Recently, BPA was found to seep from cans into the foods inside, such as baby formula, beans, soup and cranberry sauce. Switch to fresh, frozen or dried goods and make your own cranberry sauce from fresh or frozen berries.

This story was originally titled "4 Ways to Make Your Holidays Green" in the January 2012 issue. Subscribe to Canadian Living today and never miss an issue!

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