An Eco Friendly Christmas 🎄

[Everylittlehelpsalittle]

Has anyone managed it?
I am buying second hand stuff but what about the food? I have tried a few years now but always ended up panic buying presents last minute. I don't know why.
Any tips or tricks or ideas gratefully received

Make your presents or get organised and don't panic buy presents.

Leave meat off your plate.

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

The biggest thing you can do is reduce the amount of stuff you buy

I’m going to try and use vinted and charity shops as much as I can

Plant-based

Plan carefully in order to avoid food waste.

Plan carefully to avoid making many trips by car to buy gifts and provisions.

Give experiences rather than physical gifts.

Second hand gifts where possible, e.g. books. Also locally made.

Ditch wrapping paper and single use decorations, Advent calendars, paper
plates or plastic glasses for guests, etc.

Think about cleaning the house with less damaging products (often more cleaning involved than usual if guests coming, e.g. laundering bedclothes and towels) and resisting the temptation to chuck around bleach and air freshener to combat the reek of festive indulgence poos.

If in a cold country, think about keeping the house well insulated.

If travelling, use train rather than plane and public transport or walk where possible over shorter distances.

Don't do adult presents. Buy good quality Christmas decorations and reuse them. Plan out your meals and snacks. Rethink using battery lit decorations. Don't buy personalised or Christmas themed clothing, unless you are definitely going to pass on the themed stuff, or save them for messy/garden play.

Recycled/recyclable wrapping paper

Don't panic buy presents - have a list or spreadsheet and stick to it

Limit number of gifts - can you stop gifts to colleagues/friends you rarely see /distant family members

What's the general consensus on trees? Artificial one which lasts years but eventually ends up in landfill, or real tree ?

get yourself a christmas jumper from a charity shop and make sure you don't lose it- ideally, buy two so you can alternate and/or lend one to a colleague
instead of sending a card to everyone in your workplace, buy or make one, and leave it with some home made baked goods in the staff room
give relatives very specific suggestions of gifts for DCs and include non-stuff gifts (like memberships, lessons, experiences)
agree among adults to give no gifts or do secret santa so everyone buys and receives 1 gift only
make your own christmas cake/pudding- this won't be cheaper but will be far nicer and have smaller footprint
keep all your decorations and re use each year

keep all your decorations and re use each year
Surprised to see this mentioned more than once. Surely everyone does this already? Nobody buys new decorations each year

Christmas trees- are a crop like any other. Get a local one. Although it costs more, this is my extravagance, I always buy one. After Christmas I let it dry out and use the branches for kindling, or use the needles as mulch under a blueberry or similar. Or you may have a charity christmas tree collection and composting scheme near you.

It's all in the planning.
Food: think about what you're realistically actually going to eat and buy/order that much. Try and replace meat with something vegetarian/vegan (eg we've replaced our usual Christmas morning bacon sandwich with a halloumi one).

Presents: decide on a budget for each person you're buying for, research and decide what they'd like then order it and don't panic buy more. If you have kids think about something on the 'something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read' approach. See if you can pick stuff up in an op shop or vintage place. I get a lot of 2nd hand books. If you buy Stuff for adults in your family for the sake of giving them a gift think about doing something else - a charity gift, a voucher, an offer to take them out for a meal or do some babysitting. Don't buy plastic tat for stockings because you worry they'll be empty.

Extra waste: again think about whether you need the stuff that traditionally goes with Christmas. I don't buy crackers cos it all goes in the bin but I know someone who makes her own - they're made from fabric so she can reuse them and she puts little toys or puzzles in them that the whole family can play with (then they go into general use in her house). I wrap all our presents in cloth so we're not wasting paper/sellotape.
If you order something online think about where it will come from, try and shop local to reduce the miles things travel. If you want to collect from shops try to do it all in one trip so you're not driving around unnecessarily.
Don't buy things that'll only get worn once eg Christmas pyjamas or Christmas jumpers that will have been grown out of next year (I do own Christmas pyjamas but I wear them all year round).

I hope some of that is helpful.

@DockOTheBay

What's the general consensus on trees? Artificial one which lasts years but eventually ends up in landfill, or real tree ?

I think you have to keep a plastic tree for 10 years for it to be better than a real tree but I can't find the link..so this is relying on my poor memory.

no plastic, newspaper as wrapping paper, no meat or dairy.

Buy far less presents for everyone. If they don't really need that funny mug gift set or another pair of christmas socks then don't buy it. Definitely avoid buying everyone a brand new xmas jumper. Over consumption is what's destroying the planet.

