Christmas is a joyful time to share with family and friends.  It is also a time for honoring traditions, some of which cause huge amounts of waste and can have a negative impact on the environment.  Keeping the magic of Christmas alive is important to most people, especially those with young children.  Celebrating the holidays while reducing your carbon footprint may sound dull and boring, but this is definitely not the case.  There are plenty of ways to replace and adapt favorite traditions to minimize waste without sacrificing any of the fun, joy, or beauty of the festive season.

Gift Wrap

Wrapping paper is a great way to make gifts look beautiful and tempting.  Unfortunately, most store-bought wrapping paper cannot be recycled due to the high ink content of the product.  There are several ways to wrap and disguise your gifts that are equally exciting and pretty without generating lots of unrecyclable waste.  Durable gift boxes can be saved and reused every year or repurposed as attractive storage boxes.  You could also tie scarves or pieces of fabric around your gifts using ribbons or string.  These are durable so you can collect and use them again every year.  You could also use brown paper and tie lots of colorful ribbons and bows around each gift.  Brown paper can be recycled so is less wasteful than wrapping paper.  Alternatively, try hiding presents around the house and hosting a treasure hunt on Christmas morning.  This idea would work better with older children.

Holiday Cards

Sending Christmas cards is a great way to let people know you are thinking about them during the holidays.  Traditionally, a lot of paper and cards get used, and delivering cards uses extra gas.  Consider using technology such as email to send messages to people you love at Christmas.  You can often find e-cards online to make your message festive and pretty.  If your school or workplace has a tradition of distributing cards among staff and students, try creating a new tradition such as having a meal together or donating the money usually spent on cards to a chosen charity.  Children often enjoy making Christmas cards for family and friends.  Think about the materials you use and try to ensure they are recyclable.  With older children you could even design e-cards online and send these to family that live far away.

Food

Christmas is a time for sharing good food with those you love.  A lot of food gets wasted around Christmas time, which has a negative impact on the environment.  Supermarkets are full of tempting festive treats in the run up to Christmas, so it is very easy to impulse buy food that will not get eaten.  Try to plan a shopping list and stick to it when stocking up for the holidays.  If your plans are flexible, aim to minimize the amount of fresh food you buy, in particular fresh fruit and vegetables.

Advent Calendars

Advent calendars are a wonderful, exciting way for children to count down the days to Christmas.  Store-bought calendars tend to be made from cardboard and plastic.  Check the label on a store-bought calendar to make sure every element of the product can be recycled.  The best way to stay eco-friendly is to reuse rather than recycle.  You can purchase reusable advent calendars and fill them with chocolates.  It is also possible to make a beautiful, reusable advent calendar by sewing twenty four pockets onto a piece of festive cloth.  You can embroider numbers onto each pockets, or wrap small pieces of paper around cocktail sticks numbered one to twenty four and stick each of these into the pockets like small flags.

Shopping

Try to bring your own reusable shopping bags when purchasing Christmas gifts to reduce the amount of plastic waste.  The best way to reduce your carbon footprint is to shop for locally produced gifts at markets or small independent shops.  Obviously, the run up to Christmas is often very busy and many people do not have time to shop for gifts in person.  If you shop online, try to recycle excess packaging.  You can reduce shipping and delivery by ordering from companies situated in your country.  If possible, order multiple items from one company to reduce the number of packages that need to be shipped.  You can also sometimes order items from stores and pick them up in person.

Christmas Trees

Decorating and sitting around a beautiful Christmas tree is an important tradition for many people.  If you like a real tree, try to purchase a living Christmas tree that you can keep in the garden year round.  These are easy to maintain.  Eventually the tree might die or need to be replaced.  Try to repurpose the old tree by turning it into compost.  Plastic trees are a good option for people who do not like pine needles dropping onto their floor.  These are not recyclable so try to care for your tree for as long as possible by storing it somewhere it will not get damaged.  Many of these trees are fitted with fairy lights.  If the lights break, consider unwrapping them and replacing them with a new string of fairy lights rather than throwing away your tree.

It is important to honor the traditions that make Christmas special for you and your family.  When preparing for Christmas, consider the activities that you choose and think about whether they produce excess waste or involve unnecessary driving.  Explore ways to minimize this resource waste so that you can still enjoy the festive season while reducing your carbon footprint.