A lower-waste Christmas

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I'm hoping to share ideas for having a lower-waste Christmas. I get a bit fed up of all the "stuff".

The first thing I'm culling is those enormous boxes of Quality Street etc that are always reduced to £4/5 in the supermarkets at some point.

I'll try to go for some experience type gifts.

I'm looking for ideas for advent calendars for the kids (7 and 8, both girls). In the past I've filled bags/boxes/pouches myself or got a Lego/Playmobil Christmas scene. What can I do this year that won't add to the mountain of "stuff"?

Come and share all your ideas and questions about any aspect of a lower-waste festive season

I've managed to cut out gift giving altogether with adults our own age, we just buy for each others' kids now. DB and the in-laws are very happy to take instructions, cuts down unwanted presents. Likewise we ask what they want for their kids well in advance.

I'm starting to think about gift lists now so I can give people a useful idea rather than them buying something that isn't wanted or used.

Up to a point we've given DS (or requested for ourselves) something that would have been needed at some point anyway but we get a nicer version e.g. socks, jumpers, pyjamas, character bedding sets, wellies, slippers. You get the idea.

Books and board games at least get used and are made of paper and card for the most part. One year DS received 90% books and was quite content. They take up a lot less room in the house as well.

We've also used Christmas to top up the arty crafty cupboard, nice felt tips and grown up drawing pads and what nots. It's stuff you'll probably for kids sooner or later anyway.

Can get away with second hand up to a point. If people ask me what I want I might steer them to a second hand video game.

We've never gone in for big boxes of chocolate just to have in for Christmas, but there was too much baking last year. It's lovely to have home made Christmas cake but this year I'm going to cut it up, then ice a half a time and give some away. There's only three of us in the house, we don't need a whole Christmas cake.

I'm on the look out for any further waste reduction as well.

I think one of the lowest waste idea is not to give someone what you think they would like, and only buy exactly what they want.
No more unwanted presents sitting in the bottom of a cupboard for a year. Can be stopped by just asking someone what they would like

That's a great idea! I'm also looking at doing a less wasteful Christmas. Some of the things I'm doing:
Thinking of wrapping gifts in second hand scarfs or brown paper with nice ribbon so it's also a gift or can be properly recycled
We have a nearly 4 year old so a lot of toys we can get second hand. Lego, sylvanian families etc
Buy less crap food and drink. We never finish it and have to try and palm it off on family. So buying less will mean less to get rid of.
Last year we got all our fruit and veg from a local box fruit and veg company that gets it from local farms. The quality was so much better so will be doing it again.
We do have the quality street brought for us but we use the tins for medicine and storage boxes so at least it's reused.
We have amazon lists for presents. We actually get what we want and what our 3 year old wants instead of the deluge of crap.
Hope that all helps and look forward to seeing what others ways we can reduce!

Real coins in a fabric advent calendar is my idea for this year.
No plastic tat in stockings.
Useful gifts where possible.
Paper and ribbons for wrapping. Gift tags can be made from old cards.
Panto tickets make a nice gift or cinema vouchers.

Not to mention the dreaded office Secret Santa!

Last year, thank the lord, someone at my workplace suggested people donate to a local radio appeal that collects gifts for children that are going to have a difficult Christmas (in hospital, homeless). My team agreed we'd all buy for that instead of doing secret Santa.

I'll be making my own bags/fabric to wrap presents in rather than wrapping paper.

This is a double win because I can't wrap for shit.

Secret santa is cringe. The pressure to get it right, to not cause offence, the waste, the crap present in return. Ugh.

Last year I made some reusable gift bags using christmassy fabric, I will do more this year. I recently made a similar bag for a wedding present too.

I only give gifts to my sisters and children, my parents have passed away, and the people invited for Christmas dinner. I’ll give a gift to my in laws if I see them. I gave theatre vouchers to my adult step kids.
One big waste is wrapping paper. My mum used to carefully open gifts and re use the paper one year to the next (this only works with larger presents). I reuse the bows.
I make chutney and jelly from our homegrown fruit and if I have to give presents to a teacher etc give a jar of that.

When I was working (in a school) I organised a collection instead of sending Christmas cards to each other. We'd buy something from Oxfam unwrapped - usually a toilet for an African village plus mosquito nets or similar.

We've also cut out buying for the adults and now do a small secret santa on each side of our family. The only presents we now buy are the two secret santas, respective work secret santas, my grandparents, DS, DNephews x2 and DNiece x1. Then a few token homemade gifts for neighbours and our parents from DS - usually a homemade bauble or biscuits but something that will either be kept as a keepsake or to eat.

The whole family agrees it's been better for reducing unwanted gifts but also takes away the financial pressure that some of us were feeling at Christmas.

I avoid waste by not doing it at all. Haven't done for years.

I gave up making Christmas cakes a few years ago as nobody ate them at Christmas and they would still be hanging around in February. I still do a decorated cake but a different type like carrot cake with cream cheese frosting or a white chocolate and cranberry cake.

If we host our dinner is very much pared down. Simple roast with pigs in blankets. Fruit salad for pudding.

No Christmas cake
No tins of chocs
No dates or marzipan
No table presents (apparently it's a thing?)
No special crockery
No special spirits
No selection boxes

We do get a nice cheese board and chutney. And smoked salmon. But it's pretty much a standard weekly shop.

