Planet-Friendly Festive Season Guide

My family have been doing Christmas and the festive season a little differently for a few years and I'm definitely really conscious about it this year. As you will know if you've read anything on this blog, I am trying to help with the climate crisis and make sure I am doing my most to be planet-friendly and sustainable. And this, of course, applies to the festive season. 

If you want to learn more sustainability tips, check out the Climate Crisis category on my blog.

Here are some ideas for how to go about gifting sustainably this winter...

Buy presents secondhand.

I always embrace this. I love finding things in secondhand shops or charity shops and thinking about somebody in my life who would love to be gifted it. It does require a small time commitment and a little planning ahead because you never know when you'll find the perfect present. There you have to keep your eye out all year and hoard a little stack of things that you can gift the people in your life.

My favourite thing to gift as presents are secondhand books. I love being able to give a book a second life and it can be a present that lasts and can be discussed with you when it's read. It can also reflect on your relationship with that person. What kind of books do they like, what stories do they like to hear, what topics do they want to learn more about?

Buy from independent businesses.

This is one of my favourites to do because small independent business owners always appreciate their customers and you can find such cool and quirky stuff in independent stores. This can also apply online as well as for in-person shops because sellers on places like Etsy are all independent.

Gift experiences, not things.

This is a great one. My family have gifted me tickets to poetry live shows, talks and art exhibitions. It's a fun event for you to do with the people you love and can be really specific to you. It is also better for the planet because it doesn't involve any resources as a present other than the ticket.

Prioritise spending time with your loved ones.

This is a lovely and important one. I love being able to spend the holidays with the people most important to me, putting away technology, work or studying and distractions to be able to put some real time into those relationships.

So there are some tips for having a planet-friendly festive season. I hope everyone gives and gets some wonderful presents or gets to spend time with the people they care about.

Photo by Mourad Saadi on Unsplash