Experience gifts like a trip to an amimal park or a family membership of a zoo are a great alternative to buying a plastic toy to gift this year. Photo / Unsplash
Experience gifts like a trip to an amimal park or a family membership of a zoo are a great alternative to buying a plastic toy to gift this year. Photo / Unsplash
Christmas - it’s the season of gifts and feasts, and the unavoidable leftovers the day after. Unfortunately, while the edible leftovers generally end up in sandwiches, the non-edible leftovers - discarded packaging, broken decorations and the like often end up in our landfill.
According to The Sustainability Trust, New Zealanders send 50,000 extra tonnes of waste to landfill in the week after Christmas. That’s enough to fill 14,286 20-foot shipping containers. If we stacked those containers, they would be three times the height of Mount Everest. In other words - we produce a lot of waste over the festive season.
The good news is, there are lots of things we can do that will help reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill, without having to cancel Christmas. By making just a few changes we can still all enjoy all the fun of the season, with the added gift of being environmentally friendly.
Christmas decorations:
Swap the tinsel and glitter for more natural decorations this year. Photo / Unsplash
When choosing your decorations, avoid tinsel and glitter, both of which shed microplastics into our environment. Instead, use pinecones, flowers and leaves to create natural decorations for your home, along with reusable decorations made out of wood and glass that will last for generations. Use fabric scraps to make bunting, and get the children busy crafting with paper and their colouring pencils to make paper chains, snowflakes and angels to decorate your tree with.
Christmas trees:
A potted tree gives you the chance to keep your tree long after Christmas has finished. Photo / Unsplash
Consider making a reusable tree out of driftwood or old pallets, or if you are really clever, how about making one out of carefully and creatively stacked books? If that’s not your thing, how about one made out of felt, with decorations you can attach with velcro? If you prefer a real tree, when buying it check with the seller if they take trees back in January for mulching, or look for a potted one you can reuse or plant in your garden afterwards. Doing that means you don’t have to stick with a traditional type of tree either - why not change it for a fruit tree - it comes with its own decorations and provides pudding too!
Think about portion sizes and seasonal produce when menu planning for your festive feast. Photo / Unsplash
Avoid leftovers taking over your fridge by planning ahead. Don’t panic buy on Christmas Eve, but rather have a menu and list planned ahead of time, and think about serving sizes. Before you go to the supermarket, check your pantry and fridge first, and note down what you already have in that you can use.
Shopping locally and seasonally where possible, via Farmers’ markets, local produce suppliers and pick-your-own fruit farms all helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the distance the food has travelled to reach your table has shortened. Swap store-bought treats for homemade ones - they come with less packaging and can be a fun thing to do with children at home over the days leading up to Christmas.
Check out the Love Food Hate Waste website for lots of great tips on how to plan your Christmas menu while reducing food waste as well as some great ideas for your leftovers. When it comes to setting the table, avoid the disposable plates and cutlery, and swap the paper napkins for linen ones.
Gift wrapping:
Skip the foil and cellophane-type paper for gift wrapping this year where you can. Photo / Unsplash
When it comes to wrapping gifts, consider changing it up a little this year. If you have young children at home, arm them with some paper and crayons or pencils and get them making their own wrapping paper to use this year. Reuse old maps as wrapping paper to give presents a vintage look, or get out the sewing machine and make some fabric gift bags to replace wrapping paper altogether.
Gift giving:
Gifts don't have to be bought, home-made is great too, especially when it comes to some Christmas cookies this festive season. Photo / Unsplash
Gift-giving is great fun, but it can be hard on both the pocket and the environment. There are plenty of simple things we can do, however, to reduce the cost to us and to our planet.
Rather than give individual gifts, consider gifting board games or outdoor sports sets like swingball or mini golf to families you know. Experiences rather than things make great gifts too, from spa days to family memberships to a local zoo, movie gift cards or a gift voucher for a local restaurant, brewery or even gin tasting are all likely to be well-received.
Home-made gifts are great too - spend a day in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies to box up and hand out as seasonal gifts this year, or maybe gift vouchers for services like babysitting, car washing and other things you can do for friends and family. When asked about gifts for you and your tamariki, encourage people to consider secondhand and pre-loved items rather than new, and if secret Santa is a thing in your whānau consider setting some fun rules in place - it must be op-shopped, plastic free or recycled in some way.
Plants and trees, all ready to be repotted and replanted are also great gifts for all ages - setting up toddlers with their own veggie garden planter or tomatoes to grow is a gift that might get them to love gardening for life. Youngsters are likely to love watching a Venus flytrap plant at work too!
