So one colour was fixed, what about the other? Green?
Of course the ultimate green christmas would have been sitting in the dark without a christmas tree eating food foraged or gained freganistically meditating or something.
Obviously I didn't take things that far, but I made some green choices where I could.
- we ate vegetarian (as I always do, but some of the other 7 wouldn't normally)
- I home cooked a vegan loaf to reduce a) animal products and b) packaging and processing costs
- I bought all veg british and where possible locally grown
- I have already talked about the ethical dilemma I had with the christmas tree and how i resolved this (I bought a real tree in a pot which I intend to keep for next year and beyond)
- all my decorations are made of natural materials, no plastic whatsoever (although to be fair, at least part of this is aesthetics!)
- I didn't buy a single card or piece of wrapping paper - I made cards (although I did use new card, but hopefully people will like them and treasure them), and I used pre-used paper
I bought people ethical gifts where possible -
- my husband got a recycled bicycle tyre belt and
- some recycled computer keyboard cufflinks!
- My mum got a fair trade afghan blown glass wine glass
People also know I like these things too, and I received a ring made from a teaspoon handle, and some table mats and coasters made from recycled fireman's hose.
I also received Leo Hickman's book - A Life Stripped Bare, Anthony Gidden's Politics of Climate Change and Time Out's Great Train Journey's of the World. I did a train holiday this year and believe this is without a doubt the ultimate way forward.
To improve my green christmas for next year i need to:
- reduce produced items such as real eat roast
- buy fairtrade crackers (if I had known about these before I bought mine I would have bought them, but I already had some. Of course some people say that crackers are a terrible bane for the environmentalist, this is somehting I shall have to think about. I did put all the recyclables in the recycling though)
- more green presents for others
- less electric lighting and more candles
- cards made from recycled materials
- reuse this year's tree
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