While most Dunedin residents were putting their feet up at home on Christmas Eve, Mr Holmes, a University of Otago film-making student, was out on the streets, fossicking through rubbish skips behind many of the city's major stores.
"I swore to have a sustainable, consumption-free Christmas in 2008. That meant not flying from New Zealand to Australia to see my family, not buying presents, not buying decorations for the tree.
"It also meant not buying any food."
Mr Holmes said he had visited many supermarket and department store rubbish skips during the past year and had not paid a cent for groceries.
"It can't be that good you say - it's from a bin. OK, what's wrong with bacon, eggs and beans on thick sliced toast for breakfast?
"What about organic pumpkin soup with croutons, cheese, sour cream and garlic bread, washed down with a ginger beer and followed by chocolate brownies?
"How about beef and basil ravioli, with a herby tomato vegetable sauce, with a side of Steinlager, for dinner? It may not have been a typical Christmas feast, but it's good food, and I was stuffed."
And there was no need to sneak around late at night looking for the comforts of home, he said.
The manager of an electronic store had cheerily said "Hi" to him, as he went through the store skip.
"I pulled out no fewer than four DVD players, four MP3 players, a cordless phone, five headphones, a 1GB SD card, a beach cricket set and a microwave.
"All except the MP3 players were fully functional."
Mr Holmes said more than half of the items were thrown out because they had minor damage, about a third were getting near their best-before date, and the rest because the stores were clearing shelf space as part of product rotation.
"There's nothing wrong with these things. The amount of wastage is disgusting.
"A lot of the food being thrown out could go to food banks."
He said there was a "whole community" of "dumpster divers" in Dunedin, many of them university students.
While some people deemed their actions to be less than savoury, Mr Holmes believed they were helping to reduce waste in the community.
"One massive point is that the council has a goal of zero waste to landfill by 2015 - that's seven years away.
"The first thing that has to change is the unnecessary disposal of useful items. Once they are out of the system, then deal with the disposal of the remaining waste, like plastics and foams."
Dunedin Police Senior Sergeant Brian Benn said it was an offence to steal other people's rubbish.
If police came across someone doing it, they would "deal with it as they saw fit on the day".
"If we had a complaint from a store owner, we would prosecute.
"It's not an ideal way to do your shopping," he said.
