Plastic free Christmas

Is it possible to have a plastic free Christmas? It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but as we all know it’s also one of the most wasteful times of the year. Plastic packaging is everywhere and lots of wrapping paper and tape goes into landfill too. Statistics seem to indicate that over 30% additional waste is generated over the festive period. From festive food waste, packaging, lights, Christmas trees etc. I’ve read articles that also suggest that wrapping is not recycled even when it can be, but is instead thrown away. This generates such a huge amount of additional waste each year. So what can we do about it?

Last year we ‘rented’ our Christmas tree from our local garden centre, so it stays in a pot and then gets returned to them to grow more each year. I just love the idea that it continues to grow and thrive and we just borrow it for Christmas.

We’ve also been thinking about our own plastic consumption this year and have been trying to find as many plastic free alternatives as possible.

Making Christmas special

A couple of years ago we launched our reusable fabric crackers as we couldn’t find any fully recyclable crackers out on the market, there doesn’t seem to be a recyclable snap, so we made the decision to switch to fabric crackers and it seems you guys are also making the swap, which is so fantastic. It’s now become one of my favourite things to do; glass of wine in hand and an evening of Christmas music, while I make the crackers up for each member of the family. Christmas is going to look really different this year, so it feels more important than ever to make it special and thoughtful. And what better way than to be looking after the planet at the same time.

We also launched our reusable advent calendars and rewrapable, reusable fabric gift wrap. We want to make Christmas special whilst cutting out the waste at the same time.

So with that in mind, I’m sharing our best plastic free advent gift ideas, which can also be used for Christmas cracker fillers and stocking fillers. We’ve also added a section to the website to make shopping for these things as easy as possible.

I’ve got a full list of ideas for you, I hope you find them useful and help you to cut down on the waste this year and every year. We’d love to hear how you’re cutting down on waste this year, so feel free to get in touch. You can pop us a message on any of our social media pages or drop us an email.

Plastic free Christmas ideas

• Reusable wipes, make up remover wipes

• Toothpaste tablets

• Mini soothing and beauty balm tins

• Seeded cards

• Herb and veg markers

• Chocolate coins in foil

• Colouring pencils

• Crayons

• Colouring sheets

• Christmas jokes! (write your own)

• Wax melts

• Tea lights

• Lip balms

• Lip scrubs

• Acts of kindness (you can write these yourself and do something kind everyday of advent)

• Socks

• Wine glass charms

• Wooden decorations

• Mini soap bars (don’t be afraid to cut up your soap bars so you have more!)

• Bath bombs

• Jewellery (you can pick up lovely jewellery for all ages from charity shops)

• Mini sewing or embroidery kit

• Craft pack

• Lavender bag

• Shampoo bar

• Christmas activities (choose a different christmassy activity throughout advent)

• Scavenger hunt (great for older children, so they have to follow the clues to find the treats)

• Felt Christmas decorations

• Lollipop

You can find our Christmas selections here.