By JULIE MORAN ALTERIO
THE JOURNAL NEWS

People passing Carolyn Summers' home in Hastings-on-Hudson can admire her outdoor Christmas lights for their colorful display, but she appreciates them for what's behind the glow.

The lights are powered by the sun rather than the electric grid. Summers never has to flip a switch to turn them on. Instead, energy collects in a small solar panel during the day. At sunset, the lights go on automatically and stay bright until about midnight.

Summers, a landscape designer who specializes in native plants, said the solar-powered lights let her enjoy the holidays without harming the environment.

"I love the Christmas lights, but it does kill me to think how much electricity gets used up burning them," she said. "Considering what we are going through with global warming, it does seem wasteful. But it's very cheery to see the lights. It's a great relief to enjoy them guilt free."

The holiday season traditionally has been a time of more woe than joy for environmentalists. All that electricity. All those catalogs. All that wrapping paper. All those greeting cards. All the waste - the volume of household trash rises 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, equal to about 1 million extra tons of garbage a week.

But instead of seeing red as in years' past, environmentally minded consumers are increasingly opting to go "green." Energy-efficient lights, recycled wrapping paper - even gift certificates for renewable-energy credits - all are on the wish lists of shoppers this year.

Six out of 10 Americans said they are more likely to buy environmentally responsible gifts or products this holiday than last season, according to a recent poll by Cone Inc., a Boston-based consulting firm that specializes in cause-related marketing programs.

"This past year, there has been so much about the environment out there, people are thinking differently about consumption," said Julia Kivistik, an executive vice president at Cone.

From Al Gore's 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming to "Rudolph the Recycling Reindeer" in the window display at Barneys in Manhattan, environmental awareness is in the air. Even the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the Times Square New Year's Eve ball got makeovers with energy-efficient lighting this year.

"People are seeing it, reading it, and they are starting to say, 'What can I do about it?' " Kivistik said.

More than half of Americans (54 percent) surveyed by Cone said they are willing to pay more for an environmentally responsible gift or product. A nearly equal proportion (52 percent) said they feel less guilty about holiday consumption if their choice doesn't harm the Earth.

This year, it's easier than ever for consumers to expiate their guilt as marketers rush to meet the demand for green goods.

Five years ago, Philips Lighting had just a few products for consumers who wanted to buy holiday lights strung with energy-efficient LEDs, or light-emitting diodes. This year, there are more than 60 styles with a variety of bulb shapes and colors, said Jim Anderson, director of product marketing at Philips Lighting.

Even though the lights cost three to four times as much as a traditional set, more people are buying them. In 2005, LED strings made up about 3.5 percent of Philips' holiday light sales. This year, it's up to 10.5 percent.

People are opting for LED lights because they are about 85 percent more energy efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs.

"Energy is on the mind of a lot of consumers now. They are getting hit at the gas pumps and in their home-heating bills," Anderson said.

Philips has replaced all of the bulbs in the Times Square ball with LEDs for this year's 100th anniversary.

The green and blue LEDs in the ball use just 1 watt of power to deliver the same light output as last year's 40-watt incandescent bulbs. The red LEDs use 2 watts. The white LEDs use 20 watts compared with last year's 60-watt halogen bulbs.

Even though the energy savings aren't huge - the ball is only powered for a short while - Anderson said it's an example of what green thinking can do.

"It's symbolic that the industry is changing," he said.

A big difference between today's green craze and the environmental movement of the 1970s is there are products to satisfy the urge to conserve, said Roberta Wiernik of Chappaqua, an environmental educator with the League of Women Voters.

Wiernik recently bought a string of solar-powered holiday lights at The Home Depot.

"I was pleased to see them. I didn't know they were on the market," she said. "It's a great energy savings, and it's an opportunity to support this industry. Thirty years ago, we told people to buy recycled post-consumer paper, but it wasn't there for the most part. I'm delighted at even these baby steps."

Sharon Rowe of Ossining, founder of Eco-Bags, said her reusable-totes business has grown 300 percent this year.

"It's not just a trend. It's a huge shift, and we're just at the tip of it," Rowe said. "We're so busy with this green zeitgeist, we can barely keep up with phone calls."

Eco-Bags, which are sold at 2,500 retailers nationwide and on the company Web site, are an alternative to paper and plastic bags when holiday shopping at the mall, Rowe said.

"Why do you have to take a bag from every single store? You don't have to," she said. "It used to be you'd get looks from the checkout people. Now they are used to it."

Customers also are ordering Eco-Bags as stocking stuffers.

"We've had people call us to tell us they are using our bags versus wrapping paper," Rowe said.

Though many environmental efforts are sincere, consumers should view green messages skeptically, said Urvashi Rangan, an environmental health scientist and toxicologist at Yonkers-based Consumer Reports magazine.

Barneys might be touting its environmental bona fides, but the message comes in a catalog printed on thick paper, Rangan noted.

"It has taken on a life of its own at this point, and all the marketers are rallying around it because consumers are more concerned about the environment these days," she said. "That's a good thing. What gives me pause is when marketers are trying to jam their products into this hole and saying whatever they can to fit it. Use your common sense."

Diane MacEachern, founder of the Web site Big Green Purse, which encourages women to use their dollars on environmentally friendly products, said the best way to help the planet is to cut back altogether.

"One of the most effective messages we can send is we're not going to spend our money on things that create a problem in the first place," she said. "Keep the purse closed."

MacEachern, author of "Save Our Planet: 750 Everyday Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth," said avoiding TV ads and starting traditions that don't have an environmental impact - like a pot-luck party with neighbors - is the way to go.

"It's easy to get new traditions started when children are little," she said.

Randy Pratt, who runs Wilkens Fruit & Fir Farm in Yorktown Heights, said his family heads to a sewing store after the holidays to buy Christmas fabric at a deep discount.

"In our house at Christmas time, we don't have any wrapping paper," Pratt said. "All of our gifts are wrapped in cloth bags made of Christmas fabric."

The family has made almost 200 bags in the years since his eldest daughter, now 21, was a baby.

"We don't miss ripping the paper apart or having all that paper piled up," he said. "I try to do things as environmentally sound as I can."

Laura Barkat, an Ossining home-schooling mother of two girls who writes an environmental blog called Green Inventions Central, said her family has an array of traditions that bypass the cash register.

Last year, for instance, her 10-year-old devised an Advent treasure for her 8-year-old sister with shadow puppets featuring the characters of the Christmas story.

Michele Hertz, a sculptor and mom of two, is opting for organic beeswax candles in her family's menorah purchased at a retailer near her home in Hastings-on-Hudson.

"I try to shop locally for all of my gifts, and when possible I walk to town to shop," she said. "Shopping locally saves gas. Gas equals carbon in the atmosphere, which is upsetting to me."

Hertz also this year signed up at a new Web site called Catalog Choice ( www.catalogchoice.org

Catherine Hiller, a writer and editor from Mamaroneck, is shopping this year for a renewable-energy credit to satisfy her son Jonathan Warnow's holiday gift wish list.

The idea of the credits is to support alternative energy sources, like wind power, to offset coal and other industries that contribute to global warming by producing carbon dioxide.

Hiller said the request started a lively e-mail exchange with her other two sons, Alex and Zach, and has rekindled her own idealism.

"Jon has started a dialogue about the meaning of gifts, Christmas, sustainability, and that is the important thing," she said.