We have all heard of using granite, formica, quartz, stainless steel and tile for countertops. But what about paper?

The new eco-luxury item in kitchen design is PaperStone.

PaperStone is made from sustainable sources, making it the “greenest” architectural surface on the market today. It is the only architectural solid surface certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for using 100% post-consumer recycled paper. ( There are three different PaperStone lines, one is made with 100% recycled paper, the second is 50%, and the third with virgin paper.)

The paper fibers are held together with non-petroleum, formaldehyde-free resins, some made from cashew nut shell liquid.

It can be cut and shaped with standard woodworking tools, yet is extremely hard and is practically impervious to water. It is scratch resistant and can be used for cutting boards. It is also highly resistant to staining and can withstand temperatures up to 350 degrees, making it an excellent choice for kitchens. It is also resistant to bacteria growth, making it popular for commercial applications.

At $90 to $120 a square foot, PaperStone is comparable in price to granite or engineered stone.

The New York Times is calling it the Year of Eco Decorating.

A recent Guggenheim International Gala event 28,000 square feet of a parking garage on the Hudson River was decorated in post-consumer cardboard including the tables, chairs, centerpieces and chargers.

While visually stunning, I think we will stick with our traditional holiday themed dinnerware. I am not sure that my extended family would embrace this.

But the basic idea can be incorporated into all of our holiday decor. I already wrote about the LED lights. But what about the decorations that are going up around your house? Punched tin can lanterns made from your recycled tin cans can make nice accents to your holiday table. Gather pine cones from your yard (before it snows!) and place them in shallow bowls on the buffet. Use the cuttings from the Christmas tree to decorate the mantel.

You don’t have to eat off of cardboard to make your holiday a little bit greener.

So the time has come to deck the halls, hang the garland, curse out the tangled mass of Christmas tree lights.

You know, the ones that you promise every year that next time, you are going to put away properly.

But we all know that by the time the tree is half dead, losing all its pine needles and the holiday spirit is a distant memory you won’t care anymore and stuffing them into the box will seem like a perfectly acceptable idea.

I need new tree lights this year. I should have bought them already, but I haven’t. I also need new window candles. The past two years they have all been sold out by the time I ventured to the store. I guess I should stock up when the holiday decor first comes out, in August.

Do you remember the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, when Chevy Chase hangs all of the lights all over his house and the neighbors are blinded by the lights? Well, for many people that level of decorating is a thing of the past. Rising energy costs have made people scale back on their electricity usage. And I am not sure that is a bad thing. Just sayin’.

Well now that LED Christmas lights have come of age, they are a viable option for holiday decoration. They are available in a wide variety of colors now, unlike years past when red and green were the only options.

They do cost a considerable amount more money to purchase them, about $1 more per bulb. The advantages though outweigh this single negative. LED bulbs use 90% less electricity. Made of a hard plastic, they are virtually indestructible. So over the long haul they will actually cost less. LED bulbs are cool burning. So if you do chose to light up your rooftop and yard like you are part of a traveling carnival,* you will not have to worry about having the fire department on stand-by.

And this is not even factoring in being environmentally conscious.

So go forth and decorate, tastefully. If you are unsure what tasteful decorating looks like, please check out the link above for clarification

Updated to add: Even the lights at Rockefeller Center this year are LED.   According to the news, the 84-foot-tall Norway spruce is sporting energy-saving bulbs and an array of solar panels atop 45 Rockefeller Plaza will help power them.