Top tips for an Eco-Christmas
written by Jordan Fyfe
The holidays are around the corner, and for those of us who celebrate Christmas while making efforts to live sustainably, this can be a tricky time. I know some years I’ve just decided not to worry about it since it’s already a stressful time. So, we thought we’d try take some stress out of this by doing the research ourselves and making a guide of things you can try for a more eco-friendly Christmas this year.
If you want a challenge (and a little social obligation) we’ve made this eco-Christmas bingo template for you to play along.
Some simple ones to start you off.
1. Re-wear a Christmas outfit
Most of us have a collection of beautiful clothes already, why not re-wear something you already own or swap with a friend of the same size? No need to buy a whole new outfit for one day.
2. Take your reusable bags Christmas shopping
Get into this habit when going gift shopping as well as food shopping. I often take a backpack and put extra canvas bags, a water bottle, and snacks in there when I go on a big shopping day.
Catering
3. Minimise food waste
The first step in catering is to minimise waste.
- Make a plan. If you’re hosting, assign food jobs to people so you don’t have 12 salads and 5 chickens.
- Bring containers. Taking home leftovers is great, fry up the ham with breakfast, make the veggies into a frittata. Don’t let things go to waste.
4. Have vegetarian options
We all know eating meat isn’t great for the environment or friendly to the animals. Try reducing your meat intake by providing some delicious vegetarian options.
Casey Joy is an amazing local gardener and cook, find her vegetarian recipes here.
Cookie and Kate have great whole food and vegetarian recipes.
5. Ethically source your meat
If you’re not vegetarian, sourcing ethically can be a good alternative. Try bringing a container to your local butcher to limit the plastic involved or head to this link to find ethical suppliers in Australia.
6. Hand bake something
I love giving people a jar of baked goodies as a gift. Source your ingredients from a wholefoods store for extra eco-points.
Small Farms Whole Foods is my new favourite wholefoods store. Urban List have a list of some other good ones here. And this is my absolute favourite cookie recipe.
7. Reusable party items
Forgo the plastic plates, cutlery, and cups.
- Assign a couple guests with bringing plates
- Get guests to help with washing up
- Get your own collection of “party items” from an op shop and keep it in the cupboard
8. No Plastic bottles
Do we really need all those soft drinks? Instead, make a fruity punch, iced tea or lemonade.
9. Eco-Christmas cracker alternative
Do a whole different fun thing such as tiny hemp gift bags, envelopes with jokes, jars, or a classic pass the parcel. Or make your own crackers using this tutorial. And use this great toilet paper as the wrapping and the roll!
Gifts
10. Gift an experience
People rarely make time to go on adventures, so book them in and go with them! Why not get tickets to Rottnest, a stand-up paddle boarding class, the zoo, or book one of our creative workshops, the possibilities are endless!
11. Gift a Fairtrade, local or eco-product
We love heading to Collab in Freo to find great Fairtrade items. Other great gifts are reusable water bottle in their favourite colour, reusable make up removers, and eco-friendly art supplies.
12. Gift a charity donation
Not only is this a great last-minute gift, but it will spread the joy of giving. There are so many out there but WWF has some cute and easy options here.
13. Gift a plant
We have been growing chillies and tomatoes from seeds this year in preparation to gift seedlings to family and friends. Another great option is to gift cuttings in cute jars! Check out these how-tos on propagation.
14. Gift something Thrifted
Giving something pre-loved is a great way of finding something unique.
15. Re-gift a gift
This is such a taboo idea but imagine this. Last year your great aunt gave you an amazing lemon squeezer, but you already had one. At the time your sister said “oh, that looks great, I wish I had one of those”. Well instead of keeping both, why not gift it to someone who will get use out of it?
16. Handmade Christmas gift
My favourite. If you’re crafty or artistic, you have no idea how much people generally love your hand made gifts. You’ll enjoy making them and it will often save you money. If you aren’t crafty, why not put together something like a hamper of their favourite things in jars you’ve collected or bake them something delicious.
Wrapping and cards
17. Eco-Christmas wrapping
Wrapping things in fabric or scarves is a great way to save on paper and it’s like a double gift! Check out the Japanese technique Furoshiki for some wrapping ideas.
18. Save Wrapping paper
If you can’t afford fabric for all your gifts, try saving and reusing wrapping paper. Everyone knows me as the wrapping paper saver, I go home every year with bags of neatly folded paper. I now have so much that I may never have to buy wrapping paper again.
19. Handmade Christmas cards
Every year our friend group gets together and makes Christmas cards! It’s such a nice tradition. We use a lot of that wrapping I’ve collected, handmade recycled paper and recycled envelopes. You can get a Christmas card making kit here, I designed the cutest illustrations of Australian animals for it.
20. Christmas e-card
Even better for the environment than handmade Christmas cards is an e-card. You can design and email yourself or use a service like Green Envelope which creates a cute animation of your card and costs less than the cost of a stamp per person, all while supporting green charities.
Decorations
21. Reusable Advent Calendar
Invest in a beautiful, long life advent calendar that you fill up yourself. Making one yourself is a great project to do with kids.
22. Handmade Christmas decorations
Another great project to do with kids. Avoid plastic and hot glue, go for more natural options. We love dried orange slices; they can be composted after a few years.
23. Eco-wreath
Check out our eco wreath workshop, or consider going natural with your wreath. Check out this tutorial for ideas.
24. Eco Christmas tree
Did you know you have to have an artificial tree for 20 years for it to match the impact of buying a fresh cut tree every year? Well, mine is almost that old and there’s no point throwing it out now. But if you don’t already have a tree, the best option is actually to buy a real live tree, put it in a pot, take care of it year-round and just decorate it for the holidays. Check out this ripper idea.
We also suggest forgoing the lights or using LED because they can save a lot of energy.
Conclusion
That was quite a long list, I hope that you were inspired to try even a few of these options. We love to see all your eco-friendly ideas and especially handmade things, so tag us @openhandscreative on Instagram or send us a message via email or Facebook.
Merry Christmas.
