‘Bake them a cake, write them a poem, give them a kiss, tell them a joke, but for god’s sake stop trashing the planet to tell someone you care. All it shows is that you don’t.’ – George Monbiot
If you also straddle the awkward fence of creeping existential dread when confronted with the grotesque display of seasonal tat and pathological consumerism that accompanies the festive season, yet enjoy giving gifts, decorating your house and generally celebrating with nice things, rest assured that there are dozens of ideas out there that can help you have a guilt-free, waste-free and bank balance friendly Christmas.
In his cheerfully titled article ‘The Gift of Death’ (steady on, George), political and environmental activist and all-round sexy bespectacled mouthpiece of doom George Monbiot takes square aim at the junk parade shitshow of overconsumption that seems to be in full force from October, thanks in large part to our increasing tendency to adopt the frenzied spending habits of the United States. Now while I love wallowing in Monbiot’s rants as much as the next guilt-plagued environmental scientist, I don’t think I can add much of value to this conversation that hasn’t already been elaborated on at great length by clever writers such as Annie Leonard or Naomi Klein. The TL;DR version: it takes a lot of resources to make stuff, we buy far more than we need, and we throw most of it away in short order either because it’s poor quality, doesn’t have a useful purpose, breaks too easily or we just want something new. And the volume of resources we throw out defies imagination. Gone are the days when the best many families could do was gifting an orange.
I’ve long been of the opinion that we focus far too much of the climate crisis conversation in curbing emissions, and we’re not doing enough to address legacy waste, overconsumption and current waste streams. We’re churning trash out faster than we can find solutions and it feels like we’re missing a massive industry that could be devoted to large and small-scale reclamation, restoration, and reuse. Where we could be tapping into an obscene wealth of usable resources, instead we’re chucking into landfill, oceans, bushland and streams. All to save a few bucks. Production, waste and disposal all cause huge emissions, alongside the wholescale destruction of ecosystems, species and foodchains.
Well, I don’t know how to save the world singlehandedly, even though I do know how to rant about it, so wouldn’t an aesthetically pleasing gallery of alternative low-waste or secondhand Christmas ideas be a nice distraction at least?
Of course it would.
Moving swiftly on…
GLASS SWEETS DISH
Old-fashioned glassware is pretty common in the secondhand market, or if your budget stretches further you could grab one from an antique shop. Fill it up with some delicious sweet treats and wrap it in a ribbon.
COLLAGE KIT
A great gift for creative kids (or adults, who am I kidding?) This is something you can gather and build on year round – decorative packaging, postage stamps, cut outs from old junk store picture books, maps, scraps of lace, handwritten letters, foreign newspapers, vintage magazine cutouts, old photos, postcards, gardening books – the list is endless. I love working on small collage pieces during my down time, the image was made from junk paper ephemera I’ve collected from flea markets over the years.
FLOWER PRESSED CANDLE
Grab a pillar candle and a small selection of flowers and foliage. Press your greenery in a flower press or between heavy books for a week or two and then arrange them around the candle. Use a glue stick to temporarily hold everything in place, wrap a strip of baking paper around the candle and apply heat using a hair dryer to melt in your arrangement.
MARITIME THEMED WALL ART
The industrial-nautical look of old barometers, ship parts or oars mounted on the wall or in your workshed make a great feature. I sometimes see these types of items at tip shops or in antique stores, with varying prices tags depending. Here’s a little inspo taken from a coastal town cafe I visited a few months ago.
RETRO POTTERY/VINTAGE CERAMICS
Admittedly about half of this list doubles as my own personal gift registry but I’ve found amazing pottery pieces from tip shops, op shops, flea markets and garage sales. From fine china to chunky West German lava vases, the world is your pottery barn. This little trio is from Tasmanian ceramicist Barbara Cauvin, picked them up at a local tip shop.
STYLED UP POTTED PLANT
Old and weathered terracotta pots have a charm that can’t be replicated. Although they can sometimes be a little more expensive than a new terracotta pot from your local nursery, you can find small antique pots for under $10. Pop in a lavender, geranium or a herb such as basil or thyme for a lovely Mediterranean themed gift.
SEAGLASS IN A BOTTLE
Literally turning trash into treasure. For any beachcombing buffs, a collection of some sea-tumbled coloured glass in an old bottle makes for a sweet decorative keepsake.
ELDERFLOWER GIN
There are simply dozen of infused spirits that you can prepare ahead of time, using a variety of readily available fruits, flowers and/or spices. Elderflower gin is made with a few fresh elderflower heads, some lemon and sugar – click here for a recipe.
BODY SCRUBS
Raid your pantry and make coffee scrubs out of old coffee grounds, salt or sugar. Generally made with a blend of oil, fragrance (essential oils), sugar/salt/coffee and any bonus fragrant herbs you have on hand, these can be made at a fraction of the cost of store-bought plus you have the added advantage of knowing exactly what’s gone into them. A selection of different recipes are just a quick online search away.
In short, these are just a few quirky, creative or unusual ideas to get you thinking outside of the gift-wrapped box. Suggestions such as gifting experiences, jam, baked goods or potplants are as thick as the Christmas tree pine needles on your carpet on the 28 December out there in the online listicle world, but I hope this encourages you to explore the secondhand market or DIY landscape a little more for cheap and interesting thoughtful alternatives to the sea of bland mass-produced products. But on a final note, if you do prefer to buy new, aim to shop small, shop local and support independent creatives.
Very nice! I’d like to add repurposed olde treasures to your list – horseshoes, old tools, (garden or otherwise) coins, jewellery, china, frames, pictures, books, and so much more can be used to create very interesting and quirky pieces your friends and family will love (if they know what’s good for them).
All good ideas! I definitely buy old frames to put art in when I can find decent timber ones
Beautiful ideas there- and things you’d actually want to receive!
That’s your next (non) Christmas list sorted then 😉