Sustainable Holiday Tips (2024)
Reposting our blog post from 2023 below, because all these tips are still relevant.
As we go throughout the holiday season this year, we will share any new tips here. Yesterday, on Small Business Saturday, we got to practice our sustainable gift wrapping at Skeleton Dust Records, doing free wrapping for gifts purchased there or at Pink Moon Goods. Here are a few pictures we took, along with the caption shared on Instagram and Facebook.
“For Small Business Saturday we offered free sustainable gift wrapping for those who purchased items @pinkmoongoods and @skeleton_dust_records They also had a few other featured vendors in their stores, so it was a great time to shop small and show support. We personally had fun meeting folks and getting crafty!
If you have to buy something but didn’t get a chance to make it to the shops today, we encourage you to get out there before the Holidays. It is super important to shop small and shop local. There are numerous reasons why buying from a small business and NOT a big box store/Amazon is so much better.
Not only does your money help pay for some else’s bills and livelihood, but the items you purchase are oftentimes made with higher quality materials (sustainable) and you usually get better, authentic customer service. On the flip side you can take heart in knowing you’re not supporting systems that rely on slave labor, and your money isn’t going into billionaires pockets.
We just have to be intentional with our time and money.
Continue to show love to the Earth and People this Holiday Season.”
If there was just one point to emphasize this year, it would be to shop local and shop small. E-commerce sales continue to increase each year, and are projected to reach $1.22 trillion in 2024. (Source: SellersCommerce) As people opt to go with the lowest prices and fastest delivery, that will negatively impact small businesses. While there have been some exciting new small businesses open in the past year, there have also been some notable closures and pleas made by businesses who are struggling. For several reasons, small businesses are vital to healthy and sustainable communities. (Check out this post on Holy Lamb Organics, 5 Reasons Why Small Businesses Are Vital For Our Planet.) To reiterate how we ended the social media post, be intentional with your money, and show love to our community this holiday season.
2023 Post
The end of year holiday season started several weeks ago - you could argue it started after Halloween. If you’re like me, a procrastinator when it comes to shopping and holiday preparations, this post will still be timely and useful. These tips can also be useful year round. We have posted tips for being more waste-free around the holidays each of the last two years (2022 and 2021 posts). We will reiterate some of the tips from the prior posts here.
Gift Wrapping
Over 2 millions pounds of wrapping paper end up in landfills each year. Some could be recycled. Some isn’t able to be recycled due to non-paper additives (e.g. glitter). What’s are some sustainable alternatives? Reusing gift bags, getting a roll of brown Kraft paper and decorating your packages, saving the brown paper inserts that come in package deliveries, or use fabric to wrap gifts are great options! Here is a simple way to wrap a wine or liquor bottle using a tea towel.
Any type of fabric can work as long as it’s the right size. You can purchase nice tea towels or Furoshiki fabric and make something a combo gift. Or just use what you have!
Here are more resources for waste-free gift wrapping:
The Green Wrapper YouTube Channel
“How to make holiday gift wrapping less wasteful” - Washington Post
Decorations
Decorating around the holidays can be fraught with unsustainable choices. We don’t want to “Bah Humbug” anybody’s holiday festivities, but we do want to encourage you to make eco-conscious choices when possible. With that said, if you do buy decorations that wouldn’t be considered sustainable due to the materials they are made from, just take care of them and use them every year. What about making your own decorations? If you have oranges or other citrus fruit that you won’t be able to use, you can turn them into garland, like Co-Director Natalie did this year.
Here’s easy DIY recipe for Dried Orange Garland: https://www.thequickjourney.com/easy-diy-how-to-make-dried-orange-ornaments
Waste-Free Cooking/Baking
Baking cookies during the holiday season is a tradition for many people. Brown sugar is a common ingredient in a lot of recipes, and it’s also something that commonly comes in plastic packaging. It is really easy to make your own brown sugar using granulated sugar and a little molasses.
https://sugarspunrun.com/how-to-make-brown-sugar/
Unique, Homemade Gifts
Finally, our last sustainable tip is to give unique and homemade gifts. We discovered this recipe recently for Chai Spiced Nut Butter, and after you whip up a few batches, you can fill small jars that hopefully you’ve been saving for just this occasion.
https://minimalistbaker.com/chai-spiced-nut-butter/
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We hope you have a joyful, and waste-free holiday season!