How to Have a Sustainable Christmas
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode 54
How to Have a Sustainable Christmas
Some of my best childhood memories revolve around holiday celebrations. The holidays were always a time of great excitement and anticipation. They were about family, fun, lots of good food and, of course, Santa Claus.
But as I have gotten older, my views on many things have changed, including what I do around the holidays, how I spend my time, and of course whether or not I lay awake at night waiting for Santa Claus.
As the Christmas season gets ever closer I really wanted to discuss my personal transition into what I call a sustainable Christmas and mindful gifting. Hopefully, this will encourage you to do the same. So if you want to full story, then listen to this simple yet thought provoking episode on How to Have a Sustainable Christmas.
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E54 which is called How to Have a Sustainable Christmas.
If you are at all like me, some of your favorite childhood memories are about Christmas, Santa Claus, and of course huge family gatherings and the tremendous amount of really good food.
I distinctly remember sitting every year and watching the Santa Tracker on TV. And I would of course try to stay awake all night waiting to see if I could catch Santa Claus in action but also to see if he would eat the chocolate chips cookies and milk I always left out for him. And you know it never really occurred to me that we did not even have a chimney for Santa to get into the house.
Many years later after Annette and I met, I found myself pulling the same tricks on Annette’s son Erik that my parents used on us. Christmas was always a huge, much anticipated celebration with a lot of talk about Santa Claus. I even encouraged Erik to leave out chocolate chip cookies for Santa. And I would even eat part of one of them and leave the evidence for Erik to find.
It was great fun for a number of years until one day he came home from school asking if Santa Claus was real. We of course had to say no. It took him several weeks to appreciate what great fun it had been for all that time believing in a fictitious holiday character. However, he did not fully appreciate this until we were actually living in Saint Kitts.
The school had notified us that there was to be a holiday celebration at one of the local restaurants, complete with Santa Claus. The younger kids at school were encouraged to write a letter to Santa Claus detailing what they wanted for Christmas. That letter was then given to the parents of each child. Each parent would use the list to purchase gifts, would wrap them complete with a label of their child’s name. The gifts were then returned to the school and magically ended up in the hands of Saint Nick. Erik of course played along. And we gave him strict instructions not to ruin things for the younger kids.
So what happened at the restaurant was truly one of my best Christmas celebrations. Mr and Mrs Claus were off shore in a sail boat. Radio contact cued them to start their journey to shore. They sped to shore on a jet ski and drove right up on the beach. Then they got into the sleigh which was pulled by a donkey. The sleigh of course had all the gifts for the children. As Mr and Mrs Claus pulled up to the restaurant and dismounted the sleigh, the kids went wild with anticipation.
This was the moment when Erik truly realized the value in believing in Santa Claus. I told him to just watch the children and experience their joy and laughter. It was only then that he could appreciate the true joy in believing. I told him that sooner or later they will grow up to figure it out. But for now, what is the harm in bringing joy and laughter to the heart of a young child.
But as I got older, my views on the holidays changed a lot. As each year passed I grew less and less willing to participate in what I called holiday madness. Every year instead of Christmas being fun, it was truly a stressful time. Everyone I knew, including myself, would run around absolutely frantic trying to purchase gifts for everyone. And we would repeatedly waste an enormous amount of time and money year after year. So eventually, I just stopped doing it.
Actually what I did as an avoidance tactic is that I would volunteer to work on the holidays. This usually involved working in an emergency clinic. So what I started to notice when working with clients on holidays is just how unhappy they were. The fact that they ended up in the emergency clinic with their family pet on a holiday was just icing on the cake for the amount of stress they were experiencing. This was when I started questioning the value that we place on the holidays. It seemed to me that is was not really about family any more. It was just about money, money, money.
So the next thing I tried was another avoidance tactic. I had grown weary of dealing with a lot of unhappy people around the holidays so I decided to avoid American culture altogether. Every year for about 6 or 7 years, I made it a point to be out of the country for Christmas and New Years. This is when I became reacquainted with what it was like for the holidays to be about family.
On one particular stint out of the country I spent 4 months living with a Columbian family in Ecuador. Their version of Christmas was to invite a small portion of the family to their house for meals, entertainment, and gift giving on a small scale. But I should also point out that the small portion of the family that ended up at their house was 30 people.
There was a gift exchange on a very small scale. However, the main focus of the celebration was to spend time with family. Now playing bingo on Christmas may sound boring but that is truly not the case when you involved 30 Columbians. Few of them spoke English, I was just learning my numbers in Spanish, and I could barely keep up. The game board pieces were elbow macaroni. When someone would achieve bingo, they would leap from their chair, parade around like a movie star while everyone else tossed macaroni at them with considerable velocity.
For me it felt as if for the first time in years I had a fantastic time on Christmas day, and just spent time with really good people, and experienced absolutely zero stress. These folks were just enjoying family and invited me to be a part of that process and I loved it.
That was about 10 years ago and that truly marked my transition of how I choose to spend the holidays, and in particular Christmas. But I also think to myself that surely I cannot be on the only person on the planet that feels this way. Surely I am not the only one that is weary of the commercialism, the waste, and all the stress that goes along with the holidays.
For years now Annette and I have chosen to approach Christmas with a minimalistic attitude and be completely mindful of what we do and how we do it. Yes we do still exchange gifts but these are typically very small, thoughtful things. And they are typically things that we can use and will keep over a period of time. We simply do nice things for each other and for our friends and family. And this is what I call mindful giving or just simply sustainable gifting.
First of all what I want to do is to just look at our traditional Christmas celebration for a sustainable prospective. But first let’s look at Christmas by the numbers. And I am going to tell you that it is truly staggering.
