- Sustainable Queen
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY SUSTAINABLE HOLIDAY
The holiday season is not only the most magical time of the year, it is also, unfortunately, the time of year when people throw away a million extra tons of waste, including Christmas wrapping, disposable decorations, unnecessary gifts, and tree cutting, among many other unsustainable consumption habits and actions.
In the spirit of giving, we aspire to give the planet a sustainable Christmas. To this end, we offer you a few tips to have yourself
GIFT WRAPPING CREATE YOUR OWN WRAPPING PAPER OR AVOID WRAPPING GIFTS.
What if you could create your own from recycled paper, like newspaper, magazines, or old gift wrap, from which you could make a collage as a substitute to those most mass-produced wrapping paper with a nice shiny cover. These are expensive, disposable, use up trees, and are not environmentally friendly to produce, only to be torn up within minutes and piled in landfills. Go for fabric wrapping, such as scraps of old designs, scarfs, a nice kitchen towel, a bandana or any other useful fabric item that constitutes a gift in itself.
Have an unwrapped Christmas gift
You can also opt for a no-wrap Christmas, which makes the wrapping 100% sustainable. Instead, find original ways to make the gift search magical. Just like Easter, you can organize house-wide gift hunts or guessing games. This brings a new kind of excitement and, at the same time, creates impact.
Christmas decorations
Christmas lights
Like Diwali, Christmas is that time when we like to light up our hearts and homes. We won’t tell you to stay in the dark to have a sustainable holiday. You can use energy-saving LED lights instead of the old super-consuming lights you usually bring out every year to compete with the neighbor.
Want to have the best decoration on the block? Be the pioneer by being the most sustainable Christmas decorator in your neighborhood. Plus, not only will green holiday lighting help you save energy, save the planet, you’ll also save on your bills.
DIY CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS
Some people like to change the color theme of their Christmas tree ornaments every year, others like to have a new and different Christmas tree look; yet, did you know that besides just impressing others, it does our planet no good as it encourages additional production and consumption?
Rather, you could create your own ornaments from reused and recycled items from your homes and surroundings. You can be imaginative and creative and even go for a Christmas tree that would contain charms from all the family members, homemade candies like the ones you made for Halloween, DIY eco-friendly craft decorations among others. Also, if you’re really fond of changing your decorations every year, create a circular Christmas decoration circle within which you can exchange your bags of Christmas decorations every year.
Christmas gifts
Christmas is about giving. With this in mind, to give back to our planet, it also means not giving unnecessary gifts to others just for the sake of giving gifts at Christmas and filling our trees with presents and indulging in commercialized holidays.
If you don’t want to be involved in this unsustainable commercial holiday, one way to make sure there is no waste is to ask your loved ones what they really want to have, what would be useful and valuable to them. This way, you will avoid those unwelcome and embarrassing gifts that would be wasted.
In addition, you can also challenge your family to give only sustainable gifts this year, such as having a plastic-free gift or recycled gifts exchange or giving DIY gifts for everyone.
You can also gift experiential gifts rather than material gifts. Some people really aspire to have a minimalist lifestyle and forcing them to give or receive gifts when they really don’t need anything more isn’t fair. Instead, give them gifts such as vouchers for treats, a visit to their favorite place, their fancy restaurant, a beautiful trip or an activity you could do together. The memory doesn’t fade and nothing goes to waste.
Instead of a secret Santa, what if your group of friends could decide to sponsor a child or an organization for a meal, school supplies, medicine, or any other useful aid with the gift budget you have?
CHRISTMAS TREE
Do you prefer the natural Christmas tree or the reusable plastic artificial tree? That is the question that is usually asked. Beyond the pros and cons of the natural Christmas tree versus the artificial tree, there are deeper implications such as the brutal cutting down of Christmas trees each year and all those trees ending up in landfills.
A key solution could be of course to plant your own Christmas tree that could be decorated every year for Christmas. The second solution is that if you already have your own artificial tree, use it.
Why encourage the cutting down of trees when you already have one at home that does not harm?
Thirdly, if you have already bought the Christmas tree, make sure it doesn’t end up in a landfill afterward, reuse the wood chips or even donate it to organizations that would reuse it most sustainably.
Have yourself a merry sustainable holiday and create an impact.
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