Some people love the idea of Christmas, and are bursting with excitement as the season approaches, ready to start tossing tinsel everywhere and blasting Mariah Carey from the rooftops.
Other people feel exhausted by just the thought of all the buying and baking and decorating and…. stuff.
Christmas spirit is awesome and all, but somewhere along the line, it feels like it has become mostly about lots and lots of stuff.
How much Christmas waste do we create?
I don’t want to put a huge downer on your Christmas, but we do create an awful lot of waste this time of year. We produce 30% more waste and rubbish during the Christmas period than we do for the rest of the year.
Aussies spend around $11 billion altogether on Christmas gifts, and apparently, we report as a nation receiving over 20 million unwanted gifts.
Are we just creating more clutter – and perhaps more stress?
There are very few people who couldn’t say that they don’t have too much stuff. A decluttering craze took over the world this year with everyone adopting the Konmari method of getting rid of anything in their home that didn’t ‘spark joy’.
Every gift you receive needs to go somewhere in your home. It needs to be used and cleaned, or hidden away taking up space, but either way, do we really need every gift we get at Christmas?
Hang on… don’t you…
Ok, ok, let me stop here for a quick second to acknowledge that I LOVE giving gifts, and that the NovelTea Book Club is built around giving hand-wrapped gifts (to yourself or your favourite book lover). I also love Christmas. So this seems like a weird blog post to write, right?
But here’s the thing: I also love simplicity, mindful consumption, and the environment. I LOVE giving gifts, yes, but more than that, I love giving the right gift. Finding the perfect present for each of my loved ones, rather than just handing over something because I feel like I have to. That perfect gift might not be expensive or new or shiny, or even something that I can physically ‘hand over’. I hope that’s true for Book Club subscribers too. I hope that NovelTea parcels are the perfect gift, and something they are truly excited to receive each month.
Now that we’ve addressed my apparent conflict of interest, let’s continue…
There are a couple of questions that we could be asking ourselves at Christmas (or at any time of year, really…)
What changes can we make to look after the environment?
What changes can we make to look after each other?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and chatting with friends and family. How can we simplify Christmas? How can we clean it up, retain what is wonderful and what is important (whatever that means for each of us), just with a bit less… stuff?
Eco-Friendly Christmas - It doesn’t need to be about having more
As I’ve been thinking this all through, I’ve come up with a few ideas. Read on for 5 Easy Ways to an Eco-Friendly Christmas. I hope you can find some inspiration for how you can make this Christmas a little bit greener.
1. Give Fewer Gifts
Studies say that children can’t process being given more than four toys to play with at one time. By the time they open the fifth, they have forgotten about the first completely.
I wonder if adults are any different?
It may be more beneficial to stagger your gift-giving, or just give less altogether.
2. Give Experiences
Instead of giving things, give experiences. Better still, give experiences with you, so you get to spend time together with this special person again sometime after Christmas.
Gift a voucher for a massage or facial, for dinner out or perhaps a trip to the theatre or the movies. You can even gift things as varied as sky-diving, luxury-car driving, abseiling and trampolining.
Subscriptions (like the NovelTea Book Club, for example – shameless plug here!!) are also a wonderful idea, because they don’t pile on all at once, and stretch the joy of receiving out all year. I love the idea of a National Geographic Kids subscription, or one to an art and craft or science box. I’ve even had customers purchase a subscription for themselves and a gift subscription for a distant bookish bestie – what a brilliant way to share an experience across the country or the world.
3. Use Less Paper and Plastic
Look for gifts that are wrapped in less plastic packaging, or gifts that are wrapped in entirely recycled or recyclable materials. You could also look for gifts already made from recycled materials.
Make gift choices that the environment will thank you for. Give a keep cup to a coffee lover, a set of silver straws to a cocktail lover, or a beautiful BPA free drink bottle to your gym-nut friend.
4. Recycle Everything
Either wrap in recycled wrapping paper or wrap in another gift – a scarf, a quirky tea-towel or a pretty throw.
Make absolutely sure that you recycle everything you can after the big day itself – including paper and plastic, glass and tins.
Recycle food as well – look for recipes for leftovers and that use up any scraps like cheese, meat, and veggies. You can freeze any leftover fruit for smoothies at a later stage. Leftover lollies can be used in baking slices or cookies, while most savoury items can be popped into soup another day.
5. Shop Local and Australian
Buy as much as you can from local and Australian shops, especially small businesses. The carbon footprint of these items is lower, and the money made goes back into your local community and the local environment.
An eco-friendly Christmas should focus on joy and love and fun, and also on sustainability. That way we are giving generations and generations of children to come a world in which they can enjoy their own Christmas.
We are gifting Christmas to the future. Now that’s the spirit!