Circular Economy Blogs
3 min.
With the Christmas Days of 2022 around the corner, we see the holiday theme popping up all around us. In stores, at schools, and in the streets, and of course, the first plans are being made. Even for those among us who aren’t a big fan of these holidays, it is difficult to ignore. But have you ever wondered how to make Christmas a more sustainable holiday? How you can integrate the continuously trending topic into one of the biggest holiday celebrations with (family) traditions that have been around for a long time?
In this article, we’ll provide you with a few tips on how to continue thinking about our sustainable future during the ‘happiest time of the year’.
First and foremost: buy local!
We have said it before and we will say it again: buy local. We can actually incorporate this key point into various aspects of the seasonal celebrations. To begin with decorations; in our creative island communities we have a lot of local artists who make decorations from (drift)wood, calabashes and with material they find in nature or with recycled material. By using these decorations, we use less plastics or imported decorative material. (It can even be fun to make your own with what you can find!)
We can also redirect our focus to buying local when gift shopping. During the entire month leading up to Christmas, Christmas Fairs and Christmas Markets are being organized on various locations spread over the islands, where many locally made products are being sold. From jewelry to care products and clothes, we can easily find a gift for any member of the family at one of these markets or dedicated stores.
Another possibility to go local is, to create a menu based on local products that are available at farms on the islands. Even though our preference goes out to the latter, we support our local economy either way, by buying these products at the larger supermarkets or at the farms.
Donate
The end of the year is the perfect time to take a look at our belongings, what can we pass along to the less fortunate in our communities? With passing things along, especially by giving away items without expecting anything in return, we can help our communities in a valuable way.
Do we have toys, clothes or household goods that we no longer use or perhaps never have been used? Various foundations are organizing events this month to collect all sorts of items to donate to families in need.
Be mindful of electricity use
There are multiple ways to consider going about the aforementioned. First, we can take a look at the type of lights we incorporate in our decorations. Even though old light strings may still work properly, sometimes it might be smarter to replace them with newer ones that use modern techniques. This can lead to less use of electricity, which is better for the environment and also for our spendings.
Another aspect to consider is, when to turn the lights on and off. During daytime when the lights are hardly visible, it is smarter to turn them of completely. As well during the night, when everyone goes to bed, it is not only safer to turn all decorations off, but also a smart way to reduce the use of electricity.
To make this tip a bit easier for ourselves, we can set an alarm at a predetermined time as a reminder to turn the decorations on and off, or buy an automatic switch with timer, which turns the decorations on and off for us, at a set time.
When it’s over
The last tip we like to share concerns the leftovers at the table and what to do with them. Throwing away food is unnecessary wasteful. The delicious leftovers can be shared amongst the guests, for them to enjoy during the days after Christmas or they can be stored in the freezer for another day. We can buy durable and sustainable food containers during our Christmas shopping or better yet, we can ask our guests to bring their own re-usable containers in case they would like to take some leftovers back home.
Whatever way you incorporate sustainability in the way you celebrate this Holiday Season, we would like to wish you a lot of joy with it! Merry Christmas!
Written by Thyrza Piëst
