Eco-Friendly Christmas: Sustainable Practices for Families

Christmas is a time to celebrate with joy, love, and creativity — but it’s also a great opportunity to reflect on how we can take care of the environment while celebrating the festive season. The holiday season is often associated with excess (more decorations, wrapping paper, food, and waste) but there are many ways we can enjoy a sustainable Christmas without compromising on fun, creativity, or tradition.

This year, let’s make a commitment to reducing waste and embracing eco-friendly practices during the holiday season. Whether you're crafting Christmas ornaments, wrapping gifts, or planning your festive meals, there are plenty of easy and enjoyable ways to make your Christmas greener, all while teaching your tamariki the importance of sustainability.

Here are some simple, eco-friendly ideas for families to celebrate a more sustainable Christmas.

1. Create Eco-Friendly Christmas Ornaments

Why not turn old materials into beautiful Christmas decorations? By using recycled items, families can create unique ornaments and reduce waste at the same time. Reusing materials helps reduce waste and lowers the demand for new resources, and eco-friendly crafts teach children to appreciate the beauty of everyday items and spark creativity through recycling.

Ideas for Eco-Ornaments:

• Paper Roll Stars or Angels: Use kitchen towel rolls to create stars, angels, or other festive shapes. Simply cut the rolls into sections, paint them with non-toxic paint, and decorate with natural embellishments like buttons, fabric scraps, or dried flowers.

• Upcycled Jar Lid Decorations: Old jar lids can be transformed into cute Christmas ornaments. Simply glue a festive image or design inside, and add a ribbon to hang them from the tree.

• Nature-Inspired Decorations: Collect fallen pinecones, leaves, sticks, cinnamon sticks, fresh pine branches and flowers to make wreaths, garlands, decorations and tree toppers. You can also use dried citrus slices, shells, driftwood or nuts to make natural ornaments.

• Eco-Friendly Lights: Opt for solar-powered or LED string lights. They use less energy and are better for the environment

2. Try Sustainable Gift Wrapping

Wrapping paper is one of the most wasteful items during the holiday season. However, there are many eco-friendly alternatives that not only reduce waste but can also add a personal touch to your gifts. By reusing materials or switching to natural wrapping, we help reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills after the holiday season. Fabric wraps and reusable bags can be used again and again, eliminating the need for single-use wrapping paper.

Ideas for Eco-Friendly Gift Wrapping:

• Fabric Gift Wrap (Furoshiki): The Japanese tradition of furoshiki involves wrapping gifts in a square piece of fabric. This can be done using scarves, old t-shirts, or other cloth materials that you already have at home. The fabric can be reused year after year.

• Newspapers and Magazines: Reuse old newspapers or magazines to wrap gifts. You can also get creative by using pages with festive images or themes, and adding a personal touch by making your own gift tags from old cards or scraps.

• Recycle Brown Paper Bags with Natural Embellishments: Simple brown bags can be made festive with twine, dried flowers, or even sprigs of greenery, or cut them to use the paper. Children can decorate the paper with stamps, drawings, or stickers.

3. Make Homemade Gifts Together

Homemade gifts are a heartfelt way to show someone you care while also being kind to the planet. Help your tamariki to create simple yet meaningful gifts for family and friends, which fosters the idea that the value of a gift comes from the thought and effort behind it: not its cost. Homemade gifts reduce the need for mass-produced items and packaging, which often contribute to waste.

Ideas for Homemade Gifts:

• Handmade Candles: Making candles at home can be a fun craft for children. Using natural wax such as beeswax or soy wax and essential oils, families can safely create candles in reusable containers like mason jars.

• Make Sugar Scrubs or Handmade Soaps: Making your own natural products is a thoughtful and sustainable way to show someone you care. Add a few drops of a favourite essential oil to make them truly special.

• Baked Goods or Treats: Homemade cookies, jams and bread can be packaged in reusable containers, fabric wraps or reusable beeswax wraps that can be used again and again for a thoughtful and eco-friendly gift.

• Gift Recipes in a Jar: Create a beautiful layered mason jar with all the dry ingredients to make a favourite baked item such as cookies. Add a festive ribbon with the recipe attached and any additional ingredients required for a gift that inspires, tastes great and provides a fun activity.

• Recycle Mismatched Lego: Glue old Lego pieces to a canvas and create a scene or abstract art piece for someone.

• Create Dolls or Teddy Clothes: Use old fabric or unwanted/ damaged clothing to cut down and create new and original doll or teddy clothes for someone special.

• Hand-Painted Mugs or Pottery: If you have access to paintable ceramics or clay, children can create personalized gifts by decorating mugs, plates, or small bowls for loved ones.

• Upcycle: Take an unwanted gift or item that you do not need and re-gift it.

Celebrate an Eco-Friendly Christmas

At Three Trees Early Learning Centre, we’re committed to fostering sustainability and environmental awareness in our tamariki and we encourage families to embrace eco-friendly practices that reduce waste, celebrate creativity, and promote a love for the planet. By making small changes, we can all contribute to a greener, more thoughtful holiday season.

Meri Kirihimete from Three Trees Early Learning Centre!