Recycled Christmas, could it work???

arkonite_babe

I have been doing some serious thinking ahead about our family Christmas this year. Now before you all shoot me down for mentioning the C word in June, read on.....

This year I have decided I would like to have a recycled Christmas, my question is can I make it work?? By saying recycled I mean, all gifts given or received would have to be recyclable, recycled or reused.
I'm a charity shop fiend so a gift from one of those to me would be perfectly acceptable, whereas I know from a previous discussion in here that some people would be upset to find that thier gift wasn't "new" from a "proper" shop.
Gifts could be things like fairtrade jewellery for my 13yo DD or wine glasses made from recycled glass for my parents. I would also like to incorporate reusing packaging etc for gift wrapping as I hate to see all the gift wrap go to waste year after year. If your house is anything like mine, gift wrap stays on prezzies for all of 2 seconds!!

My tree is recycled every year with it being an artificial one. Decorations are ones I have had for years as well and I'm not into having a new tree every year just because it's in keeping with fashion to have a certain colour/design etc

So what else can I do or try? I'm posting this up now as I think it will take some time and effort to source things out and put ideas into practise.

Anyone else ever done this before? If so what hints/tips/help/advice can you give.

Thanks very much in advance

carolbee

what a great idea, I had just decided after our holidays to start thinking about the C word!

we are going to try and make all our own presents this year, Mr Carolbee makes jewellery on a amateur basis, and we plan to give some of this as presents and had planned to re-use wrap, old cards etc.

I'm sure the ideas will roll in, and I for one will keep a VERY close eye on this thread for ideas.

arkonite_babe

*phew* so glad I haven't been grumped at for starting this thread

Anyone else with any ideas, please feel free to add them

COOLTRIKERCHICK

yep...6 months to the day infact...so this time in 6 months we will be glad its all over, and trying to keep awake.....as the kids got us up at some silly time.....
last year as i was totally brassic....i sold on ebay and bought on ebay for christmas...second hand play station games for the kids....
my mun i knitted a lovely trendy scarf with wool bought from a charity shop...some one must have started knitting something...and gave up

my step father....i made him a jar of pickled onions...but wait... before you say.. what type of pressie is that... i bought a lovely old fashioned pickling jar...and had a recipe using red wine vinegar... i and decorated the out side like shabby chic...country style.......the recycling part about that is i have now had the jar back, ready for next christmas for him..as he wants the same....
so i will be mixing recycling and home made things again this year.....

arkonite_babe

Excellent! Keep all ther ideas coming

I'm keeping an eye on the local charity shops at the moment. I got some fantastic bargains this weekend, brand new items as well as some used but in good condition stuff.

I will also be visiting Oxfams Fairtrade shop in Belfast, come October / November as they have lots of gorgeous things in for Christmas. They also stock fairtrade food and I buy the cake every year as it is to die for.

carolbee

I am thinking along the lines of doing a 'hamper' for some people in the present circle, personalising them, ie food/gardening etc, which would be home made/fairtrade etc in a pre owned container, personalised to the recipient, by putting name on etc?

Before I have used a lovely old terracotta pot, filled with bits and bobs, seeds from plants in my garden, plants, plan to do this sort of thing again with maybe trying to make some home made plant tags, not sure how yet but a bit of Blue Peter may come into play, cutting out pictures of plants?

Don't know about the rest of you, but I LOVE doing things like this as am a list maker par excellance, and have in fact already started putting a few ideas together and planning who gets what.

By the way, I would love to receive something like a scarf made with love by someone I care about, people we give our jewellery to are always thrilled that it has had a lot of thought put into it

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hi carolbee..... LOVE the idea with the terracotta pot...that would suit my mother-in-law down to the ground.....i am very lucky we are a very small family.. so i only need to buy for

my 2 boys age 10 and 11
my hubby
my mother
my step father
my mother-in-law

and thats it........

Sallys_Savings

I'm gathering bit and pieces from car boots...
today I brought a beautiful boxed height chart for 50p and a brand new boxed fabric ark with all the anmials for £1.50 (seen in woolworths for over £6)= total £2 for my neice......and a brand new boxed and sealed drinking game with shot glasses for my nephew for 75p ... two lots of boots toiltries all packaged at £1 each for my daughters (had the original price on the back of £8.99).

So not a bad start for chrissy pressies

Sallys_Savings

uumm a small family indeed ...we're probably the other end of the scale lol..

I'm one of five children and all bros/sisters have partners and children and my oh is one of 3 children and they both have partners and children plus father and plus his lady friend...oh and theres my four children and my oh and my dog

pavlovs_dog

dont forget to check out the old style christmas support thread and timetable for inspiration :beer:

se999

The main savings I've made on christmas are on the reduce side.

I do meal plan carefully (with some store cupboard treats for if unexpected people arrive that have a long enough shelf life to use for later visitors if left over).

I also try to make shopping lists for presents, and tick off when purchased. It's so easy to buy too much. I'm also very careful on presents to make sure they are 'just right' & will be used, I do tend to go for consumable edible treats mostly rather than other things, as they're more likely to be used during the Christmas period or just after.

I'm wondering about Christmas cards, I think some friends will be OK with e-cards and us donating to charity the savings, but others I know will want the real thing. It's not necessarily green, but we normally purchase cards in the Jan sales along with top-up's of wrapping paper (I like to buy something plainish, that I can use for Christmas or birthdays we tend to waste less with having less lying around - I do recycle nice wrapping paper off of presents if it's possible).

Our main Christmas decoration is the tree, we do buy a real tree. The decorations we use are holiday souvenirs, we try to buy a suitable local craft item from the places we visit, so it brings back lots of memories when we dress the tree. I think supporting local crafts when travelling is normally fairly green, but you do have to watch out for the tiny country of origin stickers!!

We have a synthetic wreath for the door (it was bought in a post-christmas clearance sale). This still looks like new, and doesn't look too artificial, I think it's on year 10 now, we just put it away carefully in the box.

So we currently waste far less than we used to. We recycle as much as we can as soon as we can, including anything we receive that we are unlikely to use.

It also saves time to enjoy Christmas itself with being more organised.