I absolutely love Christmas but I’m not the best at thinking of the environmental impacts of the festivities. However, this year I’m really trying to make a bit more effort! So here are 5 ideas that I’ve put into practice to have a more eco friendly Christmas this year, which weren’t actually very difficult once I decided to do them! Sorry for people who know me, this blog does contain spoilers for what you might be getting this year :-).
Idea 1) Make home-made Christmas decorations.
With our pods being full most of December, we wanted to put some festive decorations into them but in a sustainable way. Therefore we decided to make some home made wreathes. I’m not very artistic, but these were actually fairly easy and quick to make – even for me:
- First I cut off some over hanging branches from the fir trees on site, then picked up some fir cones that had fallen off of the tree. You could use off cuts from your Christmas tree, if you needed to tidy it up once you had taken it home.
- I then made a circle of wire to make the base. I used some wire we’d previously had solar lights hanging from before we upgraded the fencing outside the cottage. I made the circle out of two pieces of wire and loosely twisted them together all the way around so I’d be able to stick the branches through the twisted wire to keep it in place.
- I used the three longest ‘branches’ of fir I had. I twisted the first one through the wire, then where it stopped I put the next one through and where that one stopped I put the last one through so I had a thin covering of fir all the way around
- I then took smaller pieces and twisted them through all the way around to make the wreath thicker
- For decoration I sliced oranges widthways in 1cm width strips. I put cloves through them (star side up), cut a slit for a ribbon to tie them to the wreath and dried the slices on baking paper on an oven tray in the oven for 4 hours at 80 degrees
- I then added these slices along with some ribbon I had, the fir cones and a cinnamon stick to the wreathes.
- I then used string to hang them up in our glamping pods.
Idea 2) Wrap Christmas presents in old newspaper or magazines
Wrapping paper is only appreciated for a short period of time and many types can’t be recycled so if you can wrap in newspaper or magazines this cuts this out. Although I did find it difficult to find ‘appropriate’ cheerful news stories!
Idea 3) Give experiences as presents
There is nothing like having an experience as a gift – we would obviously recommend vouchers at Ekopod. :-). If you fancy giving this as a gift email us at info@ekopod.co.uk and let us know what value you’d like to give and we will email you your personal voucher in the name of the person you are gifting it to.
Idea 4) Shop local
There are lots of Christmas Markets this year where you can buy beautiful gifts made from small independent businesses there are great ones near us such as the Padstow Christmas market happening this weekend. Not only do you get to support local traders when you go to these, they’re also a fantastic day out!
5) Give a gifts that support the environment
For example you can give a gift of sponsoring an endangered animal through the WWF and give gifts to protect wildlife in your own home, we love these bee bombs which allow you to grow your own private wildflower meadow.
