Eco Christmas Guide
Make your Christmas a little greener with these 5 affordable and simple suggestions :)
Gift: Get Native
From 11 December - 19 December at Britomart, for just a gold coin donation you can pick up one (or up to five) New Zealand native trees. What a cool gift! :)
From Kaihikatea to Pohutukawa... a sustainable way to revive New Zealand's own. There will be plants in Takutai Square and in shops throughout Britomart, click here for more information.
Gift: Natural Wrap
Swap the cellophane bags, plastic glitter, or even sellotape (how's that for a challenge?) for natural material to wrap your gifts. Try wrapping your gifts with paper, a festive scarf, natural string, washy-tape or masking tape.
Dine: BYO Take-away Reusable Container
Hosting Christmas lunch or dinner? Ask your guests to bring a container or reusable wrap to take their portion of Christmas Cake home after all the festivities.
Christmas Tree: Real or Artificial?
Perks for an artificial tree is the 'reusable' factor, while perks for a real tree is 'compostable' factor.
This year we've opted for a real tree (for the first time) while we're here in Auckland. We purchased ours from a local church who were fundraising for the next years' youth events, but I also plan to break the tree down to use in our garden as mulch in the New Year. Some farms like Mount Gabriel Christmas Tree Farms actually recycle the trees for free (even if you didn't purchase it from them).
Decorations: DIY or Natural
Finally, have a go at making some Christmas decorations. While we haven't gone 100% DIY with our decorations, we've started with three things. Our tree now features one decoration made by each member of the whanau; I made our Christmas Tree topper (classic star) out of twigs and string, my husband made our Tree stand out of ply off-cuts, and our baby girl's made a paper-machet train.
Happy Eco Christmas :)