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The busiest season of the year has already started, and of course, the most magical one! This year can even be more magical if we transform our celebrations into eco friendly holidays!
I imagine that stores are full of “discounts”, people are paying with their credit cards and saying they’ll pay for it in February, and stores are opening a new section dedicated exclusively to wrapping presents. I haven’t been to a store in months due to COVID-19 lockdown, however, I think this is how it is starting to look. Oh! And don’t forget the online shopping mania.
All of this got me thinking, how eco friendly are our holidays? Well, they are not very eco friendly. In fact, this time of the year is the one that generates the most amount of waste because of the single-use seasonal accessories we use and the food waste we generate.
Let’s think about it, we certainly buy more stuff. We give presents, we decorate our houses, we have more reunions and we cook more.
This year, most of our activities and celebrations have clearly changed, and the season with most celebrations has begun. Therefore, what are we going to do this year?
The pandemic has forced us to rethink every aspect of our lives. And it got me thinking, if we have already changed a lot, why don’t we take this as an opportunity to have eco friendly holidays? Traditions are the core of many communities and have special meanings to them. Suggesting that traditions need to be changed would cause a rather complex debate on the subject.
While I suggest that we can rethink many traditional activities for the sake of our health and the planet, for now, I am going to suggest sustainable changes that would definitely not change the holidays per se. We can still buy presents, cook and enjoy ourselves. Even though we can’t have the traditional party due to COVID, we can still celebrate at home and have eco friendly holidays.
In addition to the meaning and symbolism of each holiday, most traditions like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s are based on 5 different material activities: food, decorations, outfits, presents and traditional activities.
For certain, each of these can become more sustainable with these eco friendly holiday ideas and still be fun and enjoyable just like we are used to.
Table of Contents
Traditional Food
Time to get out the old family recipe book. This year you can try to bake from scratch. Most of the old traditional recipes were made with natural ingredients. So why don’t you try to look for quality ingredients that will be more similar to what your family had? They definitely didn’t use a commercial pumpkin flavoring.
For example, if you are baking a traditional ravioli dish, you can make the pasta from scratch instead of buying it. This can be a great family activity and you can help the planet by purchasing local and natural ingredients and maybe even package-free. While you cook, don’t forget to compost all the leftovers you have.
Buying locally makes a difference because it helps local families. Additionally, it means that the carbon footprint of the product may be much lower because it didn’t have to be transported from long distances or from the other side of the world. This also applies to decorations and other products you may need to buy.
On the other hand, you can enjoy a great dinner with your family by sharing the recipe and gathering in a video call. There is a lot of food waste during the holidays so try to calculate how much food you really need and if you still have leftovers, transform your dish so you can still eat it for a couple of days. You can even share it with a neighbor. Buying only what you need can help you save some money, which is great because this is the most expensive season of the year.
Presents
Most of this season’s traditions focus on giving presents to family and friends. Here are our top tips for making your presents more eco friendly.
If you are tired of buying the same presents every year, you can always look for sustainable brands that offer different, amazing, and creative products. These products are not usually the first option for everyone, so your gift will stand out from the rest.
You can choose ethically made products. One of our favorite brands is Novica because your purchase supports different causes such as: empowering artisan women, supports people with cancer or with disabilities, or help children continue their education. Novica offers a $7 off to new users with this code. You can choose unique gifts that come from artisans from all around the world.
You can also make donations to your friend’s favorite charity. My best friend as a birthday present gave me a certificate that said that I “adopted” a panda bear, my favorite animal, by supporting the WWF program.
The next option is to buy second-hand products. Research made by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation says that in France, more than 40 million toys end up as waste each year.
That is why many start-ups are making our celebrations more circular by joining the rental revolution or selling second-hand products. Some companies rent toys with a monthly subscription, so every kid can have access to different toys according to their age and development stage.
Additionally, buying second-hand can drastically help reduce our carbon footprint. One of the best options on how you can choose the perfect present is to think about what the other person needs or how the present can be useful. This encourages us to buy consciously and with a purpose.
Secondly, wrapping can make a huge difference this year. Balloons, ribbons, and tape can’t be recycled and are one of the top wastes that kill marine life. If someone gives you a present with these characteristics try to reuse them for another present. If not, you can always add them to your eco brick. If you want to know how to build an eco brick, by saving tons of waste that end up in landfills and help build houses, you can learn more here.
Tape that is made out of paper instead of plastic is the best option you can use. Moreover, never use staples because they can also harm and kill marine life. On the other hand, the classic wrapping paper normally is plastified so it can be very difficult to recycle. You can try using newspaper, architecture plans, or reuse the other side of paper.
