As the trees have grown in South Portland’s Mill Creek park and the price of the electricity has risen, it has been more and more of a drain on the city to put on the Christmas light display that marks the holiday season for its residents. But this year, the city was able to hang more lights than ever – without blowing a fuse.

Town Manager Jim Gailey was thinking ahead this summer when he purchased 10,000 LED lights to hang from the trees.

“We’re moving toward being a more energy-efficient city,” said Gailey, who added that making the decision to purchase the lights – a $9,800 cost that will reduce the energy use by over 80 percent – was “an easy thing to do.”

All around southern Maine, people and communities are looking for new ways to reduce energy costs and recycle and reuse the trees, wrapping paper and packaging that traditionally winds up at the curb around the holidays. However, waste management officials say more could be done.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of household garbage in the country generally increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, from 4 million tons to 5 million tons, and about 33 million live Christmas trees are sold in North America every year.

Public works departments in many local towns, including Gorham, collect Christmas trees to chop into mulch and be reused by the community and its residents.

Bob Burns, Gorham’s public works director, said Gorham residents could take Christmas trees and wreaths to the Public Works building on Huston Road free of charge. ‘We chip those up and put them in with mulch,” Burns said.

Gorham residents Melissa and Chad Dudley are interested in conservation and recycle their natural Christmas tree. After the holidays, Chad Dudley cuts up the tree and puts the pieces in the woods on their property. “We put it back where it came from,” he said. “We recycle.”

Bob Malley, director of Cape Elizabeth Public Works, said the town collects about 2,000 trees, which, he said creates a sizable pile of mulch.

“Some people take it away and use it in their gardens,” he said. “It smells nice.”

These are just a couple ways towns and people are trying to cut back on the large amount of energy that’s expended and waste that’s produced during the holidays.

Using LED (light emitting diode) lights is one of several suggestions from ecomaine, the regional waste management facility, as a way to be less wasteful during the holidays. The company also urges people to reuse or recycle all wrapping paper, gift boxes and shopping bags.

Heather Chandler, publisher of the Westbrook-based Sunrise Guide, a coupon book for healthy and sustainable living in southern Maine, suggests that shopping locally for both gifts and food for holiday dinners “keeps money in our local economy.”

Chandler also encouraged giving gifts that don’t take up a lot of packaging, encourage sustainable living and give back to environmentally conscious organizations, like a membership to the Maine Audubon Society.

“You’re really giving twice,” she said.

Heidi Will of Scarborough said her children make their teachers gifts out of empty jars of baby food. They wrap the jars, which they get from their neighbor, with double-sided tape and decorate them with glitter and beads, then put a candle inside.

“We tend to give gifts that we don’t have to go to the store and buy,” she said. “Tonight, I made sugar nuts for my neighbors.”

Jetta Antonakos, of the Waste Management and Recycling Program in the State Planning Office, said one way she encourages people to have a “zero-waste” holiday is to give the gift of an experience rather than something tangible.

“People have too much stuff,” she said, and rather than give them more you can, “do something as simple as spending time together doing a favorite thing,” which is not only valuable for the experience itself but for the memories it creates, she said. For example, she said, offer to help with chores, set a date to bake together or make time for a trip to the bowling alley.

But if packaging is a must, Antonakos likes recyclable gift wrap and not foil or plastic. She also uses real plates, cups and silverware and cloth napkins for her holiday meals, not plastic and paper.

At One Earth Natural Food Store in Shapleigh, owner Alissa Laitres said this year, the store sold Wrapsacks, a reusable gift bag made of recycled cotton.

“It’s an alternative to gift-wrapping,” she said.

Each bag has a unique code that can be tracked online as the bag is reused.

“They go around the country. It’s pretty cool,” she said. “It’s kind of a unique gift.”

Though individual efforts can go a long way, towns and cities have their responsibilities for keeping the waste to a minimum during the holidays.

Like South Portland, the Sanford Fire Department has decorated Central Station with energy-efficient LED lights to save on energy costs.

Assistant Chief Jeff Rowe estimated a savings of 1,525 kilowatt hours over the course of the 35-day holiday season, from Thanksgiving through the new year.

“We project our use would decrease from about 1,550 kilowatt hours to 28.7 kilowatt hours,” he said.

LED Christmas lights were popular items in Gorham this season.

“I’m out of them completely,” said Phil Cook, owner of Cook’s Hardware on Main Street.

The Dudleys were in looking for the LED Christmas lights in last Thursday, and might have bought a set, if they had been available. The couple has the older style, but they conserve energy by regulating the hours for their Christmas lights, turning the Christmas lights off during the day and before going to bed.

Joseph Poulin of Auburn, who stopped at Cook’s Hardware Thursday, said he favors the energy-saving lights because he fears people would eventually lose the spirit of Christmas because of the high cost of energy.

“I’ve already swapped over to all energy saving Christmas lights.” he said.

Mary Jane LeCours, a store clerk at Cook’s Hardware, displayed LED Christmas lights at her Gorham home for the first time this year. She said the colors are more intense. “They look nice and they’re more visible,” LeCours said.

“I expect my light bill will be nothing,” LeCours joked.

At Aubuchon Hardware, 400 Narragansett Trail, Buxton, Ginger Decker, assistant store manager, agreed with LeCours about the appearance of the LED lights and customers were asking for them this year.

“They look better than the other type,” she said.

Decker said light timers were popular, oo. “They were a hot item this year,” Decker said.

In order to promote purchasing LED lights, this year, Efficiency Maine, a Maine Public Utilities Commission program, is offering coupons for those who purchased the lights.

According to Nicole Clegg, spokeswoman for the commission, the amount of energy used to light one regular bulb is the same amount it takes ot light a whole strand of LED lights.

“A lot of people seem to want to buy them because Efficiency Maine offers that discount. And they’re being promoted more. I think more people are aware of them, and are asking for them,” said Doni Bell, assistant manager of Aubuchon Hardware in Windham.

Bell said the store almost sold out of their LED lights.

Along with the what lights to buy comes with a debate about what to hang them on.

Ginny Moody, one of the owners at Moody’s Nursery & Garden Center in Saco, said it takes more energy to manufacture an artificial Christmas tree than it does to grow one, and that artificial trees are environmentally unsound because they are

made with petroleum products.

“What people don’t seem to understand is that Christmas trees are grown as a crop, just like pumpkins, potatoes or corn. They’re grown to be cut down,” Moody said.

Though Will, in Scarborough, understands the argument against artificial trees, she said her family has had the same one up in their Scarborough home for 10 years. To her, that’s 10 trees saved, and more to come.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t last another 20,” she said.

Green Christmas