Holidays do not have to be wasteful, stressful and expensive at the time when we need to be more aware of the world around us. We default to the same old wasteful habits because we are in a hurry and feeling overwhelmed by everything that has to get done, but that does not have to be our holiday! We can be more mindful about how we do holidays. All it takes is wanting to do it. View our Sustainable Holidays presentation for full details.

Making your holidays more sustainable might mean rethinking how you approach gift giving, decorating, or entertaining – or all three, and includes all the places you go-home, work, school, social events, faith based organizations.

But what does being sustainable actually mean? A few considerations as you contemplate your holiday planning (and not just holidays, but any area of your life–you can apply sustainable principles all over!):

• To know and not exceed your budget
• To use the things you already have
• To consider the beginning, middle and probable end of a product
• To ask yourself: How have I served, protected, enhanced my community and environment?

Gift Giving

It’s important above all to be thoughtful when  you give gifts. Giving someone a gift that they don’t want or don’t like has consequences:

• 1/3 of Americans who got a gift they didn’t like threw it in the trash. 
• 3 in 5 Americans have lied about liking a gift they’ve received. 
• Retailers throw away about 25% of returned products, which adds up to more than 5 billion pounds of trash every year! 
• $10.1 billion dollars spent in the United States on gifts people do not want or need–that is not sustainable in this economy and absolutely not sustainable for the environment. 

So think like a journalist when choosing gifts:

• Who – who are you gifting? Be thoughtful and deliberate in your gift giving
• What – what are you getting them? Is it something they want?
• When – when are you going shopping? When are you gifting this? Is it timely?
• Where – where are you getting it? Shop locally when possible
• Why – why are you choosing this gift over other options? 
• How – how are you wrapping it? Cloth or Kraft paper with natural decorations are better options
• Bonus – what will happen at the end of this gift’s life?

A few ideas for more sustainable gift options include gifts of time (like baby or pet sitting, organizing the tool shed or garden, teaching the younger generation one of your favorite hobbies or skills) , experiences like trips, or classes,  family heirlooms (why wait until you’re gone to give the people you love the things you love? Wrap them up this year!) , thoughtfully thrifted items, gift certificates, and handmade items. Get creative! 

If you purchase your gift, try to support local businesses. Did you know that over $70 of a $100 purchase made at a local business stays in the community, compared to less than $40 out of $100 spent at a big box store? Keeping your dollars local boosts your community and benefits your neighbors, which is important these days. 

Decorating

Making your home look festive adds to holiday cheer. But your decorations need not be wasteful, and you don’t need to rush out and buy the newest set of plastic things every year that you will just throw away. The most sustainable holiday decorations are ones you can use over and over, ones you make yourself from natural materials, and ones you can compost. Look for reusable items at thrift stores or yard sales or your local online marketplace or buy nothing group (pro tip: keep an eye out in spring and summer when people are cleaning out their storage areas). Gather natural items like grasses, leaves, evergreen branches, pinecones, and acorns when you are out for a walk, and come up with artsy ways of using them around your home to up your holiday game.

Remember that most wrapping papers, especially anything foil or plastic-y will not be recyclable. Default to paper that is 1. Already made from post consumer waste and 2. Recyclable. You will know it is recyclable because it will be made out of paper. Pull tape off of paper and boxes before putting them in your blue bin. A fun project with kids and grand kids might be to make your own inexpensive and environmentally friendly wrapping paper and gift bags out of rolls of kraft paper, or white drawing paper, and crayons or rubber stamps, or even scraps of fabric! Skip the bows and curling ribbon which are not only expensive, not recyclable but a hazard to pets who ingest them. Instead opt for simple garden twine, pinecones, evergreen boughs, cinnamon sticks, and some other of nature’s little decorations. 

Christmas trees: real or fake? This is a tough question and there are different ways of measuring the environmental impact of a Christmas tree. For example, real trees: where were they grown, and how far did they travel to get to you? For artificial trees: how durable is it, what is it made of, and how many years will you reuse it? Additionally, many artificial trees are made of PVC (plastic) and lead, which cause health and environmental problems during production, use, and disposal.

A fun option for one year might be to buy a small potted tree and plant it in your yard after the holidays are over, and let it flourish there for decades. But not everyone has the space or desire to do this. 

Ultimately, we feel that a natural tree grown in our region (lots of trees come from North Carolina) is a better choice than an artificial tree, because it will ultimately break down into mulch or compost.  But this year, real trees may be at a premium because of climate change, storms, flooding and tariffs, and that might not be sustainable to your wallet, especially if you have an artificial tree available to you. The key to sustainability is to use (and reuse) what you have. 

Entertaining

Holiday gatherings need not result in overflowing trash cans full of paper plates and cups and headaches caused by never being able to fully clean up glitter! Steer clear of single-use things like cups and plates and utensils, even if they are paper,  because not only is there an actual environmental cost to these items–you have plates and cups and silverware at home you can use over and over again!
If you are hosting parties at your workplace, community group, or faith community, make a policy where people bring their own set of a plate, bowl, cup, cutlery, and a cloth napkin – and take those home with them and wash them! If you have a kitchen at one of these spaces, solicit donations of real serving ware and utensils to keep available, and wash them up afterwards.  Likewise, make your own little partygoer’s kit of reusables and take it with you to any gatherings you attend. People have been entertaining for millennia, and it is only in the last 50 years that we have gotten used to single-use items. Oddly enough, we also started seeing overwhelming plastic pollution—the US has the highest concentration of microplastic fibers in drinking water than anywhere else in the world.

Speaking of single-use items, skip the plastic wrap and Ziploc bags at holiday meals. Send leftovers home in reusable containers (and bring a reusable leftover container with you in your own party pack too!). Any food waste can be composted to prevent it from winding up in a landfill. 

And FINALLY,  when you are shopping for holiday events, remember to bring your reusable bags. It will save you a little bit of money, and you won’t be adding to the glut of plastic pollution in our region. If you need plastic bags for messy chores around the house, look no further than the things that come to you in the mail–most items are in non-recyclable plastic envelopes or plastic padded envelopes, with the item inside in yet another clear plastic bag. Save those! Other sources of plastic bags you may not have thought of: Pet food bags, frozen food bags, bread and bakery bags–once you start seeing all the plastic that comes into your house without you bringing it in, you’ll start using those bags instead of thinking you need plastic shopping bags! 

A few other suggestions to keep your holidays  sustainable, stress free, and affordable:

• Unsubscribe from marking emails that work to make you feel like you’re not doing or buying enough
• Consider a family Secret Gift Exchange so that you are buying (or making, or finding)  just one or two gifts rather than 20. 
• Make new fun traditions, like a scavenger hunt on holiday mornings where the ‘gift’ is the process, not the ‘thing’ found at the end.
• Use and shop from “Wish Lists” especially “from” the kids to ensure that you’re not getting or receiving things you do not want or that do not align with your environmental values. 
• Avoid participating or promoting anything like Ugly Sweater contests that encourage one-off purchases of anything that will be discarded immediately. 
• Who doesn’t love spiced nuts, or fudge or a cookie plate of the month gift? Include the recipe with the gift–that is SO sustainable!

Remember, no one is perfect and you do not have to take all of the suggestions here. It’s better to do a lot of sustainable actions imperfectly than not to try at all. The more you build thoughtful habits for the holidays, the easier it will be to keep them going for the rest of the year, and quite likely you will have a more memorable time, that is both less stressful, and more affordable! Recognize that you are part of an ecosystem that is made up of natural, human, and economic elements. It flourishes when you care for it, and it withers when you do not. Happy Holidays from Clean Fairfax!