Scrooge or eco warrior?

I noticed this sign earlier this week so yesterday I went inside the church and bought some Christmas cards - I know I have said I can't bear to think about it till nearer the time but the first year we were back from France and I went to buy some charity cards at the beginning of December they had packed up and gone! They are only on sale from now till 4 December apparently.

As you may already be aware Christmas is not my favourite time of year - I don't know why as I love the reason for it, the carol services and the spirit of goodwill BUT I could count on one hand the number of Christmases that haven't ended in tears, usually mine. I loved it when my daughter was little and I was kept busy making angel costumes out of old net curtains and searching the shops for a Care Bear she really really wanted but now well.....

Am I the only one who feels the stress mounting when the October magazines come out filled with all the things I should be doing in order to have a proper spectacular Christmas? I should have made my puddings and cake by now so that they can be maturing nicely - why? We don't actually like Christmas pudding and when I make a cake it is usually only me that eats it and then I get depressed as the pounds I have managed to lose pile back on. I should be making lists and buying gifts (cashmere cardigans and stocking fillers at £30 each? - who are these people anyway?) along with sheets of wrapping paper and ribbons, filling my freezer with food to feed the hordes of visitors (what when we are never more than 4 including my sister-in-law and daughter and this year my daughter will probably still be roaming round Australia) and generally preparing to deck my halls and to be merry - well Bah humbug! I won't do it any more. I refuse to worship at the altar of commercialism in the cathedral of Tesco!

I have decided that this year instead of sending gifts to my friends I will enclose with their cards a little handmade Christmas decoration - see above - and a note explaining that I have decided to give the money I would have spent (usually only about £5 each plus postage) to charity and suggest that they give to charity too instead of to me - many of them have already been told of my decision anyway. So to this end I am now busily making some little decorations that will fit nicely inside the envelope with a card. I will make little sachets like the one below from recycled papers stamped with a potato cut - I am having such fun here!

Now tell me, honestly, can can I claim this as being in the interests of reducing my carbon footprint and helping to save the planet (as well as my sanity) or am I actually just a miserable old bag and a Scrooge into the bargain?

PS Just realised that it might look as though I have but 3 friends - those are just the first 3 tree decorations I have made more will follow!