Recycle, Reuse, Re-Gift – how to have a planet-friendly Christmas

While things are hotting up in Copenhagen, London is getting a light dusting of snow and I’m feeling a little festive. So I thought I would look at the impact our Christmas will have on the environment. It is set to be a somewhat frugal affair this year, but before you label me a Scroogella, here’s how we plan to have big fun with a low impact...

Firstly, the gifts. There’ll be no new toys from Santa this year. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be toys at all. Senan is at that lovely age when the marketers haven’t got to him yet – at 18 months old he has yet to be swayed by the mantra that new is best and he’s fine with all his plastic gear being second hand. While there is no truer statement than “if you give a toddler a big plastic toy, he will get more entertainment out of the cardboard box”, sadly for me my son really LOVES brightly coloured plastic toys too, and so our home is far from plastic tat-free. My way of justifying this is to ensure it is second-hand. We have lots of great friends and neighbours with kids who are delighted for us to take their old toys off their hands and even better, we have a great charity shop for kids nearby (Fara Kids, http://www.faracharityshops.org) where I can pick up good-as-new toys cheaply and then take them back to the shop when he grows out of them for them to sell them on again – recycling and charitable giving all bundled into one!

Then there is the art of re-gifting. Trust me, this has to be done artfully. Regifting (ie. giving an unwanted gift away to someone else) has been a tradition in our family at Christmas since I was small, so I am not offended if I get back what I gave to my mother last year, but this will certainly not be the case for everyone. Here’s how to do it right...

1. Have a bag set aside for the gifts that you don’t really want or need.

2. After everyone has gone home and the home made thank you cards have gone out, audit the gifts into two piles, those that will make great gifts for others and those that can go to charity now

3. In the “go to others” pile, list who gave you what so as to avoid the mortification of giving it back to them next year

4. Keep the list with the items so you can refer to it next year.

Regifting doesn’t just have to be things that you received as gifts. I won a raffle this year – what a bonus – now I know what my husband is getting! The golden rule for re-gifting is never re-gift rubbish, just the stuff that is nice, but just not quite your taste.

Then of course there’s food and drink. We aim to get a local veg box delivery pre-Christmas and cook a free range turkey the Jamie Oliver way. There will undoubtedly be delicious additions from my family who are joining us for lunch – but local and seasonal is the goal for us all. Our neighbours will also be home this Christmas (emissions from air travel must go right down during a recession!), so we are flinging our doors open for some homespun cheer throughout the festive season. Mulled wine and mince pies for everyone – oh and some of that lovely chutney Mum made last summer.

And finally, our tree... Some might say that reusability is the only thing a plastic tree has going for it, given that it is likely to be made from polyvinyl chloride. However, with reforestation numbers not stacking up I am proud that we are reusing the plastic tree that my parents bought in 1972 and have had in their house every Christmas since then. My mother, the queen of posh bargain shopping bought this now 37-year old treasure from the Harrods window one snowy Christmas eve. They gave her the baubles too, and we still have them now. A good plastic tree can last lifetimes, so we are committed to reusing this baby for many years to come.

Calculating our impact.

After Christmas we’ll do a triple bottom line review of Christmas (oh yes we will, we’re nerds like that!) to see how well we did on minimising our impact. Watch this space to see if our measures for a low impact Christmas really stacked up on the day.