Green Holiday Entertaining: 20 Easy Ways to Celebrate With Less Waste

Holiday entertaining produces a remarkable amount of stuff.

Food. Packaging. Wrapping paper. Decorations. Disposable plates. Plastic cups. Paper napkins. Party favors. Leftovers.

And approximately 700 tiny cocktail napkins featuring tasteful gold reindeer.

None of this means you need to cancel Christmas dinner and invite everyone to sit silently around an undressed house eating locally sourced lentils.

A greener holiday party can still have lights. It can have presents. It can have decorations. It can absolutely have dessert.

The goal isn't to produce zero waste or achieve environmental perfection. It's much simpler:

Use what you already have. Buy less stuff you don't need. Waste less food. Choose reusable things when they make sense. And don't throw away perfectly good things just because December happened.

Here are 20 practical ways to make holiday entertaining a little greener—and usually a little cheaper too.

1. Start With What You Already Own

Before buying anything for the party, look around your house. You probably already own:

• Plates
• Glasses
• Serving bowls
• Platters
• Tablecloths
• Napkins
• Vases
• Candles
• Holiday decorations

Use them. This sounds painfully obvious, yet stores have somehow convinced us that December dinner requires an entirely separate inventory of holly-themed objects.

Your ordinary wine glasses work just as well throughout the holiday season. So do the forks.

2. Don't Buy “Green” Replacements for Things You Already Have

This is where sustainable intentions sometimes get strange.

You don't need to throw away perfectly good plastic serving pieces because you've decided bamboo is greener.

If you already own something usable, using it is usually the least wasteful option.

Replace things when they actually need replacing. Not because you've discovered a more virtuous version on the internet.

The greenest holiday platter may be the one currently sitting in your cabinet. Conveniently, you already paid for it.

3. Send Digital Invitations When They Make Sense

For a casual holiday get-together, digital invitations save paper, envelopes, and postage.

They're also much easier to update when someone inevitably asks,

"Wait, is this Saturday or next Saturday?"

Email, text, or an online invitation service all work. Pick whichever one your group will actually open.

If you love printed invitations and they're part of the fun, send them. This isn't a holiday tribunal. The goal is to find easy ways to cut waste, not to ban everything made of paper.

4. Skip the Single-Use Party Décor

A decoration that is manufactured, packaged, shipped, displayed for four hours, and then thrown away has a very short career.

Before buying disposable banners, table decorations, or novelty party supplies, ask:

Will I use this again?

If not, consider skipping it.

Instead, decorate with things you already have:

• Ornaments
• Greenery
• Pinecones
• Candles or flameless lights
• Fruit
• Bowls of ornaments
• Holiday cards
• Branches
• Existing Christmas decorations

You don't need a different decorative ecosystem for every gathering. Christmas is already in the house. Let it work a shift.

5. Decorate With Fewer, Larger Things

This is good decorating advice and good waste-reduction advice. Instead of buying 30 little holiday objects, create a few focal points.

For example:

The front door

The dining table

The mantel

The food table

That's enough to make the house feel festive. You don't need a Christmas object occupying every horizontal surface.

A stapler doesn’t need a Santa hat.

6. Use Real Dishes When Practical

7. Bring Out the Cloth Napkins

If you own cloth napkins, holiday meals are a good time to use them.

They don't have to match. They don't need elaborate napkin rings. And they absolutely don't need to be folded into swans.

Fold them. Put them on the table. Done.

If cloth napkins would create more laundry than you're willing to deal with, use paper. We're reducing waste. We're not starting a linen-management apprenticeship.

8. Stop Buying Holiday-Specific Everything

Christmas plates.

Christmas cups.

Christmas paper towels.

Christmas straws.

Christmas serving bowls.

Christmas storage containers.

Christmas toothpicks.

Retailers would happily sell you a seasonal version of every object in your home.

You don't need one. Let alone all of them.

Use ordinary household items and let the decorations provide the holiday part. Your mashed potatoes don't need a Santa-themed serving spoon to understand the occasion.

9. Plan the Menu Before You Shop

11. Let Guests Bring Something

12. Serve Water Without Creating a Mountain of Plastic

If your household drinks your tap water, serve it to guests too. Fill a few pitchers or a dispenser, set out glasses, and you're done.

There's no need to buy cases of plastic bottles.

For other drinks, buy containers sized for your crowd. A few large bottles usually beat dozens of single servings that get opened, sipped, and abandoned.

If your local program takes the containers, make the recycling bin easy to find. Guests shouldn't need a guided tour.

13. Label the Trash and Recycling

If you're expecting a crowd, set up clearly marked bins for trash, recycling, and compost (if you have it) where guests can't miss them.

