The holidays are a time of joy, family time, gifts and overconsumption. With social media posts showing enormous Christmas hauls, brand new decorations every year and cute but nonfunctional novelty goods, it’s natural for us to feel like we have to match that. Most people don’t have influencer money, so we turn to cheaper, lower quality alternatives that end up in landfills after only a few uses. Not only do our wallets find this unsustainable, but our planet does too. So what can we do if we still want to participate in holiday fun?
#1 – The real holiday spirit
The holidays, at their core, are about togetherness and celebrating the people we care about most. This can get lost in the importance placed on material possessions during this time. With all the stress around school, work and personal affairs for everyone in the Ida B. Wells community, perhaps the best gift we can give is a bonding experience.
Take some notes on activities your loved ones have been wanting to do. Make some extra time in your schedule to bake cookies, watch silly movies, carol, visit Mt. Hood, see a concert or play games with someone you care about. Taking time to spend with someone special and doing an activity they enjoy will bring you closer than any material gift could.
#2 – Reduce by reuse
Buying new decorations and seasonal merchandise every single year is unsustainable. It encourages companies to overproduce cheap, low-quality products that break easily and get discarded after one use. Instead of buying everything new, we should reuse decorations we already have. Not only is this better for the planet, but it also creates memories and traditions of putting up the same cherished decorations every year.
When deciding to make a purchase, consider thrifting or buying second-hand online before buying from regular retailers, and only buy if you know you are going to want to use the decoration over and over for years to come.
Broken items can be a deterrent to reusing them, but our planet cannot sustain us replacing our items every time they break. Instead of throwing broken items away, try repairing them or finding a way to use them in an unconventional way.
#3 – The thought that counts
It can be tempting to fill all the space under the tree and stuff our loved ones’ stockings to the brim with goodies to show how much we care. However, when we don’t have the budgets for many high-quality gifts, we resort to single-use, mini or knicknack items. While these items can be cute in the moment, we often end up with so many and don’t know what to do with any of them.
Instead of this, try buying or making a few high quality, personalized gifts for your loved ones that show you’ve really been listening. This could be anything from a DIY scrapbook with pictures of you together and cute messages, a piece of jewelry they’ve been really wanting to planning a fun vacation with them, merchandise from their favorite series and so much more. The point is to get or make something your special person will cherish and won’t be easily thrown away.
