We love our families and friends (most of them anyway) and want to show it. That's what Christmas giving is about, right? Yet somewhere along the way in the last 30 or so years Christmas has turned into this commercial feast of capitalism, and sadly our planet can no longer bear it. We can't just keep buying more STUFF, which is made from finite resources with finite amount of energy and manufactured, transported, sold, wrapped and posted to us with huge economic, environment and social costs.
So in the spirit of this new-found plastic-free, waste-free society, think if you could do any of the following:
1. Skip Christmas. Instead enjoy a nice chilled out long weekend, doing things you've always wanted to get done, read that book, go for that hike, call a friend, have some food you enjoy.
2. Or, keep the festivity but tell everyone you're not going to buy any presents this Christmas, and would like them not to get anything for you either (save you from feeling guilty later on).
3. Or suggest your friends and family to do a secret Santa style Christmas, so that everyone gets just one present and also buys just one. Especially useful for those Europeans amongst us who open presents together in front of everyone, on the Christmas Eve.
4. Buy recycled, locally produced, locally made from sustainable and ethical resources, buy second hand stuff.
5. Make your own presents. Make cakes, wine, sloe gin, chutney, mustard (Christmas mustard is a favourite in Finland) , knitted mittens, pot plants, frame photos.