What 'newer' Christmas traditions could be scrapped to help save the planet

I would imagine we all know how to reduce, but whether people will is another thing.

I think the Elf on the Shelf and Christmas Eve boxes are superfluous to requirements.

Secret Santa has been going for 50 years at least, my school friends and I used to do it in the 70s. It’s actually a good way of reducing plastic rubbish to get one slightly more expensive item somebody wants rather than 6 cheap things they don’t surely?
I hate to see all the food waste at Christmas though, the country seems to go into siege mentality, when the shops are only closed for one or two days, and people end up ditching the entire groaning contents of their fridges when they start diets on New Years Day. So wasteful.

I only buy gifts that I know are needed / will be appreciated / have been asked for. The last couple of years I have wrapped them in pretty tea towels instead of Christmas paper - much of which can't be recycled.

As far as possible no plastic is purchased at any time (not just Christmas). My Christmas card list is now under 10 people.

Would never tune in to the silly Elf on the Shelf or Christmas Eve boxes.

I think people should do what makes them happy, and the only time I get upset about what other people do is when people get genuinely upset that their ideas of how things should be done are not taken up by others - the worst offender being Christmas cards. It's really sad to see people getting upset and thinking that a card shows that people are 'bothered about' them. My mum sees them as a measure of her popularity and self-worth (so I always send her one), but I see them as a huge con with the only beneficiaries being the manufacturers who have persuaded people that there is a link between bits of mass-produced cardboard and love.

There is no right and wrong here, but I find it sad to think of people being hurt if they don't get as many as they used to, and of others doing without essentials to pay for cardboard and stamps in order to send cards at an already expensive time of year.

That's a lovely idea wildswan
I have decided to either give "experiences" or 2nd hand, or homemade this year.

The lights are pretty but not on private houses. There is a totally OTT house in our town where the lights and pulsating Santas seem to breed each year.

Christmas Eve 'boxes' with various cr*p goodies in them. Christmas pyjamas. Elf on the shelf. Christmas balloons. Christmas bedding. New f-ing decorations every year (I know people who do this).

So commercialised and some just lap it up.

I have Christmas decorations that go back to mine and my parent's childhoods.

I suspect that all the outside lighting we have now, because it is all based on very low consumption LED bulbs probably uses less electricity than the small set of 12 or 24 lights that illuminated our tree when we were children.

Casdon

Secret Santa has been going for 50 years at least, my school friends and I used to do it in the 70s. It’s actually a good way of reducing plastic rubbish to get one slightly more expensive item somebody wants rather than 6 cheap things they don’t surely?
I hate to see all the food waste at Christmas though, the country seems to go into siege mentality, when the shops are only closed for one or two days, and people end up ditching the entire groaning contents of their fridges when they start diets on New Years Day. So wasteful.

I think there's 2 kinds of secret santa nowadays. One where a bunch of friends or family members who would be buying presents for each other anyway decide to draw names out of a hat and just buy one present each.

The other kind is when a workplace organises a secret santa when everyone has to pull out a name and then buy that person a present for a set amount, usually not more than a tenner.
Cue lots of people trying to buy something amusing for Don in Accounts or Shirley in IT and lots of people receiving santa shaped cookie jars, Christmas themed earrings, sexy stockings etc that will just get thrown out or given to the charity shop.

We buy 1 present for someone in our office. I have known them for 12 years. Certainly in some jobs I have spent more time with my colleagues than with my family.

Well that's not really a Secret Santa then.
I have a couple of ex colleagues I buy for at Christmas.

Yes it is we draw name out of hat.

Apologies. I thought you meant you buy one present in work, for someone in the office you've known for 12 years.

Our Christmas decks are used year after year. This year its all recyclable wrapping paper and gift tags no frilly bows or ribbons.

Am I the only one who salvages wrapping paper, ribbon, gift bags etc from their bin bag when the family goes home and saves it all for next year? I have a huge box of preloved gift wrap under a spare bed and another with birthday gift bags etc - I very rarely buy more. I cut down cards too to make gift tags, and always save tissue and interesting boxes from deliveries.

I have Christmas plates and dishes, mugs, glasses, towels, tea towels. Most of them at least 40 years old and brought out every year for a month or so. They’re not wasteful if they last a lifetime.

And I love the Elf on the Shelf tradition.

I save all that stuff.
Not sure if anyone has realised their presents are wrapped in the same paper it has been for the last 20 years.

Has anyone seen recycled sari bags? We got presents in them last year, lovely bright fabric made into drawstring bags and we will be returning them this year with presents in.

I thought they were a wonderful idea, not sure where they get the old saris from but a great idea and so easy.

They sound gorgeous!
I only buy for my boys, though, and my neighbour can have last years paper.

lemongrove

Christmas Boxes...given to children on Christmas Eve and stuffed with presents that they don’t need.

As if what they're getting on the actual day isn't enough!!
That has got yo be another American thing that's come over.

Last year I bought foreign newspapers, Japaneseand Chinese were good, and wrapped presents in those. A great talking point, they looked good and went straight on the fire the next morning. Haven’t been able to get any this year so shall use Welsh ones .

Tizliz

Balloons. Apart from the fact that I hate balloons, why is it suddenly fashionable to have decorative balloon arches? You can’t reuse them. How long do they last? Not recyclable, and dangerous to animals if they fly away. Anyone else here hate balloons touching them? Or am I strange?

No, you are not strange Tizliz I don’t like balloons either and it’s very difficult for others to understand. They are second, after eight legs, on my list of hates.

Change over to rechargable batteries. I like the little independent strings of fairy lights that don't need an electric socket nearby, and have a few dotted about the house at Christmas, but they take 3 AA batteries each. When our supply of conventional ones has run out, I think I'll get a couple of dozen rechargeable ones, as I don't think they last quite as long, so may need replacing more often.

Not to mention the toys and gadgets that need them.

Christmas crackers could probably be modified. How many people actually use the plastic gifts inside? If they just contained a paper hat and joke and the whole thing was made of recyclable paper would it negatively affect anyone's Christmas?

lovebeigecardigans1955

I think the Elf on the Shelf and Christmas Eve boxes are superfluous to requirements.

I’ve. Ever heard of either of these things ! But then again I’m slightly Christmas phobic.

Thankfully both those additions have yet to enter this family and I have only ever seen balloon arches in shops and pubs.

I infuriate my family by unwrapping presents very slowly, to make sure the wrapping paper can be reused another year, and my daughter recently referred disparragingly to the bag of stick on bows and rosettes, that I bring out and stick on presents each year. She swears I have had some of them since she was a child (she is nearly 50).