December 23, 2013, by Helen Whitehead
Advent calendar #23: My Sustainable [and early] Christmas
Sarah Speight writes: I think I get more and more concerned about consumer excess every Christmas. I’ve always been someone who prefers ‘useful’ presents myself and now I’ve extended this to my friends and family. If I am buying rather than making or growing (I’m not as advanced down this path as Mike Clifford, Advent calendar #5: A handmade Christmas), I will choose practical items that I know will not be wasted. A good tip for buying for older relatives is to take them shopping. I will help my mother to prune old and worn clothes from her wardrobe and we will ‘shwop’ these in Marks and Spencer (who will then pass them on to Oxfam for resale or recycling as appropriate).
The ‘shwopping’ scheme is part of M & S’s Plan A – something we look at in the MOOC. You can find out all about it here: http://www.marksandspencer.com/Shwop.
As for my husband and myself, we stopped buying each other presents a few years ago. What we do now is to ‘treat’ ourselves occasionally to a special event – a concert or a meal. We’re finding that the memories thus generated give us lasting pleasure. And it also means that Christmas often comes early! (AC Milan v.Fiorentina in July, Leonard Cohen at the LG Arena in Birmingham in October).
I quite agree Sarah. For several years my daughter has given me charity shop presents eg a totally unused George Foreman grill. Several years ago my late partner was commissioned to make me something for my garden from his ‘useful’ bits left over from his landscaping business. His metal plantholder is a memorial to him and his skills and a talking point for visitors… where can they find one the same. I also buy my children concert or theatre tickets. My daughter is buying her own house and naturally there are things that she needs so one year I gave her a rack to hang her bike from or we have a joint pamper session. Unfortunately there is a mindset out there different to Norfolk where I live. Some people think you have to buy a lot of STUFF or else you are sad. Dare I say I think this might be more of an issue in the SE. It would be interesting to compare areas of the country. I think Norfolk is a very sustainable-minded area, partly because many people’s wages are comparatively low. We still have a mindset to make things last as long as possible. We have some good charity shops with secondhand electrical goods, some LA tips recycle some items for charity but unfortunately we don’t have one of these at the Norwich tip where people have been seen throwing away perfectly good apples….
instead of a bought present I think a lovely christmas gift FROM a child or adult is a ‘ voucher ‘ booklet . this is made and decorated by the child/ adult and consists of wee ‘ gifts ‘ that can be redeemed throughout the year i.e ” a dog walk ” ; ”an hours weeding ” ; ”an hours ironing ” . Of course the gifts have to be something that not normally carried out