SACKVILLE, N.B. — The countdown to Christmas is officially on and we are turning our attention to picking out that perfect gift for that special someone, ordering the turkey, and digging out the decorations.
But with thoughts of the environment and the impacts of climate change also weighing upon us, how do we make our celebrations a bit more eco-friendly without saying goodbye to all that festive magic?
The Sackville Tribune-Post reached out to some of our readers, who also happen to be local community and business leaders, to find out how they are ‘greening’ their Christmas – either at home or at their shops. Hope you enjoy these tips.
Val MacDermid
Port Elgin councillor
Executive director of Pedvac Foundation
- Think twice before you purchase new gifts that nobody really wants or needs. Instead give experiences (gift cards to outdoor activities, restaurants, plays, etc.).
- My favourite: As a gift to someone, make a donation to a charity in their name.
- Buy solar lights for outdoors and inside.
- Make your own gifts from preowned materials. This year I am making Swedish gnomes from preowned materials.
- Give jams, baking, and other consumable gifts.
- Use newspaper if you must wrap something. If you iron the pages the ink won’t come off on fingers.
- Instead of driving around to see the lights, take a family walk.
- Make reusable gift bags from preowned Christmas material or purchase used Christmas cans from thrift stores to put gifts in.
Ron Aiken
Sackville Deputy Mayor
- I think it would be good to ask what people would need as opposed to want for gifts. For those of us who are a bit older, I suspect the actual needs are fewer and farther between.
- Re-use wrapping paper or wrap gifts in old newspapers or magazine pages.
- Gifts such as a donation to charity in someone's name (one year my sister gave me several small farm animals that was a donation to a poor family in Central America).
- Buy local from local makers – there's been less fuel used in getting those articles to you.
Amanda Marlin
Executive director of EOS Eco-Energy
- I don’t feel they are “extra”, they are just the things we do to keep the season simple but beautiful. The kids and I make a kindness advent calendar filled with simple tasks of kindness, donations and thoughts for others.
- We make small, homemade gifts such as cookies, preserves, etc. to give. We shop local for useful gifts and also give experiences.
- We wrap our gifts in cloth. It’s so much easier, faster and tidier to slip things into cloth bags, cloth napkins, even pillow cases.
- I have a collection of ribbons I re-use and we make gift tags from old Christmas cards.
- We either decorate our indoor potted Norfolk Pine or my husband will cut a small tree from our own forest. We don’t decorate too much, just a few simple things we’ve had for a long time.
- Our Christmas supper is full of local foods - wild cranberries I picked, local turkey, vegetables that my father has grown, etc. We use cloth napkins.
- I send e-cards instead of paper ones which is also faster and simpler.
- Most of all though, I look forward to spending time with family, relaxing, and getting outside in the woods during the holidays.
Kim Ripley
Owner of Cattail Ridge Market
- My family has been discussing how we could reduce waste this holiday season. I reflect back to my childhood when last year's Christmas cards were carefully trimmed to make this year’s gift tags; I believe I will go back to that.
- I will be seeking ways to wrap gifts where the wrap is part of the gift; i.e. use a tea towel to wrap a gift from the kitchen; use a table runner to wrap a seasonal gift, use small socks to wrap personal care gifts.
- As for the business; some of my vendors have designed cute outside decor items from the numerous amounts of downed trees from Dorian. You will see log reindeer, old skates made into a door accessory and decorated ladders that are all upcycled material.
- All year long, the market’s focus is local flavours, local talent. This reduces the overall footprint all year long by servicing customer needs with products that are made or food produced within a few miles of the market.
Shawn Mesheau
Sackville town councillor
- Angie and I really do not specifically look at Christmas in an eco-friendly way. We think of family traditions and how we have carried forward those from what we feel was a simpler time in our lives.
- However, we do choose LED lights for our outside and interior decorating. We use a timer outside to control the hours our lights are on.
- One thing I do personally is that I reuse gift bags, not just because it is eco friendly but because I am terrible at wrapping gifts.
Megan Mitton
Memramcook-Tantramar MLA
- There are a few traditions and holiday habits we have in our family that help make our Christmas greener. One thing that I like to do for all holidays, and special occasions, is to minimize wrapping. I haven’t purchased gift bags or wrapping paper in years. I re-use what has been given to me or use cloth bags.
- We have also shifted a lot of our gift giving towards less material consumption, opting instead to give donations in each other’s names. While buying less lowers our footprint, we also like to give edible gifts, and buy local whenever possible – when items are locally made, they don’t have to travel as far, and neither do we. Plus, it keeps dollars circulating in our local economy.
- For decorating, we have a few strings of LED lights on a timer outside, which uses less energy. We limit the amount of new decorations we buy; most of the indoor decorations we have are second-hand and we use them every year instead of buying new ones.
Margaret Tusz-King
Executive director of Open Sky Co-operative
- In our family, we are 'greening' our Christmas by purchasing fewer gifts for each other, and instead giving each other the gift of time and intention, by planning and doing more together.
- We are also giving more homemade or consumable gifts (e.g. sweets, homemade preserves, fairly-traded coffee and chocolate) that won't result in clutter in our households. It is a privilege to be able to have this choice, knowing that many others do not.
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