Making Christmas more eco- friendly

Our local recycling scheme specifies that wrapping paper (without glitter) can be put in the recycling bin. The same goes for greetings cards. But this varies from one authority to another.

A lot of paper for gift wrapping is not recyclable and won't be accepted by the bin-men if you put it in the paper collection.

I sometimes use cloth bags for wrapping presents in, or brown paper that is recyclable with ribbon or tape that can be re-used.

I do all my own Christmas baking and cooking from scratch.

We try to wish for and buy presents we know the person receiving them either wants or needs.

I do use paper napkins at Christmas, but not at any other time of the year.

Email a Christmas greeting and donate cost of cards / postage to charity........

No, I think that we will be having a full fat Christmas here!

Lizzy you can buy the snaps too if you want them.

I'm making my own Christmas crackers this year. Toilet roll inner tubes, snaps from amazon, brown paper or junk mail decorated by screen printing and perforated with an old needle in the sewing machine for easier pulling, odd bits of old ribbon from the stash to tie the ends and a £1 scratch card inside. Ta-da! (And a lot of fun making them. Might get the grandsons involved.)

We buy our Christmas tree direct from the plantation where it grew and I decorate mainly with evergreen greenery from my garden or cut from hedgerows on my daily walk. I rarely buy decorations because all that I have I carefully pack away after Christmas to be used the following year. Some of my decorations date back to my childhood (1950s) and even a few from my parent's childhood (1920s).

I bought fabric and made a beautiful Christmas tablecloth about 30 years ago that is still in use as are the cloth napkins, and the golden plastic placemats I use. I have had those about 30 years as well.

Love that idea Rosyanne

I am lucky with a large garden but always forage for holly and Ivy from garden for making Xmas wreaths and to decorate the plinth mantle.

Mischief - where did you buy the ink stamps from?

Although not Xmas related, on the theme of eco friendly, we are celebrating our Coral wedding anniversary this year by sponsoring a coral nursery in the sea off Kao Sami, Thailand.

Don't bother with any of it. Go on a nice long walk and collect some greenery which you can display in a vase from a charity shop.

Get some nice food and watch a film.

Result.

Don’t have to ditch crackers. Bought mine from RSPB website. Ethical crackers no plastic tat inside, instead palm-oil free chocolates.

This is so worthy it wears me out. I'll never keep up. Most homemade presents made by me are disastrous. Searching charity shops for presents sounds joyless. I love trees and lights and sending and receiving Christmas cards.
Would it be alright if I just found crackers with only hats and mottos and kept away from foil wrapping paper? But what about kitchen foil? Baking paper doesn't suit every purpose and are we supposed to abandon clingfilm and freezer bags for the duration? Palais Winterwhite might find that a bit of a challenge as well.

We always buy all Xmas veg straight from farm so no packaging and so fresh. I hand make a Xmas wreath for my parents grave. I always use last years Xmas cards to make this years gift tags. I just use pinking shears and a hole punch and thread with a strand of green twine. I re-use gift bags and use the same Xmas stockings every year. I make Xmas chutney and put into glass jars that are re used each year. I make own Xmas mince pies, Xmas ginger biscuit shapes and cup cakes so less packaging. I tend to give gift vouchers to adults so they choose something they need and not pointless stuff they do not need or want. I try to cut back on drinks in plastic bottles and cans. I do still use wrapping paper for children's gifts though.

I have bought a Crisis at Christmas place instead of a present before now and given the receipt in a Christmas card. Recipients loved the thought of someone without benefiting. I use brown paper and ribbon for wrapping presents. Most Christmas wrapping paper cannot be recycled.

To expensive to send parcels inland or overseas, but most important is remembering the environment, as it takes transport be it, road, rail, air or sea.

That's really good crystaltipps. Gonna get one of those for my 14 year old GS. Sod the chocolate.

Cornflour, salt (a fair bit) and water makes a good stiff dough for cutting with biscuit cutters (remember to make a hole for the string to hang them up). When it dries it can be painted with food colouring or paint. The salt stops them from rotting or mildewing. I have some my son made when he was four and he's now in his thirties! They're on the tree every year

I've kept my Christmas cards from last year to make gift tags this year. Will be using either brown paper (with red or green ribbons - which can be reused) or paper that can be recycled (no plasticised paper or glitter). Last year I bought books on fun green projects (e.g. that kids would love to do); how to make your garden more wildlife friendly; a rather smart bird box (wouldn't have minded it myself) etc. Totally avoided anything single-used plastic. Some of the older children got vouchers which they can use to buy something they really want rather than something that will go straight in the bin. This year I'm going to a cracker making workshop - crackers will be filled with useful things on a theme - like chocolates (think ferraro roche) or smellies (e.g. a tiny soap or bath bomb per cracker) or a gardening theme (packet of seeds or something similar). Am aiming to make my own Christmas tree decorations rather than buying more plastic ones - including sliced, dried oranges and orange pomanders (not sure how this will go!)

adventofchange.com/
This advent calendar donates 50p a day to 24 different charities every window tells you a bit about each one.

Our local hospice sells real trees to raise funds , I think they get them from from Scotland plus our council recycles trees to use as mulch in the parks.

Last Christmas I wrapped all the presents in brown paper having decorated the paper with ink stamps in the shape of polar bears, christmas trees and robins, using red, green and gold ink. I used red and white cotton string and brown card labels with matching patterns. All from recycled paper. It was really successful AND I will be using the same this year.

I would love to tell my family that our presents should come charity shops but they wouldn't go along with it. I'm ditching the crackers from now on as they're filled with plastic tat.

As I mentioned on another "Christmas" thread, last year I agreed with friends that we'd not give each other gifts but would donate to charity instead. For close family we give small gifts, usually something edible or from charity shops. (Secondhand gifts encouraged! Lots of excellent books out there!) Larger gifts are given to children, but not to a huge over-spending extent. DH & I do a small stocking for each other (actually these are old rugby socks) with a few small gifts, like Fairtrade chocolate coins. Our Christmas tree is a"living" one, (locally grown), purchased last year, and currently in the garden. (The previous one lasted several years.)