Post-Christmas details

Ok, I said I wasn’t going to post until after the New Year, but I wanted to report back on how greening my Christmas went.

• I didn’t have many decorations, but am working on some homemade ones for next year.
• I managed to make all my gift wrappings green: mostly I re-used gift bags, paper and ribbon, and bought a small amount of wrapping made from recycled paper.
• I completely forgot to write Christmas cards, but no-one noticed
• I bought some fairly good gifts: Sigg bottles and organic toys for the kids; a wind-up LED torch for my dad; a pashmina for my mum (not particularly environmental, but long-lasting and multi-purpose); and a plant for a good friend.

I hosted a Christmas lunch for my whole family, and was very happy with the results. Everyone have a good time, and the meal was also pretty eco-friendly. We had local ham and free-range chicken, a salad made mostly from local and organic vegetables (plus some tinned lentils), home-made icecream and sorbet using mostly local ingredients, and a fruit salad that wasn’t entirely local, but was at least fully Australian. By preparing a lot of the food ahead of time, we were very relaxed and got to spend time with our family rather than in the kitchen. We used real cutlery, napkins and compostable plates rather than plastic throw-aways. And we had ice in buckets and eskies rather than loading up a second fridge for drinks.

Now we’ve got the clean-up to deal with: leftover food and wrapping paper!

Leftovers can be a huge source of waste over Christmas - people want to feed everyone, but not everyone is hungry in such hot weather! So a lot of food gets thrown out, which is not only a waste of resources, but also adds to landfill. We managed to compost most of our food scraps, although some helpful guests cleared their own plates before we could let them know about the compost. And I’ll definitely be looking for ideas on how to store and use leftovers: the UK site Love Food, Hate Waste has some great tips and recipes.

I managed to salvage some wrapping paper and some pretty ribbons to be re-used during the year. I targeted people who open their presents carefully, rather than those who tear it off with gleeful abandon the way I do! I’ll have to learn to do better with my own wrappings next time. The rest of the paper went into the compost and the recycling bin - I encouraged people to leave their trash with me rather than politely take it home, since I know I’ll dispose of it responsibly

How did you go with your Christmas? If you managed to do things greener than you normally would, or had any problems making greener choices, let me know in the comments.