Christmas is one of my favourite times of year… the festivity, being surrounded by friends and/or family and the chance to fill a day with all the things you love (for me that’s good food, time outside being active and talking and laughing with people I care about).
A few years ago, I became very passionate about sustainability and changed my lifestyle to reflect that. It has been a very positive change and I am still learning and improving my way of life: in this case, it relates to the saying “all good things take time”.
Christmas is a great time of year to think and act sustainably! The art of giving meaningful and useful gifts is so important. A great gift, in my eyes, is something that the receiver will love, will find useful, will last a long time and is reusable. Christmas, where the main themes are peace and love, can extend beyond our friends and family and into the greater world, our beautiful planet. For instance, a cute reusable water bottle would be perfect for my sister, as I know she uses plastic water bottles currently.
For my Mum, a lovely travel cup would be ideal, so she can continue to love her coffee on the go with less environmental impact. And, for my best friend, who writes a lot of notes for university and goes through a mountain of books, a refillable notebook is perfect so that she can have a nice quality cover to protect her notes and simply buy a paper refill when she is done, which is much better for the planet.
Each of these gifts are personalised for the receiver because I’ve had to consider what is missing from their lives and I know that they would cherish them, use them and appreciate the environmental benefits they will be providing by using them.
I think it’s also important to think about how you’re going to decorate your presents, when thinking about sustainability. This year, I am using the Reusable Cloth Gift Bags to put all the presents I’m gifting in. They are reusable year after year and are still beautiful and festive. You could use them yourself for following years after the gifts have been received, or you could gift it as part of your present and encourage them to keep the cycle of sustainability continuous. I’ll add the normal decorations of ribbon, tags and stickers (fun fact: I re-use ribbon from gifts I receive as hair accessories!) to make it that little bit more festive.
As for decorating my home, I’m using the wonderful Reusable Advent Calendar that my whole family can enjoy year after year, this adorable Porcelain Gingerbread Mug and this Gingerbread Biscuit Dish, as well as adding a few little final touches with this sweet Tomte Ornament and 5M of magical String Lights!
At the end of the day, sustainability is about doing the best you can and making small maintainable changes – every little bit counts.
I hope you all have a wonderful conscious Christmas and many more to come!
– Chelsea x
@feedingmindbodysoul
