The holidays can be a great opportunity to relax and spend time with family and friends. But this season can be stressful if you’re trying to watch your energy use, either because you’re worried about money or trying to make more sustainable choices. Buying gifts, preparing lavish meals and celebrations often cause an increase in both energy and money spent.

To help you save money and reduce your energy use this season, we’ve come up with our top ten tips for an energy efficient Christmas …

Get together.

1. Celebrate together

This might be our simplest, yet most effective tip for an energy efficient Christmas — if you can, either host a group or join others for celebrations. This will hugely cut down your energy use as the costs of heating, lighting, and cooking will be shared between you. If you’re hosting, you can also ask your guests to bring certain items, spreading the cost between you. This might be asking someone else to bring dessert if you’ve cooked the lunch.

2. Travel together

Travelling somewhere for Christmas? Lift sharing with others attending the same celebration means you’ll save fuel and money. There’s lift-sharing websites and apps, like BlaBlaCar, that can help you find people travelling to the same destination.

Switch it off!

3. Turn off (indoor and outdoor) Christmas lights when you’re not using them.

There’s no point paying to light up your Christmas tree when everyone’s asleep! Timer plugs are relatively cheap to buy and can be a really useful way to help make sure your lights are only on when you need them, especially if you’re prone to falling asleep on the sofa after Christmas lunch! You can set a time when you want something, for example, the lights on your tree, to turn off automatically.

4. Power down your telly.

In the UK, we watch more TV over Christmas than at any other time. At the very least, make sure you turn off the TV when no one’s watching. Or try swapping some TV time for an energy-free activity like a board game!

Finally, make sure all devices like TVs, game consoles and computers are fully switched off and not left on standby as this wastes energy.

Get cosy.

5. If you have lots of people over, turn down the heating.

When there’s more people in your house it gets warmer, so you don’t need to run the heating as much or as at high a temperature. Try turning the heating down by one or two degrees when you have people over – you’ll save money on your energy bills and you likely won’t notice the difference.

6. Get your Christmas jumpers on!

Time to show off your most embarrassing festive jumpers, socks, and slippers! Try wrapping up a bit warmer and turning the heating down a little to save energy and money this season.

Recycle, reuse, reduce.

7. Reuse wrapping paper or try an eco-friendly alternative.

Wrapping paper can’t usually be recycled because of its plastic or foil lining, and it can be expensive. If you receive wrapped gifts, save what you can to use again next year. Try wrapping gifts in old newspapers (bonus points if you choose a story the recipient will enjoy) or any of these fun alternatives to traditional wrapping paper.

Energy efficient cooking.

8. Keep the lid on.

Keeping lids on pans can reduce the energy used in cooking by around 10%. It also helps reduce the amount of moisture produced when you cook, preventing condensation, damp and mould.

9. Embrace your microwave, slow cooker, or air fryer (if you have one).

All these cooking devices are more energy efficient than an electric oven, so can save you money off your energy bill. But this only works if you’re not already using your oven for something else – for example, there’s no point in making roast potatoes in an air fryer if you’re already roasting a turkey in the oven.

If you are using your oven this Christmas, try and cook things all in one go so you don’t need to heat the oven multiple times. Also, try to open the door as infrequently and for as short a time as possible, to keep the heat inside so it uses less energy to stay at the right temperature.

10. Eat your leftovers!

We waste a huge amount of food each Christmas in the UK – the equivalent of two million turkeys! Save money and energy by only cooking what you need and eating up any leftovers. There’s loads of recipes to help you use up your Christmas dinner leftovers. It’s recommended you store leftover food in the fridge, freeze anything you don’t eat within two days and reheat food to steaming hot.

For more inspiration about how to have an energy efficient Christmas, there’s more energy-saving ideas in our 101 Energy Tips.

If you’re worried about high energy bills or staying warm at home this Christmas, check out our energy advice pages or call our free advice line.