How to Decorate a Recycling-Theme Christmas Table

Rise to the challenge of setting a Christmas dinner table with recyling as your focus. Here are some tips to get you started.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Bottle Cutters
• Rickracks
• Used Bows
• Last Year's Christmas Cards
• Fabrics
• Glues
• Pine Cones
• Sheets
• Sweet Gum Balls
• Wine Bottles
• Plastic Tablecloths
• Magazines
• Postage Stamps
• Poster Boards
• Spray Paints

1. Use either an old white bedsheet or a washable plastic tablecloth, with the white fuzzy side out, as your cloth. To dress up the sheeting, you could use a Christmas-motif stamp (such as a tree) and stamp it with washable fabric paint.

2. Make a Christmas tree centerpiece from old magazines (two or three Newsweeks, for example) by folding the top of each page down to the center of the magazine, creating a 45-degree angle that's the top of the tree. Glue the magazines together at the center spines, spread the pages evenly and spray-paint dark green or other color.

3. Make an alternative centerpiece by creating a cone from posterboard or other durable product. Then glue on old bows (which would ordinarily be discarded without a second use) or pine cones or sweet gum balls, which will decompose in the compost heap once the centerpiece starts looking dowdy.

4. Set the table with standard dishes and utensils - not disposables. An ambitious crafter could use a bottle-cutter and turn wine-bottle empties into glasses.

5. Recycle cotton or cotton-blend fabric remnants into napkins. To finish the edges, pull out threads for fringe, turn under the edges and sew hems, sew on a trim such as rickrack, or cut the edges with pinking shears if the fabric is tightly woven (such as sheeting).

6. Reuse last year's Christmas cards by cutting out images from the fronts for place cards and writing names with a ballpoint pen.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're setting the table for a party, you might ask guests to get in the spirit of recycling by bringing a present they have made from recycled goods, perhaps a bird feeder from a 2-liter soda jug. Then do a gift exchange.