St Michael’s Advent Calendar & Christmas Appeal:
'Green Christmas' Competition
Katherine's 'New Year resolution' wins competition
A green New Year's resolution has won a hamper of chocolate for 17-year-old Katherine Pears. She was the winner of our 'Green Christmas' competition (below), encouraging people to think about ways of helping the environment and cut waste during the festive season.
Katherine's tip for a green Christmas was: "Make 'being green' a New Year's resolution. Recycle all your cards and wrapping paper and send any unwanted presents to charity, so nothing is wasted."
(To find out where to recycle your Christmas cards and tree, click here.)
She also had to guess the "odd sponsor out" in St Michael's online Advent Calendar, in aid of its Christmas Appeal. Four of the sponsors were actively 'green' - Eco Age in Chiswick High Road, Turnham-Green gourmet gifts, Greentomatocars hire cars, and Chiswickw4.com, which is promoting the Chiswick Eco-Village project. Eco and Turnham-Green have published their own tips for a green Christmas and New Year (see links below).
The odd one out was FBL Properties (but they also run a composting scheme at their student houses in Egham, to help the environment!).
"We'd like to thank all our supporters for helping St Michael's Christmas Appeal, and our own efforts to help the environment" said Mother Katherine Hedderly, the curate at St Michael & All Angels, who chairs the church's Green working group.
Mother Katherine is seen here presenting Katherine Pears with her prize, a hamper of Fairtrade chocolate from Ghana, donated by Divine Chocolate
Help us to make it a Green Christmas and you could win a hamper of Divine Fairtrade chocolate! 
Christmas is special at St Michael’s, but we recognise it can be a time of over-indulgence. How can we reconcile that with our ‘Make Every Day a Green Day’ scheme, the Church of England's Shrinking the Footprint campaign and the Chiswick Eco-Village project, trying to reduce our carbon footprint and that of the local community?
At St Michael’s we have a Green Working Group, looking at ways we can help protect the environment. For five years, we have recycled all the waste on Green Days weekend at the Bedford Park Festival. Through our Green Night in June, we have built links with local green organisations such as Eco, Turnham-Green gourmet gifts, Greentomatocars, the Conservation Foundation and the Green Homes Concierge Service, which has a Bedford Park case history on its website.
Several of those firms are sponsoring St Michael’s Advent Calendar this year, in aid of our Christmas Appeal. If you’re using a cab this Christmas, why not use a firm which uses hybrid cars and offsets its emissions, such as greentomatocars? Eco has produced tips for an Eco-Christmas (see chiswickw4.com), and Turnham-Green offers 12 Steps to a Green Christmas.
To encourage you to come up with your own ideas to help the environment, and support our Christmas Appeal, we’re running a Green Christmas competition, in which you could win a hamper of Fairtrade chocolate from another St Michael's supporter, Divine, which has just opened its online shop.
How to enter
1. Find our Advent Calendar
2. Find the five sponsors and, if they have them, their ‘Green Christmas’ tips
3. Tell us which Advent Calendar sponsor is the odd one out and why
4. Give us your suggestion for a ‘Green Christmas’ – this is the tie-breaker for those who answer question 3 correctly
5. a) E-mail your entry with your name, address and phone number, to ‘publicity@smaaa.org.uk’ or
b) send it
to ‘Green Christmas’ Competition, St Michael & All Angels Parish Office, Priory Avenue, London W4 1TX.
Rules
1. Entries close at 8pm, Sunday December 21st 2008, after the Nine Lessons & Carols service and mince pies!
2. The judges’ decision is final.
Christmas Appeal
Entries are free. but all donations are welcome, in aid of St Michael’s Christmas Appeal, opening doors for people in need:
- HAY – Hounslow Action for Youth
- The Upper Room, feeding the needy in West London
- and The Lamb Health Project in Bangladesh.
Please contribute in church or send a cheque made out to St Michael & All Angels to Christmas Appeal, St Michael's Parish Office, Priory Avenue, London W4 1TX.