-The average American spends nearly $1,000 per year on Christmas.
-This year it is expected that Americans will spend nearly one trillion dollars during the holiday season.
-There is approximately 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper produced in the US each year. About 2.3 million pounds of that ends up in the landfill.
-Globally, we spend over $17 billion per year on wrapping paper.
-We produce an additional 5 million tons of waste at Christmas.
-We throw away 38,000 miles of ribbon.
-We trash 30 million trees.
-We waste 80 billion pounds of food every year while eating 80% more around the holidays.
I recently posed a question in one of my episodes concerning the impact of what we do everyday. The question was “Is there any thing I can do that does not impact the environment in some way?” Well, the short answer to that of course is no. But what I have also said is that so often sustainability is about making better choices. But it is simply a matter of taking a closer look at what we are buying and how our purchases make an impact.
Then the question becomes, with respect to the Christmas season, what are things we can do to be more sustainable.
The Christmas Tree
So, let’s start with the Christmas tree itself. Certainly, having a live tree is more sustainable than a fake one that is made of plastic. If you are going to purchase a live tree, purchase one with the root ball still intact. Once the holiday season is over, the tree can be planted.
At this point in time, it is rare for us to have a Christmas tree inside. When we do, it is typically one that I’ve cut out of the aspen groove simply because I do not want the evergreens to over take the aspen. So it is a tree I was that was going to get cut anyway. But we also have several trees that are growing around the cabin that we decorate every year.
The other thing to consider is turning one of your large house plants into a Christmas tree. I used to have a potted Norfolk pine as a house plant and that is what I used as a Christmas tree for many years.
Give something with value, meaning, and purpose.
One of the concepts behind mindful gifting is simple to give something that has value, meaning, and purpose. In other words, give something that will last over time instead of something that will end up in the garbage. What about giving someone a potted plant for Christmas. This is something that will last almost forever if property cared for and it is something that will bring joy over and over again.
Shop Locally
As tempting as it may be to run to Walmart or shop Amazon, why not keep you local businesses in mind. By shopping local, you are supporting an independent business and supporting the local economy. Besides that, local businesses often put more care into their products that what you would typically find at some big box store.
Consider purchasing a single gift.
Instead of purchasing multiple gifts, put more thought and effort into one single thing. According to the National Retail Federation, 55% of consumers plan on returning unwanted gifts after the holidays. Additionally, approximately 77% say they plan on returning a portion of their gifts.
Consider something hand made.
There is no better way to be friendly to the environment than to give someone a hand made gift. So, be creative. If you like to cook the bake something for a friend. If you can sew, then make an item of clothing. If you make your own soap and shampoos then give these as gifts.
My younger sister is really very, very creative and she loves to make stained glass. One year for Christmas, she made me several glass Christmas ornaments. These are not a permanent part of the decor in the cabin and will be cherished forever.
Use Eco-friendly wrapping paper of use fabric
Hundreds of thousands of miles of wrapping paper are wasted each year. Why not opt for something that is eco-friendly such as brown wrapping paper with some twin. This can always be dressed up with a small piece of pine branch from the Christmas tree. Better yet, you can use cloth wrapping paper and reuse it every year.
Consider Gifts that Produce No Waste
Things such as tickets to a theatre, Gift certificates, memberships, subscriptions to something such as National Geographic, or simply taking someone on a trip or other outdoor activity.
Consider sending E-cards
The advantage to sending e-cards is that is is so easy to be creative. There are several platforms on the internet that make this an easy process. Instead of being someone that contributes to the 1 billion Christmas cards that end up in the trash every year, send an e-card.
Make a Donation
Do some research online and find an organization that is eco-friendly, sustainable, and charitable. Then make a donation.
I actually got this idea from a staff person at a hospital where I used to work. With the holidays approaching, she was complaining about how much her fiancé’s family spent on Christmas. Apparently her fiancé came from a very wealthy family and they routinely spend thousands of dollars on gift for each other. When she was asked in regards to her participation, she asked that they not purchase her anything at all for Christmas. Instead, take the money they would have spent on her and donate it to the humane society. She even gave them the name of the organization and a link to make the donation.
I thought this was a fantastic idea and something I’d never even thought of.
Donate Your Time
Now I think this is a fantastic was to give something back at Christmas. There are so many people in the world that are in need and so many organizations that are in need of volunteers especially at Christmas.
For many years I donated several weeks of my time to work do volunteer work in a third world country. Now that is not something that I would expect anyone else to do. But, it is possible to take one day out of your time and volunteer to prepare and serve people food. This is a fantastic way to spend some time, make new friends, produce no waste, and do something that is of value in your community.
And now in closing for this episode, I want to just give you a few more things to think about Obviously from my story above, I went through a huge transition in my life as far as how I choose to spend the holidays.
I think what is most important is first of all we all need to slow down a bit. We need to stop running in circles. We need to give ourselves permission to say no to commitments and activities that bring no true value to our lives. The holiday season should be about spending time with friends and family reconnecting. It should be a time of love, joy, gratitude, and also sustainability. What better way is there to end the old year and start a new one with a focus on sustainability.
And one last thought before I go. I want to end this episode with a quote from Marie Curie, who was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and who is responsible for considerable advancement in radiation science.
Marie Curie once said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
These are words to still valuable today. With so many changes in our world today, now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. So take some time this week to understand more of how to live a sustainable life.
This is your host Patrick signing off until next week. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.
Resources
Tips for a More Sustainable Christmas
What is Sustainable Gifting and Why Does it Matter?
How to Have a “Green” Christmas
How to Steer Your Friends and Family Toward Sustainable Gifting
