Saturday, December 11

Going Green for Christmas: My Recycled Cardboard Tree

To me, there is nothing more fun during the holiday season than going to the tree lot on a chilly night. Living in Los Angeles, I can make believe for that brief time that I am back in the northeast (where Christmas feels like Christmas).

Bringing home and having an elegant fir tree throughout the season always makes the house smell like Christmas, and the twinkling lights made us happy. But each year I rue the task of taking the tree down. It's not quite as lovely as the day we brought it in, and frankly? It makes a mess and becomes a fire hazard.

My initial foray into daring to go green for Christmas was when I saw an old aluminum tree at a garage sale, I snapped it up and we had a sparkly 50s Christmas. (I also found they sell for a tidy profit on eBay and bought as many as I could to resell - but that's another story).
This year, while in Montreal speaking at webcom, I saw a tree displayed made completely out of cardboard. It reminded me that much of the decor at PayPalX this year was made of recycled cardboard and I was intrigued.

I inquired and got a Cascades tree delivered to my house - we were happily surprised! It was delivered in a nice (easy for future storage) flat box. The tree and it's ornaments are diecut from sheets of 100 % recycled fiber (the  Trees are FSC® certified) and we had a great time putting the tree together. It was very much like putting together a huge puzzle!

The tree I selected was the Moderno with a festive holiday print on natural color board. They sell several style and color options on the Cascades website. The trees were developed together with Cascades’ Italian partner,  Reno De Medici. The styles in the Collection are the Classico, Moderno and Piccolo trees. Sizes? The Classico is 41″ x 28″, the Moderno 52″ x 29″ and Piccolo 24″ x 13″. Each style comes in your option of three colors: white, forest green and a print version. Prices range from $29 to $45 and include free shipping.

I no longer have the guilt of being party to a beautiful tree's demise!
Families with children will particularly like the plain white trees. I can easily see children having a great time designing their own. Seems that's what they had in mind too.
Take one minute and enjoy this short video, produced by Cascades, to give you an idea of the fun you and your children can have:

1 comment:

  1. not sure I'm ready for the cardboard tree but that one is pretty cool looking!

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