It can be really hard. The pressure to confirm can be immense. Second hand gifts is a great idea. You are already doing a great job. We do that with people we know will appreciate it. My old job secret Santa, we did a £5 charity shop challenge the last Xmas I was there. Really creative gifts.

We have tried the following all of which were great in our eyes. Some people still don’t get it so there was a bit of eye rolling from some quarters :
‘Good Gifts’ or Oxfam virtual gifts.
Trees - woodland trust do gifts - plant a tree for someone and send certificate and where the tree is.
Made our own truffles and goodies.
Check to see what people actually need.
Hampers with nice consumables.
Lush cosmetics.

In terms of food we do vegan (think we did spinach and chestnut Wellington or something similar when we last did Xmas dinner for family) or vegetarian.
We used to get organic veg from Riverford - we have a similar local supplier now.
Paper wrapping paper or re-useable bags.
Gather Ivy and evergreen stuff from the garden, local over grown wasteground and put it in jars for decoration. Make our own wreath - reuse everything bar the the greenery.
The tree we compromise on and get a real one. This year we might do branches instead.
Xmas cards we still do. We buy recycled ones but it still feels wasteful - but so hard not to do in case it hurts people feelings.

@DockOTheBay I know a fair few people who change their colour themes every year and so change decorations. It’s really bad but it happens.

[quote LuckyAmy1986]@DockOTheBay I know a fair few people who change their colour themes every year and so change decorations. It’s really bad but it happens.[/quote]
Wow thats pretty shocking

LuckyAmy1986

@DockOTheBay I know a fair few people who change their colour themes every year and so change decorations. It’s really bad but it happens.

That is depressing. I bought classic traditional and have had for over 15 years.

I know so many people who have a different Christmas tree theme colour every year!

I have three DC and am so beyond done with all the plastic tat - anything plastic will be preowned this year so at least they still get the crap stuff they like, but I’m not buying into the toy industry directly this year.

Decorations: real holly/ ivy wreath, decorated with pine cones, oven-dried fruit etc., a few candles, fabric-based and wood-based reusable decor (scour German Christmas markets for that kind of thing - they're awesome), maybe a few candles in glass containers.

Homemade cards (if you do them) with non-metallic toppers/ drawings/ die-cut paper decorations - all of which can be recycled. Or even, if you're feeling crafty, paper from pulp (shredded and soaked paper) with seeds embedded, which can be torn up and placed in the ground.

Presents: experiences, consummables (food/ toiletry set the person would need anyway - full size, no miniatures - a perfume they normally buy, second-hand items.

Food: locally-sourced goose/ duck stuffed with chestnuts and apples, seasonal vegetables, apple sauce (most festive vegetarian foods are nut-based, which are extremely resource-intensive, too, so not always a better choice). Homemade plum pudding.

The rest of the time? Good, old-fashioned games and board games, winter walks.

Low-key, very eco-friendly.

How old are your children? When mine were young I got a lot of their toys from eBay. They never knew and we couldn’t afford to buy brand new anyway. Now mine are older they have asked for money. I e also got them some books, Xbox vouchers, toblerones and some clothes they need. I wrap everything with brown paper.

My tree is 15 years old and still looks like new. We got it in January from House of Fraser. It was the shop display one and it cost me £12. Our decorations have been collected since we first moved in together.

I also decorate with greenery, pine cones and lots of handmade makes.

We have some babies being born before Christmas in the family and I have been asked to make them some cardigans, hats and rompers for Christmas. Parents get theatre tickets. Dh is having a seasonal ticket for his sport and I have a very expensive yarn advent calendar.

Last year I purchased the same amount as food as we usually do even though we didn’t have family coming and embarrassingly so much got wasted. We will still have the extras - cheese and crackers, chocolates but I will be buying from the farm shop if I can afford it. If not it will have to be tesco. We are meat eaters and even though we eat veggie based meals a lot there is no way they will go for a meat free Christmas.

My favourite present from DH was one year he chose me a load of second hand books. Not just a pile from one charity shop but he went to several and curated them and each one was appealing to me for a particular reason. I reckon that was a pretty eco friendly gift.

We are vegan, run one small car and use Whirli for toddler toys but apart from that green credentials aren't great so will follow this thread with interest.

I have been thinking about making those drawstring reusable gift bags this year but not sure if I'll get round to it. I always threaten myself with crafting projects, forgetting I work full time and have kids.

Forgot to say about reusable advent calendars. We have one with pockets that we fill with treats.