Have Yourself a Conscious Little Christmas

If there was one thing I used to dread about Christmas, it was the thought of trying to find gifts for people who have everything, and of receiving gifts I either don’t like or don’t need and won’t use. But thankfully now it is much simpler, mainly because we just give less, which means less shopping, less plastic and less waste. As well as gift-giving, there are many ways we can simplify our festive season to not only save time and money, but reduce the plastic we use and the waste we generate. And when we simplify Christmas, whether it’s gifts, decorations or table settings, and use more natural and better quality items, they also tend to look WAY nicer than a bunch of cheap, disposable plastic!

Gifts

In recent years in our family we tend to give much less ‘stuff’ as gifts, partly because we don’t want to end up with stuff we don’t really need/want or won’t use, and partly because we pretty much have everything we need. Actually, more than we need. We are trying to DE-clutter our home, not accumulate more possessions. Leading up to Christmas we share our wishlists, so we know we’re giving someone something they really want, otherwise we give vouchers so people can get something they really want. Any ‘stuff’ I give as gifts now has to meet strict criteria of usefulness and eco-friendliness. Also, a great alternative to giving ‘stuff’ is to…