• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Truly Experiences Blog

For People Who Collect Memories, Not Things

  • Lifestyle
  • Dining
  • Travel
  • Gifts
  • Wine, Beer & Spirits
  • Things To Do
Blog » Christmas » Have Yourself a Merry Eco-Christmas! 10 Ways to Go Green in December
Merry Eco-Friendly Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Eco-Christmas! 10 Ways to Go Green in December

Rae Oliver November 4, 2020

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is almost upon us, and as we enter the festive season, we could all take a step back and examine the long-term effects that our celebrations could have on our precious environment.

Having an eco-friendly Christmas party is not as complicated as it sounds. In fact, with a few subtle changes here and there, you can transform your celebration into one that’s not only memorable, but kind to the environment too.

We’ve put together a list of our ten favourite ways to go green this December. Join us in celebrating in an environmentally friendly fashion!

How to Have an Eco-Christmas

Jump To a Section Below

  • Go For Durable Decorations
  • Rethink Your Gifting Ideas
  • Limit Food Wastage
  • Use Locally Sourced Ingredients
  • Recycle Your Gift Wrap
  • Choose A Sustainable Or Reusable Tree
  • Consider Sending e-Cards And Gift Cards
  • Choose Eco-Friendly Crackers
  • Use LED lights
  • Take Fabric Bags When You Go Shopping

Go For Durable Decorations

What is Christmas without sparkly decorations throughout the house?

As lovely as they are, most ornaments are made from materials like plastic and Styrofoam, which are terrible for the environment. Instead, consider purchasing decorations that are more durable, so that you can use them for years to come.

Alternatively, you could make your own and turn it into a fun family activity with the kids. Make sure you use eco-friendly materials, such as recyclable paper, or even paper that’s already been recycled. You could also go looking for pinecones and paint them with environmentally-friendly products – the possibilities are endless.

Rethink Your Gifting Ideas

Every year, we all exchange gifts that we don’t necessarily want – how many unopened tubs of lavender-scented body butter have you got lying around from Christmases past? But take a moment to ask yourself – what do I really want for Christmas?

Also see  10 Unique Christmas Gifts for Couples Who Have Everything

This year, instead of gifting your friends and family with useless objects, why not gift them with an incredible experience instead? This could be anything from a cooking class to a theatre show – they’ll treasure the experience and the memories more than they ever would another bath bomb.

Shop Unique Christmas Gift Experiences

Limit Food Wastage

During the festive season, we all tend to do everything in excess, especially when it comes to cooking!

Limiting food wastage from your Christmas dinner will go a long way to helping you keep your holidays as green as possible. Try to be a bit more realistic about the amount of food that you and your family prepare – is it possible to consume that much?

Aim for a zero-waste meal by buying smaller quantities of what you need. Nothing is worse than having to throw out all those leftovers a couple of days after the festivities have ended.

Use Locally Sourced Ingredients

When going grocery shopping for your Christmas meal, try and make use of locally sourced ingredients only.

They have a lower carbon footprint and are much fresher than imported ingredients. Plus, the more frequently locally sourced ingredients are bought, the more likely the grocery store is to restock them. In the long run, this is much healthier for the planet – and your family too!

Recycle Your Gift Wrap

Eco-Friendly Christmas wrapping paper

Gift wrap is a major part of Christmas, but it’s also a major source of wastage.

Instead of going out and buying new gift wrap, have a look at home to see if you have any from previous years. Use that to wrap the presents you’re popping under the tree.

Also see  How to Eat Your Christmas Tree

When unwrapping any gifts you receive, make sure you save the wrapping. You can use it again next year. Not only will this save you time and money, it’s much kinder to the planet too.

Choose A Sustainable Or Reusable Tree

The Christmas tree is the centrepiece of all your festive season celebrations – it’s where gifts are exchanged, family portraits are taken and plenty of memories are made.

This year, when selecting your tree, consider choosing a sustainable tree if you are going for a fresh one. However, if you cannot find one, why not go for a reusable tree? Many of the reusable trees look just like the real thing, and you can use them for a good few years without having to throw them out.

RELATED READING: HOW TO EAT YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE >>

Consider Sending e-Cards And Gift Cards

The internet is a wonderful thing. It’s accessible, and it’s limitless. Another way to go green this Christmas is to turn to the internet as the source of your gift-giving.

Instead of wasting paper on gift cards, gift wrap and the packaging that inevitably comes with any physical gift purchased, why not consider sending e-greetings and gift cards via email?

Everything will be delivered neatly in the recipient’s inbox and they’ll be able to choose whatever they want.

Taking this approach will also save you plenty of time, as a few clicks are all that’s needed to do your Christmas shopping!

Buy Christmas Gift Cards  

Choose Eco-Friendly Crackers

Christmas crackers are an important part of festive season celebrations! However, they are often made of single-use materials that have a negative impact on the environment.

Also see  Bad at Gift Wrapping? Here's Why Sloppy Wrapping Makes Us Happier

When choosing your crackers this year, try and find eco-friendly ones to adorn your table with. Plenty of stores have them on offer now, so be sure to keep a look out for them. Alternatively, get crafty and make your own!

Use LED lights

Brightly lit LED Christmas lights

What’s Christmas without twinkly lights?

Lights for the tree, lights for the house – little fairy lights everywhere make everything feel more festive. However, there are so many lighting options available that use plenty of electricity and aren’t as durable as we would like them to be (just think about how many strings you’ve had to throw out over the years!).

This year consider using LED lights instead. Not only are they more durable and better for the environment, they use less electricity, so your energy bill will be much lower.

Take Fabric Bags When You Go Shopping

Reusable shopping bags are perhaps the easiest way to go green. They’re practical, easy to find and will serve you well in the long run.

When you go Christmas shopping, take reusable bags along instead of buying plastic or paper ones. Fabric bags are also more durable and can hold a lot more items than the flimsier ones available instore. Plus, if you take your own reusable bags you don’t have to pay for them at the checkout, so the jingle in your pocket will last a lot longer!

Going green for Christmas is easy if you follow these tips. Ditch the plastic, overly laden tables of food and plastic decorations and give the environment a helping hand while you celebrate!

Footer

  • Truly Experiences
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer

Affiliate Disclosure

We believe in being as transparent as possible when it comes to this site. With this in mind, please be aware that we may receive remuneration for some of the products we review on this site.

Truly Experiences is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk (and other Amazon programs).

We will also list ads from time to time. You should be able to see these as text links or blocks of ads which have a small notation indicating “Ads by Google” or “AdChoices”.

Our mission is to help our visitors, but this is also very clearly a for-profit site and you should realize as much. We include only those products that we believe could benefit you, some of which we may get a commission if you purchase them. However, we also provide links on the site to information resources for which we receive no compensation.

If you have any questions whatsoever, please contact us using the "contact" option on the site menu and we will be happy to answer any questions.

Trademark Dislosure

Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.

In addition, any other trademarks and logos we mention on this site are also the property of their respective owners.

Copyright © 2022 Truly Experiences