I’m sitting here writing this and panicking about the fact I’ve got stockings for 4 children to do this year rather than 2 and arguing with myself about the ease of stuffing them with crap vs my desire to be more sustainable. As a family we’ve made lots of small changes over the last year, it could be the ‘Attenborough effect’ or the rise of the Extinction Rebellion folks but we have definitely become much more aware of our consumption. We are buying our milk in reusable glass bottles from a local dairy, we’ve swapped bathroom toiletries to refillable brands, found places to recycle packaging which doesn’t go in the green bin and have been having fun buying clothes from charity shops and joining in a fabulous local clothes swap. All of these are tiny changes and won’t save the planet, but as Sam, the lovely yoga teacher said today “if everybody made a tiny difference there would be a world-changing overall difference”.
So with that in mind, I thought I would share some ideas for a more sustainable Christmas style. I’ve pulled together a few images from my Pinterest board ‘Christmas’ here, you can click back to see the original source. There are loads of ideas for recycled decorations and homemade gifts on this board.
images from Pinterest
image from coollage.se
Oh, how I love glitter….. and that has been one of my most difficult things to give up but it’s terrible for the environment and our waterways, so no glitter this year! My other Christmas love is brown paper, and this is totally allowed , even better if its recycled craft paper - yay! Even my husband gets on board with the brown paper and wraps all his parcels with brown paper and funky coloured jute string! I go a step further and tie in little sprigs of greenery or fir cones.
Every Christmas I hop over to Waterlane Workshops on the other side of the valley to teach a wreath-making workshop with Kate the owner. We always try to be as sustainable as possible and use a traditional moss base and lots of foraged greenery, fallen cones and fruits and seed heads. Florists foam is another thing that doesn’t biodegrade well so if you can avoid it do. One of the things Kate and I always talk about at the workshops is how to decorate your home naturally, so we love to reuse and repurpose. Old jam jars wrapped in music paper with stars or hearts cut out make super tea light holder which look lovely grouped en masse for parties, make sure the paper is below the rim of the jar and tie a ribbon or raffia and a sprig of greenery around for decoration - don’t have one too many and go to bed with a candle left lit! Hostess gifts and teacher gifts can be made by planting a small plant such as a hyacinth bulb or tiny hellebore in a pretty teacup or an enamel mug or an old plant pot. Top the spoils with some moss for a neat finish. You can make a pretty place setting by gilding a pear with gold wax then using a nice pin, fix a piece of card with your guest’s name at the top of each next to the stalk. You can pin an evergreen leaf on with it too. Collect old linen napkins - it doesn’t matter if they don’t match and tie with raffia and a sprig of rosemary with a name card tucked in. Gingerbread is a great medium for all sorts of decorations and gifts and its a great thing to make to keep children occupied (and off their phones for a few hours!)
Foodwise, I have gone back to shopping at the Farmers Market on a Saturday and surprisingly I’ve found i’m spending less and wasting less. We’ve all enjoyed cooking and eating more seasonally and also finding recipes to use the ingredients rather than the other way around. This year I’m going to try and not do that mad dash of shopping to excess, we don’t have to cater for every eventuality. I feel we’ve rather lost the idea that Christmas is more about being together and not about spending a fortune on things we will throw away.
Wishing you all a happy festive season.
Sarah xx