For so many of us, the holiday season brings to mind traditions that we have taken part in since we were young children. Baking cookies, listening to Christmas music while we drive to relatives houses, wrapping presents and hiding them around the house, and maybe even visiting theaters for local Holiday Pageants, A Christmas Carol, or The Nutcracker ballet.
Over the years though, this list has grown even more and has filled with some new “traditions”. Going out on Thanksgiving evening to start Black Friday shopping with the masses, waking up early on Cyber Monday to snag the best deal online, striving to get our holiday shopping done as early as possible so we don’t have to be bothered with it anymore, buying the latest hideous masterpiece for our ugly sweater parties, and picking out the perfect collection of new wrapping paper that all coordinates beautifully with our home decor this year.
Okay, maybe this list hasn’t been yours, but it has been mine for the last decade until finally last year I realized that something was amiss. All of the new “traditions” were focused on something that the old traditions weren’t: consumerism and money.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoyed going out every year with my sister and our friend to find the best Black Friday deals. But after hours of shopping we would come home with empty wallets, huge credit card bills, and for some reason always at least one new pancake griddle (we blame sleep deprivation). Instead of being hungover from Thanksgiving martinis, we had headaches from fluorescent lights and dehydration - and the shopping of the season wasn’t nearly done! There were still hours of online browsing and the dreaded mall shopping ahead of us. Finally, one day, weeks later, while at a Cookie Swap party surrounded by sugar and friends, we could make the proclamation, “I am officially DONE with my list.” Everyone would cheer and clap and be jealous. Then the following evening at an Ugly Sweater Party we would all compare our tacky, pre-fabricated, holiday swag that we got at the local big box store one day when we hurriedly stopped on our commute home from work before bringing our kids to their evening activities. Life was grand, and I was broke.
I wanted and needed to make my holiday different. I didn’t want to just check people off of my list by buying them things they didn’t need. I didn’t want to see mountains of shiny wrapping paper being shoved into bags and thrown into the trash to make their way to a landfill. I wanted to have a holiday season that was about love and togetherness, and that didn’t negatively impact the planet.
But how?
BUY WHAT YOU NEED AND BUY SECOND-HAND
Although we all love those horrible ugly sweaters, do we really need to buy a new one every year? What do people do with their old ones? You know, the one that they wore literally once last year. They either get thrown away (eek, that polyester Rudolph isn’t going to biodegrade anytime this century), donated, or brought to a thrift store.
So why not start there?? Check your local thrift stores, use apps like Mercari or Facebook Marketplace, or join your local Buy Nothing groups to find seasonal items this year.
Do you really need the newest, trendiest holiday decor? Try this easy tip… decorate with what you have before buying any new this year. A lot of the items you have may have sentimental meaning and swapping those out for new or trendy decor might make your home feel less authentic. Some of my favorite ornaments are the ones that I remember decorating my tree with when I was a little kid or ones that got passed down to me from my grandparents. Yes, keeping up with the trends in decor may make for a more pleasing Instagram feed, but it doesn’t allow sentimentality to be fostered. Plus, when those trends are no longer hot, where will those items go? Even if donated, there is a high likelihood that they will make their way to a landfill (and sit there for a really long time if made with any man-made materials). Instead of giving our kids a more polluted Earth, let’s give them the gift of tradition and sentiment.
GO FOR ECO-FRIENDLY GIFTS
You are looking at the last few people on your list and you have no idea what to get them. Before you know it, you are buying several scented candles, bath scrubs or a bottle of perfume you saw on display at the store checkout. Do the people you are buying those gifts for really want those items? Or will they be tossed soon after the New Year has been rung in?
The most eco-friendly option you can go with is to provide your loved ones with experience-based gifts. In fact, studies show that children remember experiences more than they remember items! So, how about some concert tickets or movie passes? Maybe take your kids to an indoor water park for the weekend as their big gift, or go on a daddy-daughter or mommy-son date. Manicures, massages, babysitter-for-a-night… there are so many experience gifts to choose from! A quick google search will draw up lists upon lists.
If you are still stumped or like the idea of giving somebody an actual gift, why not get them a gift they could actually use while simultaneously helping the environment and promoting sustainability. To keep this easy, here are a few suggestions of items you can find right on Amazon:
● Collapsible reusable shopping bags: Don’t you hate when you get to the store and realized you forgot ALL of your reusable shopping bags at home?? This is the solution. These small bags have an attached carrying case that you just fold the bag up into. Once they are folded, they are only the size of a baseball! Yet when fully expanded, they can easily fit as much as a normal plastic grocery bag. They can be kept in your purse, your car, or your coat pocket. They also have a bunch of cute designs so have fun finding the best one for your friends and family.
● Clothing made from recycled and sustainable materials: Do you have young adults or teens on your list who like to wear the trendiest clothes? Why not try brands like Girlfriend Collective, Threads for Thought, or Recover Brand? They make their stylish clothes and outerwear in all sizes and great styles. Speaking from personal experience, they are also super comfy and hold up well in the wash!
● Sustainably-sourced chocolate with compostable wrapping: Alter Eco chocolate takes the cake on eco-friendly chocolates. Not only do they source from farmer-owned co-ops practicing sustainable agriculture, they also use compostable packaging, and have worked with their cacao partners to replant the rain forests where their beans are grown. They are available online, or even at Wegman’s and Whole Foods. Also… so yummy.
● Toys with less packaging: For little ones, check out Green Toys brand found online and in stores. This brand uses recycled plastics and virtually no excess packaging. It is simply a toy… in a box. Kid tested, mama approved.
● Check out OutsideTheBoxMarket on Instagram for some more eco-friendly gift ideas.