Someone standing in your kitchen with a sticky plate has about three seconds to decide where it goes, so make that decision easy.

One caution: recycling rules vary from town to town. A recycling symbol on an item doesn't mean your local program accepts it, so check what yours takes before you label the bins.

14. Make Leftovers Part of the Exit Plan

Before the party, make sure you have enough containers for leftovers. Scrounging for a matching lid at 10 p.m. while your guests stand around holding their coats is nobody's idea of a festive finale.

Better yet, if your crowd always splits up the food at the end of the night, ask your regulars to bring their own containers. Then you can send everyone home with:

• Turkey
• Ham
  
• Vegetables
  
• Desserts
  

That casserole someone insists on bringing every year
That beats playing refrigerator Tetris until midnight.

You get two benefits. First, less food goes to waste. Second, the pie leaves the house. By December 27, you'll be grateful for both.

15. Don't Leave Perishable Food Out Past Party Time

Cutting food waste doesn't mean saving food that hasn't been handled safely.

Perishable dishes shouldn't sit out on the buffet for the whole party. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold, and get leftovers into the refrigerator promptly.

The usual guideline is no more than two hours at room temperature.

If you're not sure something is still safe, toss it. Guilt about wasting food is not a good reason to keep it.

After all, leftover potato salad stops being an environmental win the moment it sends your guests to bed with food poisoning.

16. Give Your Leftovers a Post-Party Role

Holiday cooking tends to leave odds and ends behind: a bunch of fresh herbs, part of a carton of cream, extra vegetables, a wedge of cheese, some fruit, and half a jar of something so specific you bought it for exactly one recipe.

Before all of it disappears into the back of the refrigerator, decide what you'll do with it. Tomorrow's meals might include:

• Leftover vegetables in soup
• Meat in sandwiches
  
• Herbs in another dish
  
• Fruit at breakfast
  
• Bread turned into French toast or croutons
  

A leftover with an assignment actually gets eaten. Without one, it sits in the refrigerator for six days, waiting for a future that never comes.

17. Gift Wrap Using What You Already Have 

If there's a gift exchange at your party, not every present needs brand-new wrapping. Reuse what you've saved:

• Gift bags
• Boxes
  
• Tissue paper that's still in good shape
  
• Ribbon
  
• Bows
  

If you do buy paper, choose one your local program accepts. Don't assume all wrapping paper is recyclable, because metallic finishes, glitter, and plastic bits can keep it out of the bin. Check your local guidelines.

Or skip the research and reuse the nice gift bag Aunt Susan gave you last year. She'll never know.

Unless you hand it back to Aunt Susan, so keep track of who gave you what.

18. Skip the Party Favors

Adults don't need a souvenir to prove they came to dinner at your house. And kids don't need one more plastic trinket, either.

If a favor adds something to the occasion, go ahead. Just don't buy them because you think parties are supposed to have favors.

Your guests are already going home with:

• Full stomachs
• Good memories
  
• Possibly leftovers
  
• Whatever they picked up in the gift exchange
  
• At least one new story about a friend or relative
  

That's plenty to take home.

19. Clean With What You Already Have

Hosting a holiday party is no reason to buy a whole new lineup of "green" cleaning products. The ones already under your sink will do the job.

Use washable cloths instead of paper towels when you can, and follow the directions for each product and surface.

Green cleaning doesn't mean experimenting with chemistry. The bathroom can wait while you read the label.

The Green Holiday Party Shopping Test

Before buying something specifically for your holiday gathering, ask:

Do I already own something that does this?

If no:

Can I borrow it?

If no:

Will I use this again?

If yes, buying it may make sense.

If no:

Do I actually need it?

This four-question test can eliminate an impressive amount of seasonal merchandise from your shopping cart. Especially the merchandise located near the checkout.

That area has been professionally trained.

The 30-Minute Post-Party Green Reset

When everyone leaves, don't immediately begin a three-hour cleanup marathon.

First 10 minutes: Food

Refrigerate safe leftovers.

Send food home with guests where practical.

Deal with perishable foods first.

Next 5 minutes: Reusables

Collect:

• Dishes
• Glasses
• Cloth napkins
• Serving pieces

Start the dishwasher or soaking as appropriate.

Next 5 minutes: Waste

Separate trash and locally accepted recyclables.

Next 5 minutes: Decorations

Put reusable decorations together rather than throwing everything into random boxes.

Last 5 minutes: Surfaces

Wipe obvious spills and treat stains that shouldn't wait.

Floors can come later unless something is sticky.

Sticky always gets promoted.