Simple Christmas idea #1 -- Decorate organically

I've decided to moodle some simple Christmas ideas daily for the next month or so, along with any of my usual odds-and-ends-ish reflections on life. These ideas come from a video that was posted online until Youtube rapped my knuckles for using background music that was copyrighted (I guess Handel's Messiah is in the public domain, but not that particular recording of For Unto Us a Child is Born). My bad -- you'll just have to imagine your own Christmassy background music as you read, I guess.

Sharing some simple Christmas ideas...

Tomorrow being the first Sunday of Advent, our family begins decorating for Christmas with our Advent wreath. I go out and cut a few branches off our cedars, soak them in warm water for 15 minutes (to kill any critters that might be on them), shake them out, hang them to dry in the laundry room, and eventually lay them across our metal candle holder. We're also using last year's candles (actually, we've had the same candles for many years). Buying new stuff that is only used once a year kind of messes up tradition, anyway.

Most of our decorations come out of three banker's boxes we store under the stairs, or from the great outdoors. Evergreen boughs, pine cones and fresh fruit are lovely, touchable decorations, and according to some research I ran across when getting my Simple Christmas workshops together, eating apples at Christmas is considered good luck in some places.

It's been years since we've purchased any Christmas ornaments. My favourites are the ones  our girls have made, and the Christmas cards that come in the mail, which I hang around our dining room. When preparing for Christmas, it's always good to consider where our decorations come from and where they will go when we're gone. A few branches of cedar will decompose in my compost pile, but plastic tinsel goes on forever, and if I really love my planet, I want no more than I've already got!

What's your earth friendliest Christmas decoration?