ECO-FRIENDLY HOLIDAY PARTIES
Not only do we see an increase in people’s waists over the holiday season, we see a tremendous increase in garbage waste! Think about it, you go to a holiday party and there are appetizers. You grab the small, pretty plastic plates and load it full of veggies and dip on your first round. On the second round, you add some bacon wrapped scallops, spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips, and some unidentified cheesy chicken spread with chunks of fresh bread. Now, being completely full, you throw the plate and utensils in the trash bin. You go over to the drink area and take a plastic wine glass or traditionally-festive red solo cup, fill it with your drink of choice, and start mingling. Later, for the dinner course, you get a large plastic or styrofoam dinner plate, a second set of utensils, and pour more food down the hatch. Afterwards, you discard that set of plates and utensils and after a few minutes of trying to find your red solo cup amongst the sea of shiny-red plastic on every surface in the house, you decide to just get a new one. A few more minutes of mingling, feeling disgustingly full and talking about how after the holidays we all need to go on a diet, and then the gift exchange begins. People draw numbers from a hat and get to choose the lucky gift from a pile of nondescript, festively decorated boxes that contain items that they probably won’t use because you were the first to go, you get the wonderful job of collecting all the wrapping paper from everyone else’s gifts. A few people in and your plastic trash bag is already full. You ask the hostess for a new one and when all is said and done, you have 2.5 trash bags full of single-use wrapping paper, tissue paper and bows. The kids of the family move on to opening their gifts and now even more trash bags are needed to collect all of the plastic and cardboard packaging, styrofoam and twist-ties that have been used to secure their new toys to the box they came in (secure enough to survive the apocalypse most times). And now... the desserts come out. Another small plastic plate, another fork for that delicious looking pumpkin pie, and a new napkin to wipe the whipped cream from the corners of your mouth as you shove down even more rich food. You leave that evening, with your new pancake griddle you know you won’t use, feeling more stuffed than any time you can remember in recent history, and you head home to rest up for the evening because you get to do this all again tomorrow at your work’s annual holiday bash. As soon as you get in the car, you undo the top button on your pants and think to yourself, how am I going to make it through!?
No matter what diet you follow, paleo, gluten-free, Atkins, vegetarian, keto, vegan or no “diet” at all, there is no disputing the fact that the majority of meat we consume here in the US is from animals raised in pretty rough conditions that contribute a lot of excess carbon emissions to our atmosphere. Whether factory farms or dark chicken houses, unless you are buying grass-fed, organic meat from a local source where you can literally SEE the animals, you unfortunately don’t know what you are getting. You might not care where the meat is coming from in terms of your diet, but the environmental impact of our meat-raising practices in the US is huge. One of the best things you can do for the environment this season, is to reduce the amount of meat you consume and prepare. Eating as plant-based as possible is not only going to help you reduce those button-popping moments on the car ride home, but it will also lower the impact on the planet. If you are the host preparing for the party, instead of adding another rich cheesy appetizer, try a fresh salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. You can even make a tray of roasted veggies and put out some festive, reusable toothpicks. Rather than cooking a roast and a turkey, try choosing one and doing a light garlic and oil pasta dish instead of the second meat option. And when you are deciding on dessert, go with a big bowl of fresh fruit, or a light vegan-style apple crisp. Your guests and your planet will thank you!
For small dinner parties, there is another option that may make you hesitant at first because it involves doing more dishes, but hear me out! Those plastic plates and utensils that make our lives so convenient, are used for a few hours at most, often only a few minutes. Yet, they will last on our planet for centuries. Centuries! They will still be laying around in a landfill or floating in the ocean or clogging up some river or stream when your great-great-grandchildren are roaming the Earth in their cool hover-cars. One of the best things you can do to reduce your waste this holiday is to use the plates, utensils, and glasses you have in your cabinet instead! You don’t need fancy china, just your regular old dishes. In fact, doing this gives a feeling of authenticity to the party that is often lacking. Between courses, you can do a quick-run of your dishwasher if you are low on plates, or do some hand-washing. You can even encourage people to save their plates in a spot off to the side. It may take some getting used to, but instead of having 2 large trash bags of plates, cups and plastic forks at the end of the night, you will simply have a sink full of dishes. There are even local dish-lending libraries who you can borrow plates from to supplement your own and as long as you clean and return them, there is no charge.
Check out Austin Dish Lending Library for an example - Here
One of the biggest areas of waste that we discovered from our holiday party scenario was the gift wrapping. I’m sure you know this problem all too well. After the craze of un-opening presents, we look around the house and it looks like Buddy the Elf was there and had a temper tantrum. I have great news for you though. The wrapping paper…. Can be avoided. Reusable wrapping paper is actually a thing. It’s called fabric! And now that I have gone this route, I will never go back. Last year I decided I was going to wrap most of my presents in pre-decorated holiday boxes and fabric. I simply added bows and ribbons to the boxes to embellish them a bit and then I would collect it all when we were done opening gifts. For the fabric, I got holiday fabric on sale after the holiday to stock up for the following year and just cut swatches of random sizes to accommodate different gifts. I tucked the edges in and instead of using tape, I held the whole thing together with pretty ribbons. It was actually way more fun than I expected it to be and nobody was weirded out by it. The kids still got the experience of opening a gift, that just didn’t get to rip wrapping paper into tiny little pieces and smash it into the carpet -Darn!
After all is said and done, the holidays are supposed to be about family, friends, and togetherness. Somewhere along the way, we started focusing more on gifts, photo-worthiness, and keeping up with the Joneses despite the negative impact that it had on our greatest gift of all, the planet we live on. Through buying smart and purposeful gifts, wrapping them using reusable methods, and reducing our party waste, you can have a more authentic holiday experience filled with memories and far less stress.
Wishing you all a Merry and Green Holiday!
