Green Christmas

[Uki]

anyone else thinking of trying to have a greener Christmas, like cutting back on wasteful/excessive pressies and the like?????

I'm trying to cut back on buying things that arn't environmentally friendly, and giving foodie gifts for adults and home made things.

Not sure what to do about dc's? dh loves buying toys, try and avoid plastic i guess, anyone got any ideas for a greener Christmas?

We are cutting right back on electic christmas lights around the house. The dc and I do loads of creative stuff anyway so we're going to start our decoration-making bonanza soon. We make all our own cards (not sure if taht's any more eco-friendly though..)

I'm also ttrying to think of ways to cut back on wrapping paper (still want to make pressies look gorge though)...

I have already made fabby spiced apple chutney and am going to do some "Christmas" chutney for grown up family, and have been experimenting with fudge recipes (first lot went straight in the bin... )

And...most proudly...I found a really stylish christmas party outfit in a charity shop for £10!

I was wondering whether using brown paper and then using some of the fabby ribbons I have might be 'greener' Was talking to one of our County Councillors last night and we discussed recycling wrapping paper as our council says you can't. he explained the issue is the metallic bits you get in some wrapping papers. Other sorts can be recycled but after christmas the sorters at the depot are like to junk all wrapping paper rather than work out which ones can be recycled.

How about furoshiki instead of wrapping paper?

I am cutting back on x-mas cards and wrapping papper, im not wrapping all of the dd's gifts, they take so long to unwrap them anyway. I also means i can put them together x-mas eve to save time on x-mas morning. I might just tie some ribbon around them to make them look pretty.

Wrap in newspaper, reuse last years wrap, wrap in tinfoil then stick it on the turkey!!, bow on adult gifts (especially the obv. ones like a bottle)
Don't buy more food than you are going to eat, don't buy loads of tat, wrap up the first dcs baby things and give to the second (they only want the packaging anyway)

We have more or less stopped exchanging presents between adults in our families, that cuts down on a lot of wasted stuff and none of us actually need anything.

Or we give food, drink, perishable things, or things from charity catalogues.

we use newspaper or paper the children have decorated for wrapping paper, don't send cards (though the girls do). We buy a lot of toys second hand.

My 3 dds really like making things so they get very excited by making decorations, food, cards, presents, so we manage a lot of Christmas excitement without actually having to buy much. I've just bought a set of 6 books from The Book People which are those Usborne Things to Make and Do books. All 6 books are about things you can cook and make with Christmas themes. I think that will keep the dds very happy for a long time.