Christmas can involve some fairly substantial investment in stuff. A little planning will ensure it doesn’t go to waste, writes Gina Dempster.
Christmas and waste seem to go together like ... Santa and chimneys, pavlova and cream. In the UK alone, it was estimated that 4.2 million Christmas dinners were wasted last Christmas. One British paper claimed that within three months, 41 % of toys that children received were broken, and most of those were heading to the landfill.
So reducing the amount of waste we make at Christmas seems like a good idea for the planet, but wouldn’t it add to the stress of the holiday season? Well, not necessarily. Instead of thinking about wasting less, we can turn it around and focus on being resourceful and celebrating the parts of Christmas that means the most to us.
Advertisers would have us believe that the way to a happy Christmas is to buy all the toys that your child has seen on TV over the past six months. It’s definitely the way to a massive pile of packaging on the floor on Christmas day, but I’m not so sure it’s the way to happiness. Let’s face it, in life we’re never going to get everything we want, so Christmas is a good training ground to be happy with what Santa brings.
The joy of Christmas is in the traditions, and giving presents is only one of them. Having other family rituals can lessen the focus on presents. A regular Christmas game of cricket, swim, picnic or boat outing can be looked forward to as much as the gifts. When I think about what really makes me happy at Christmas it’s happy kids, a Champagne breakfast and a great new book to read in the sun.
Yes, a resourceful, lower-waste Christmas does involve a bit of early planning, but that also helps to reduce the stress. It’s the worst feeling being stuck in a mall on Christmas Eve desperately searching for something to give your hardest-to-buy-for relative. Shoppers here spent a record $6 billion last December, which puts a lot of pressure on our budgets, as well as the decision-making parts of our brain.
The good news is that it’s still five weeks until Christmas, so there’s plenty of time to get one or more projects going. Choose one way to make your Christmas more resourceful this year, and you can create less waste and more fun.
PRESENT POSSIBILITIES
It’s the best feeling when you give someone something they truly love. Reclaiming Christmas from the extremes of consumerism doesn’t necessarily mean not buying presents, but it does mean fighting the pressure to buy massive amounts of stuff, much of it which no-one ends up loving or using. By talking to our wider families, there are lots of ways to exchange gifts which don’t involve waste.
Some families have tried giving fewer presents (meaning they can spend a bit more on that perfect gift), making presents, giving treats that they can eat and drink together, asking relatives what they’d like, giving money towards something the recipient is saving for, giving experiences (like trips or meals out) or giving vouchers for time (like baby-sitting or massages). It’s kind of exciting to think of all the ways you make your loved ones happy. You can also use your present dollars to support a charity or community project, and give beautiful and practical gifts that reduce waste during the year, like reusable bags or water bottles.
IT’S A WRAP
Did your mum have drawers full of pre-loved wrapping paper? You can reuse good-quality wrapping paper by swapping reusing it, and it can be fun to try to remember where it originally came from. For the sake of good recycling, it’s worth avoiding paper that contains a plastic layer. You can tell by ripping a tiny corner of the paper; if it has a stretchy layer, then it contains plastic. Admittedly, that’s usually a bit hard to do before you buy!
Wrapping can be a chance to get really creative and reuse your kids’ art, pages from ripped books or sheet music, out-of-date magazines, or old wallpaper. There’s lots of room to personalise your wrapping, too; one of my favourite present wrappings was to a friend from her 12-year-old daughter. When your present is covered in a gorgeous photo of Daniel Craig offset by bright yellow ribbon, why would you even want to unwrap it?
Scarves and pieces fabric work really well as reusable wrappings, too. The Japanese have a tradition of wrapping objects in fabric (google ‘‘furoshiki’’ for techniques).
LOVE FOOD, HATE WASTE
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without an all-out feast. You know you’re going to end up with left-overs, so finding some useful recipes ahead of time can encourage you to use them up. Left-overs can become a much-loved part of your Christmas traditions: like Boxing Day pavlova for breakfast or ham steaks on the barbecue. For easy left-over ideas, go to the Love Food Hate Waste NZ Facebook page or www.lovefoodhatewastenz.co.nz.
About 30% of the average rubbish bin is food waste, so by composting any Christmas food scraps, you can make a huge dent in the amount of rubbish you throw out. Bokashi buckets are a simple, easy composting system, which is subsidised 50% by Queenstown Lakes District Council for residents of Wanaka and Queenstown. And they make a great practical Christmas present.
DECOR OR DECORATIONS?
Our Christmas tree decorations were bought in a hurry from the Warehouse before we had kids. Think mismatched small strands of tinsel, and baubles in different shades of burnt orange. If I’d known I was going to have to live with them for the next 20 years, I probably would have spent more than five minutes and $20.
Now I’m stuck with those hastily bought decorations because the kids won’t let them go. They’re a link with all the Christmases we’ve had together, and even though I might sometimes temporarily forget that, the kids won’t. When they blocked my planned upgrade to colour-co-ordinated decorations, I just stopped reading the Christmas edition of home magazines. Cheaper, and just as effective.
Making your own decorations adds to the warm, fuzzy, Christmas feeling. I’ve made some pretty random ones with the kids in the past, and yes they still get put up on our Christmas tree every year. It’s a lot harder than you’d think to make a good-looking decoration! This year I’m going to try making origami decorations at the Wastebusters craft workshop, hopefully they’ll increase the style factor of my tree.
REJOICE, RELAX AND RECYCLE
You never hear of anyone doing dry December, probably because drinking is a big part of the festive season. I can say that with confidence, because in Wanaka the amount of glass Wastebusters collects for recycling goes up by 400% over Christmas and New Year.
Of course, ahem, most of that is drunk by holiday visitors (not us locals), but everyone’s recycling bins are usually overflowing before collection day. Alexandra and Wanaka have recycling drop-off centres, which are open every day except Christmas Day. In other towns, give your council a ring to see what is the best way to deal with your extra recycling. And while you’ve got them on the phone, why not ask them whether your bottles will be made into new bottles? It’s reassuring for councils to know that people care about what happens to their recycling after it’s picked up.
Crafty Christmas workshops
Wastebusters is running two free craft workshops to celebrate a zero waste Christmas. All materials supplied, venue is the Wanaka Wastebusters shop.
• Upcycle origami for your tree or cardsWednesday November 30, 4pm-5.30pmMaking origami decorations for your tree or Christmas cards using music sheets, magazines and other discarded paper.
• Create a hand-made recycled giftMonday December 5, 4pm-5.30pmDecorate a key-ring with beads, trinkets and other random objects
