A pot plant tree, homemade gifts: How to have a sustainable Christmas

The Christmas season affects more than just our wallets and waistlines, so how can you reduce the impact of your yuletide celebrations on the environment?

The total environmental cost of Christmas is hard to measure – and whether a real or fake Christmas tree is the more ethical choice is up for annual debate – but the Stockholm Environment Institute estimates Christmas festivities account for 650 kilograms of greenhouse gases per person, or about 5 per cent of each person’s annual carbon footprint.

Christmas can be the most wonderful, and most wasteful, time of the year.Credit: Monique Westermann

Australian shoppers are expected to spend $11.8 billion on gifts this year – up $1.6 billion on last year – Roy Morgan estimates. Australia Institute polling suggests a quarter of Australians anticipate receiving unwanted gifts, most of which are expected to end up in landfill.

It is a different story at Lori Spence’s house: she is something of an expert on managing, and reducing, waste.

Three-and-a-half years ago, Spence relocated with her husband and two children to Narara Ecovillage, an 130-person sustainability-focused community on the NSW Central Coast.

“We have a culture that appreciates crafted, homemade, homegrown and home-baked gifts,” Spence says. Typical presents include homemade elderberry wine or hand sewn knitwear.

Lori Spence and her two children try to celebrate Christmas in a sustainable way. Credit:

Each family brought a dish to the recent village Christmas party. Leftovers were shared, given to the village chickens or composted, Spence says.

Ten-cent recyclables, including glass bottles and cans, were delivered to the nearby recycling centre. Money earned will be allocated for children’s equipment and craft activities.

When it comes to the tree, “decorate a favourite pot plant instead of buying a plastic tree”, Spence recommends. Alternatively, she suggests donating your real tree to keen gardeners on Facebook Marketplace after the holidays.

If you’d like to keep the sparkle this Christmas without emission-driven electricity use, Spence suggests solar-powered lights, which require minimal maintenance and can last up to 20 years with proper care.

Even better, invest in high-quality decorations or create your own plantable Christmas decor using newspapers, seeds and water, she says.

University of Sydney Business School retail academic Lisa Asher requests no Christmas gifts, saying: “The joy of coming together, and being together, is a gift in itself”.

“Photos which capture this are worth more than material items,” she says.

Asher says Australians produce 30 per cent more waste during the Christmas period due to gift-wrapping paper, food waste, unwanted gifts and over-consumption, describing the environmental impact as “eyewateringly significant”.

“We are led to believe buying and consumption is necessary, but is it really?”

The federal government’s National Food Waste Feasibility Study found households generate roughly 30 per cent of Australia’s food waste. Asher says businesses and families need to commit to gradual changes.

“The Christmas dining table is a great place to start,” Asher says. Sourcing sustainably can be challenging, but small steps like freezing leftovers and eating local produce can reduce carbon emissions of food miles.

Secret Santa is a great option for minimising the number of gifts and unwanted items for those who still wish to buy presents, she adds.

As part of her sustainable resolution, Asher successfully avoided buying new clothes this year.

“I repaired clothes, and if I wanted something new, I purchased it second-hand,” Asher says, a practice she plans to continue and encourages others to adopt in the new year.

Queensland University of Technology fashion lecturer Zoe Mellick says there has been a growing disconnect between the gifts we give and their value to the recipient.

Mellick suggests creating a wishlist and asking preferences for gifts – “that way, people are receiving gifts that they want,” she says.

When buying clothes, Mellick advises considering local brands affiliated with Seamless, a federal government initiative that recognises brands which aim for clothing circularity by 2030.

Uturn, a sustainable fashion marketplace, had a threefold increase in sellers listing their unwanted clothes on its website in October. It anticipates wardrobe reassessments will increase in the holidays.

Alex Dimou, managing director of Uturn, hopes more customers will embrace sustainable Christmas gifting by buying items secondhand.

“We see thousands of designer and premium items come through our stores,” Dimou says.

Salvation Army circular economy senior manager Sarah Knop says the organisation sees a significant surge in donations at this time of year.

The Salvation Army’s Sarah Knop says more people should shop for gifts secondhand. Credit: Simon Schulter

Buying from charity stores is a way “to be more sustainable, but also to ensure Christmas comes within budget”, she says.

“Some of the best gifts I’ve seen, to be honest, come from secondhand stores.”

Knop suggests decorative silk scarves or cloth as a reusable, zero-waste wrapping alternative to the 150,000 kilometres of wrapping paper the CSIRO estimates Australians use each year.

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