Please support our Cut the Christmas Carbon campaign - our beautiful Earth deserves an extra special present!

If all of us simply took a few minutes to think about our spending, our power use and our lifestyles in general, it would be the best present of all for the planet and humanity - after all, if the Earth dies then so do we.

Please sign up to our campaign by dropping a line to - susan@biggreenguide.co.uk

We'll register your support and make sure you get updates on the campaign - and any good green tips received from readers.

Please tell all your friends and ask them to sign up too. If enough people make pledges to cut their carbon this festive season, we could make a big difference.

We're adding content on a regular basis during the countdown to Santa's visit so please check back regularly.

See the menu on the left for more information and advice.

There are so many things you can do to enjoy a Greener Christmas. Some will cost you nothing at all and others will cost very little - especially when you consider how much we all spend on non-essentials over the holidays.

So, our first tip is .................. plan your Christmas meals! We can't stress enough how important it is to have a shopping list when you hit the foodstores in December.

It's estimated that ONE THIRD of the food we buy at Christmas goes to waste. We're tempted by all sorts of ready meals and gooey desserts that we wouldn't buy at any other time.

And the truth is - a good proportion of it sits in the fridge until it's past its Best Before Date and then it ends up in the bin.

By planning your meals, you will have a much better idea of the amounts of food that you need to buy. And as well as helping the planet, you'll save yourself a fair amount of money (and calories of course!) which you can use for a better purpose such as...

solar Christmas Lights!

Three years ago, we ditched our outside Christmas lights. They looked beautiful and we loved to come home to their twinkliness but the sad fact was that they were using unnecessary energy.

This year, we're going to put lights up again but we've invested in solar powered lights so we don't need to feel guilty about wasting energy - and we don't need to worry about turning them off at bedtime either :)

There are solar Christmas lights available in all shapes and sizes. Why not buy them from Amazon - and if you use the link on our home page, we'll be a step closer to affording the wonderful professionally-designed website that we want to create (sigh...

Thanks for stopping by - and don't forget to make a Christmas carbon pledge TODAY.

Susan x