1 Shopping – Become an minimalist; be careful who you support when you buy; Elope for Xmas; Give from the garden; Make your own; Give a massage or other skills; Think local; Make sure they need or want your gift;
2 Wrapping – Use last years; make it part of the gift like a tea towel; Use your best materials and sarongs and take it back when they have unwrapped it; Use banana or taro leaves; put in boxes and reuse them each year.
3 Food – Time to kill the beast – harvest your turkey and eat your garden; Eat what’s in abundance around you (plenty of goannas around here); source local produce; Don’t over cater; Have a left-over party next day; Don’t forget the containers!
4 Decorations – Consider a pot plant for your Xmas tree; Use the gifts; Hang your old carrots; Dry your pomegranates, collect pinecones, use weeds or vines from the garden; use fallen branches and flowers
5 Waste – Don’t buy it; Give it back to people to take home; Use your Tupperware; Keep receipts to take back unwanted gifts or give them away next year; Take single use plastics back to Woolies for re-cycling; Animals animals animals! Compost, compost compost!
Other – Give up Xmas altogether and tell your family; Have a no gift policy; Give yourself, help your loved ones, do a job or provide a service; Don’t give up your values just because its xmas!
Now here’s another challenge for you… Consider doing or not doing these things over your Xmas holiday…