You can also wrap the present with a t-shirt, so you can give two gifts instead of one. Alternatively, you can wrap it in a reusable bag. Of course, you can always choose not to wrap the present and only add a beautiful handmade card.
Decorations
Each year we buy a lot of decorations for each celebration. We want our scary-to-death yard or the fashionable Christmas tree decorations. So how can we transform this into eco friendly holidays?
For each holiday you can be fashionable by making your own decorations with food. Not only will you have new decorations, but you can be more creative by making some DIY exquisite dishes and you can have family time.
For Halloween, you can try the classic scary cookie fingers. For Christmas, you can make your own gingerbread house or even your own Advent Calendar. Some people make tiny chocolates with different Christmas figures and use them for the Advent Calendar countdown.
On the other hand, if you try out some decorations and they no longer work, you can definitely buy more. For Christmas lights that don’t turn on, you can look for Christmas solar-powered lights for the exterior or LEDs. Your energy bill will be reduced too.
In case you really need to buy new decorations, try to choose eco friendly products. Sometimes, it can be challenging to find everything made with eco friendly materials so you can choose products that are ethically made or locally produced. These actions help brands that are striving to improve their production line and can can reduce your carbon footprint.
If you can’t find any sustainable or ethical products, then you can try buying long-lasting decorations that you’ll be able to reuse over the next few years. Remember that not everything that is eco friendly has a tag saying so. You can choose glass decorations that are more eco friendly over plastic ones.
Try to analyze which material is better for the planet. Balloons should never be an option. They are expensive for you and the planet. Balloons can’t be recycled so it is better to opt for decorations that can have a long life span or be upcycled.
What is upcycling? Upcycling is when you create a better quality product or with higher value from other products. Creativity plays an important role in upcycling because you need to transform the materials into better products. This gives the product a second life and increases its life span before it turns to waste.
Upcycling is a fundamental part of the circular economy which its purpose is to create a life with the least amount of waste possible by rethinking and repurposing. The difference with recycling is that upcycling creates better quality products instead of recycling materials that most of the time reduces its value because it breaks down materials.
If you are celebrating on a video call, you can still decorate your background with DIY decorations. Another great option is to use virtual backgrounds so you can choose a specific scenario.
Celebration Outfits
Everyone wants to look amazing during this season. That is why many people buy new outfits. Halloween’s alone is one of the most single-used outfits of all year. According to Hubbub’s research, only in 2016 in the UK 7 million costumes were thrown out because on average, Halloween costumes are only worn twice.
Let’s not forget that most of the Halloween costumes are made with polyester, a synthetic fiber that breaks down into microplastics. Microplastics are not only affecting animals but also humans. According to the journal Environmental Science and Technology, in 2019 they published that it is possible that we are consuming around 39,000 to 52,000 microplastics a year. If we take into account how many microplastics we also inhale, the number goes up to 74,000 microplastics.
There are greener alternatives and we can still be as scary as we want. Halloween costumes can be home-made or upcycled. Yet, only 14% of people in the UK tend to make their own costume. If you think you can’t be that creative, look for DIY costumes on pinterest. This will save the planet and your wallet.
If you still want to wear something new to welcome the new year or for Christmas, buy eco consciously. Look for sustainable, ethical or local brands. A great way to finish this year is being more conscious of what we buy and why we buy it.
Traditional Activities
Final eco friendly holidays tip: All celebrations are full of traditional activities. Each country has its own way of celebrating. However, some of these can be a little bit more eco friendly. For example, if you are giving away candy on Halloween, try to recycle all of the candy wrappings. If you can’t do this, you can start your eco brick. All you need is a bottle of soda, which can be easy to get on this time of the year. On my instagram you can find tutorials on how to make your eco brick and how you can help build houses with them.
For Secret Santa, I recommend adding the gift receipt. Truly, sometimes people don’t like their gifts and it is a waste to just keep them in the drawer forever. It hurts to see someone change your gift, but it is worse to let people throw it away or “donate it”. Many donations end up in the landfill anyway. You can always choose to add a wishlist so everyone is sure they’ll like their present.
For this year, in particular, you can try secret Santa remotely. With a video call, you can celebrate with your friends and send them their Christmas gifts. You can send them a couple of days earlier so you can all open them in the video call.
On New Year’s in some parts of the world, people list their purposes for the next year. Nevertheless, I believe I can start doing one of them ahead of time. My purpose is to enjoy every single one of the holidays while being more conscious of my decisions.
I believe that with these swaps, we can continue celebrating as we are used to. However, we are more aware of the importance of making our traditions more sustainable, fair, and enjoyable. Let me know in the comments if you have decided to have eco friendly holidays this year!
You can also be interested in:
– Which Christmas Tree Is the Most Sustainable
– Why We Should Stop Living in a Throwaway Society
