The halls have been decked, the shopping’s completed, and the year seems to be coming to a mellow close. Perhaps your company has shut down during the holidays. Maybe you’ve decided to stay home since the kids are off school. Or possibly you work for yourself and find that all your customers have disappeared for their own end-of-year break. Whatever the reason, you have time to yourself – yeah! That doesn’t necessarily mean you have money to dine on filet mignon prior to catching a performance of The Nutcracker.

Vacations are meant to be enjoyed. And money-be-damned you’re going to enjoy yourself! You’d think with all the focus on shopping that it would be hard to vacation on the cheap during the holidays, but you’d be wrong! If you’re staying home for the holidays, and looking for free fun with a side of eco-friendliness, look no further!

The Budget Ecoist presents “Have Yourself a Merry Little Free Eco-Friendly Holiday” or “10 Free, Eco-Friendly Things to do While You’re Off Work for the Season”:

1. Jump in leaf piles – It might feel a bit late to be raking leaves (being winter and all) but plenty of people are dealing with piles of leaves on their ground. If you live in a mild climate, and your ground is filled with leaves rather than snow, take care of the chores, have fun and do good for the environment. Simply rake those leaves into piles, go crazy jumping in the piles, and when you’re done, throw them in the compost.

2. Take in the lights – Every town has that place they love to show off to family and friends who visit for the holidays. Whether it is a downtown with the city’s giant, decorated tree, an outside shopping center decked out like Disneyland’s Main Street, or a particular neighborhood where every house seems to sparkle – take in the lights like you were seeing them for the first time. And how is this plethora of lights so eco-friendly? Well, if you’ve been good, converting to LED and paring back on your own usage, consider this your reward. And if your city puts on a big display and has yet to convert to LED, start a campaign by contacting your city council to request they convert to LED.

3. Free Holiday Performances – You may not be able to afford front row seats to The Nutcracker, but there are always free performances going on around the holidays. Ask your local theaters if they offer free seats to dress rehearsals, look for opportunities to win tickets in your local newspaper, and be on the lookout for free “side performances” such as a Christmas Caroling Troupe performing in public on certain dates. Ride your bike or walk to the event.

4. Go on a bike ride or cross-country ski – If you live in a mellow climate, enjoy a leisurely bike ride through town or explore new bike trails. If you live in the snow, try cross-country skiing. Both offer much needed opportunities to work off those holiday treats.

5. Plan your spring garden – If you’ve always wanted to start a garden, now is the time to start planning. Survey your plot and decide if you’ll be making a raised bed, turning a patch of grass into a garden, or growing your herbs and veggies in pots. Once you’ve made the location decision you can prepare by gathering supplies: Be on the lookout for free non-treated wood; gather mulch for turning grass into gardening soil, and acquire pots for planting herbs and veggies. Research what grows best in your climate.

6. Visit Farms and Research Local CSA’s – CSA’s (community share agriculture) offer people the opportunity to take part in a farm’s boom and bust, while limiting the farm’s risk. Good seasons mean you’ll get fresh, organic food for cheaper than the stuff you could buy at a chain grocery store; even bad seasons offer a weekly shipment of good, healthy food. Find local farms that offer CSA’s on Local Harvest then take this opportunity to visit the farm, find out what food it grows, how much it costs and what the delivery options are (weekly, bi-monthly, etc). By spring time, you’ll be flush in farm-fresh food.

7. Preserve your food – Impressed with your Great Aunt’s pickled eggs that are oh-so-good in potato salads? Can’t imagine making your very own batch of pumpkin or apple butter? Canning and preserving isn’t just for August. Eggs can be pickled any time of the year. Squash, apples, pears and cranberries make wonderful preserves. Find books on preserving and pickling or research recipes online, then make it a family event or invite a group of friends over. Add in some rum-spiked eggnog to enjoy during your day-long preserving and you’ve got yourself a PARTAY (and some last minute gifts, besides)!

8. Snow Play! – If you live in the snow, perhaps you already take full advantage, or maybe you’ve come to take it for granted. But playing in the snow offers a full day of fun, for free: make snowmen, snow angels, cross-country ski, and toboggan. For those who don’t live in the snow, there’s still plenty of fun to be had: buy a block of ice, put a towel on the top, find a small hill and go ice cube-tobogganing! Alternately, you can turn a large piece of cardboard into a toboggan and slide down a muddy or wet hill. Be prepared to get dirty! (and be careful)

9. Learn to cook from scratch – How often will you have time to make homemade raviolis or pies? Take up a new hobby that will also provide great food! Raviolis aren’t terribly hard to make…they’re just time consuming. Use in-season ingredients (we recommend butternut squash and sage or pumpkin squash and walnuts). Because it’s time-consuming plan to gather friends/family for the day and make enough to freeze for many months to come. If you can do this three or four times a year, you’ll always have fresh, in-season raviolis and never buy from the store again! Similarly, you can make impressive in-season pies like apple, cranberry and pumpkin.

10. Make beer – If you’re a wine fan, you’ve missed the boat for this year (wine should be started in autumn) but you can certainly do your research and start gathering materials for making a barrel next year. But beer can be made anytime. And wouldn’t it be cool to bust out your homemade brewski when friends come over?