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NEVER mind a white Christmas, in keeping with the new eco-friendly lifestyle I've adopted this year I'm dreaming of a green Christmas.

As regular Eco Dad readers will know, it's been a few months since I embarked on my mission to turn over a new environmentally-friendly and ethical-living leaf. Together, we've been through the trials and tribulations of learning how to raise chickens, cut down energy bills and even go veggie.

But the next few weeks sees the biggest hurdle so far: how to keep it green while getting through the festive season.

With just 27 days to go until Christmas Day, the countdown is on. However, I am determined not to get sucked into the whole commercial nightmare. No, we're going back to basics in the Hughes household for an old-fashioned family Christmas - very eco.

Instead of splashing out on loads of new toys destined for landfill, we'll be dusting down old board games that have been collecting dust on top of the wardrobe, making our own mulled wine and recycling those old Christmas records from years gone by.

But, before then, there are some important eco choice I have to make over the next few weeks.


THE TREE

AS any dad knows, there's no festive fun like wrestling a Christmas tree into your house, spending hours manhandling it into position and a few more frustrated hours trying to find the one fairy light that doesn't work. This year, however, I just can't decide what type of tree to go for - real or fake. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

In the days before Eco Dad, we've always gone for a traditional real tree.

If bought from a renewable source, they can have very little impact on the environment and will keep people in jobs year in year out.

After it has been used, it can either be planted in the ground or shredded and used in the garden. If you have room in your garden you can let it decompose, providing accommodation for all sorts of wildlife. If you had a wood-burning stove you could use it for fuel.

Now for the bad news. Some real trees come from non-sustainable source. That is, when the tree is cut down a new one is not planted in its place.

Any wildlife that lived in your tree will be left homeless - and if you throw it away afterwards it clogs up landfill, too.

On the other hand, fake trees have come a long way in recent years. The eco advantage being you only buy it once, saving money and petrol in the future. So that's got to be better on the environment.

But there is one glaringly bad side to fake trees. They're made from plastic, the stuff that takes years to decompose. An average fake tree will be used only six times and then thrown away for a newer model.

Can I buy plastic and still claim to live the eco lifestyle?



THE PRESENTS

FOR a lot of people, presents are the be all and end all of Christmas. I'm not against them myself, I just feel they have taken over the limelight a little.

So, I'm thinking hard about what to get people this year. Previous years have seen me dashing from shop to shop to just get a few generic presents, ones that could be wrapped up with labels written for anyone.

This year is different in two ways - my newly-found eco mindset and the general lack of spare money. We're all feeling the pinch, so a proper list must be drawn up.

My biggest bugbear for the last few years has been cards and crackers. Why do we feel it's OK to spend several pounds on a bit of cardboard when that money could be much more ethically spent? I'm not going to buy a single card this year and, for anybody reading this, please don't send me a shop-bought one, either.

No, this year I'm going to make all my cards myself. It's going to be cheaper and it will have that personal touch money can't buy.

Plus, we can get the boys involved and have a good quality family time together.

Alternatively, I'm going to take a peek at the charity-related cards and crackers out there, like ones from John Lewis (£15), made from recyclable materials with pledges inside benefiting Save The Children.

And, finally, I need to wrap my eco presents. You might think wrapping-paper is relatively cheap but I think something more eco-orientated is in order.



THE CHRISTMAS DINNER

THE biggest challenge this festive season will be the Christmas dinner.

This is the first Christmas my wife and myself have spend being veggie. So, no turkey with all the trimmings for us.

Just to make the whole thing a little more complicated, our two boys are very much meat-eaters and will accept nothing less than a big juicy bird on the day. If the thought of not having turkey on the day was bad enough, I have to cook one and smell it when it comes out of the oven.

I might have to rethink the omnivores menu, I don't think my willpower is up to that.

So, I have two menus to prepare but, hopefully, I can cross them over in parts. I don't think the boys will mind too much if their starters are meat-free.

As for dessert, I can't see anybody complaining at organic Christmas pud and home-made chocolate cake.

I've been searching the internet for ideas and have also received a few Christmas menu recipes from the Vegetarian Society.

So, I hopefully have all bases covered but you can always guarantee in our house something will go wrong somewhere.

I might even have a dummy run a couple of weeks before just to make sure we all know what we are doing.

Catch up with Ben every Friday in the run-up to Christmas to see how he manages his three challenges. Email your ideas to ben.hughes@men-news.co.uk