Decorations are always recycled, no changing colour schemes.

Crackers are very wasteful but family members are adamant that we must have them.

I wish we could cut down on presents for adults... I only get my siblings and parents. DH still gets for his aunts, uncles, adult cousins even though we haven't seen them for ages. They pass on usually rubbish presents to us through his mum which invariably have to be thrown away or given to charity eg the time my 1yo daughter was given a boys pyjama set sized for age 5. I'm not cluttering our home (then a small flat) for 4 years while she grows into things.

I'd like to do away with crackers. The jokes are always shit, as are the toys; people awkwardly wear the hats until they rip. What's the point?! Wondering what I can do instead so that the kids won't mind missing out on the tat...

On crackers... my auntie once made really nice ones, she'd gone and got little perfume and beauty samples and things people would use, personalised to each person.

Last year we made our own crackers with personalised gifts - all little things we knew people would use/like and they were a real hit. For example some little bits for a model railway enthusiast, plectrums for a young guitarist (who loses them lots!)

I used brown paper for wrapping last year and decorated/tied up with ribbons and string and with brown luggage label type tags. All the paper then became fire lighters for the fire and i kept all the ribbons for this year. They looked really pretty.

Ive started to be really canny with gift giving - immediate family only and children only where possible.

Secret Santa. Spend £50 each or whatever and everyone gets one great present.

Food wise i plan as carefully as possible and i only buy a small Christmas pud these days as only a few of us eat it and then a chocoalate pudding for the kids (which always goes). Ive stopped making a traditional cake as it just gets wasted - yule log goes down much better!!

It’s easier now the DCs are older to avoid plastic tat. We don’t do crackers or plastic table decorations, just candles with pine cones, greenery etc.
I try and source gifts as ethically as possible but it’s not always easy. I’m not crafty at all so can’t make my own but DD1 makes beautiful cards and pictures for people.

I WISH my family (well mainly DH’s family) would listen when I say we (adults) would like nothing. Not ‘we don’t want/need anything’ but specifically, ‘we would LOVE to receive nothing’ 😄 I have spent all year decluttering and so I am going to lay it on extra thick this year. No presents for us please.

DC1 is only 4 so we’re still relatively new to the kiddy Christmas experience, but I’m also very aware that it’s going to go so quick and the magic will be over in just a few years.

The xmases we have had at home we’ve just cooked the food we’ll eat (no leftovers, no big tins of chocs, no cake to be wasted etc) and I’ve tried really hard to fill DSs’ MASSIVE* stockings with useful non-tat.

But the lack of excess is somewhat melancholy, which I realise is a sad comment.

*my mum made the kids’ stockings, they’re huge but I like the sentimentality! Obviously didn’t bother for the kids’ first christmases.

bendydick
If you keep asking for nothing but the insist in giving, why not ask for something like food or a plant etc. Something that can be enjoyed but not clutter up the home? Or a book you'd love to read and can donate after? I love giving gifts at christmas and would be sad if my family said don't bother anymore, but I do also make sure I stick to a list of what they want.

I don't buy presents for family except my DH and DC . (This was agreed by all of us , not just me being Mega Scrooge)

I send DMum flowers .

I don't buy cards except to send to parents, Brother SiL

I do buy the tubs of sweets to go in a glass jar on the coffee table then any left over get melted in some cream to make sauce for ice-cream

I buy only a few types of cheese , nothing that is 'festive' so no cranberries or ginger . I got a chilli one last year that DH loved

Small Christmas Pudding (I just buy one , I used to make one in the past when we had a house full, but really no-one eats it now )
Same with cake , I make a fruit cake in a 8" square tin, cut in half an freeze half . I usually take some to my DParents .

I do buy something new for the Christmas table and work round that (in our house it's The Thing ) . DH will ask if I've planned my table yet , DD says she hasn't found The Thing yet .

No Christmas Crackers , waste of money . I used to do table sweets but no-one eats them so no.

My DC (DS will be 20 and DD 17.) so they know what they want . DS likes money not 'things' and has a December birthday .
I buy him PJs , bathrobe ,bath smellies and underwear - because he needs them anyway . Couple of tops or hoodies . I take DD with me to choose . I know nothing about brands , DS isn't bothered . She'll choose something nice for him .

DD knows exactly what she wants

DH will order books or computer bits , I'll order some clothes or beauty from M&S or QVC , we aim to spend equal , it comes out of the joint account

I do a Beauty Advent for her , I buy 24 beauty things she'll use rather than a commercial one that she won't . It works out ££ so it's part of her presents.

We do Christmas Bedding but we've had them years .

I don't buy things too early , aim to have most of the bulky stuff by late Nov so I'm not trying to wrangle things round the shops.
I get to a time when I won't to to Lakeside or Bluewater unless it's really early or really late . The M25 at 11am on a December Saturday is shit.

I use my Nectar Points to buy my big shop.

Try and avoid The Twitch

Cinema tickets make a good gift for teens.

Don't bother adding bows and tags to presents. I reuse gift bags and will save decent packaging (eg boxes) when shopping online to wrap presents.

I usually buy boxes of sweets for neighbours and parents of my son's friends. Looking for something similar, cheap, universal but with lower plastic...any ideas? X