Hello,

December can be a very busy time, so today we have a selection of Christmas ideas that will help you care for yourself as well as saving money on your holiday preparations, while being more sustainable too. We’ve also included some links to articles you might find useful as there’s a wealth of information online to help you tackle your to-do list.

Christmas Ideas: caring for yourself

As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup, so it’s a good idea to think about your own wellbeing during all the busyness of the season.  This article has some useful tips, and we also find the ideas below helpful:

• Take some time out to go for a short walk or even just to move around the house and have a change of scene
• Pace yourself and play to your strengths: for example, if you’re a morning person, get ahead with some jobs first thing so you can take a break later in the day
• Play some uplifting Christmas music to make the tasks more fun – or even have a five-minute dance! You can hear our own Christmas playlist here

Caring for the Earth and your wallet

There are lots of ways to have a greener Christmas and save money at the same time. Here are some ideas:

• Buy second hand – charity and antique shops are great for china and glass, vintage books, scarves, accessories and unique, one-off finds. You could try online sellers, too
• Make your own decorations – forage greenery and berries, make paper chains and create scented ornaments by tying cinnamon sticks with ribbon. It’s not difficult to make your own crackers and you can personalise them, too; this article shows you how
• If you use solar string lights in the garden in summer, they can be brought indoors
• Support local and small businesses – look for regional food, or try your neighourhood bookshop, farmers’ and makers’ markets. Postive News magazine has lots more suggestions here
• Rather than buying new each year you can make your own Christmas jumper – click here for details
• Use not-for-profit search engine Ecosia for your online searches and support tree planting and reforestation projects around the world
• Wrap your gifts thoughtfully using things you already have – brown packaging paper, bags and fabric – the Seasalt blog has instuctions on how to use the Japanese Furoshiki technique. As you can see below, it can be used for gifts of all shapes and sizes

We hope you’ll enjoy trying out some of our suggestions as you get ready for the holidays.  If you have any more Christmas ideas, please do let us know in the comments.

Until next time, stay safe and well,

Claire and Sam