Rachel Watkyn’s ways to save money and enjoy an eco-friendly Christmas

1. Rent a bike

Want to buy your child a bike for Christmas but dislike the fact they’ll grow out of it by next year? Or don’t have the funds to pay out all at once? Bike Club and others offer you the chance to pay monthly for your child’s bike meaning you can change it up once they grow out of it. Discover Rent A Bike.

2. Tree solutions – Rent, borrow, or buy second hand, or buy potted to reuse each year

If you buy a potted tree, you can replant it and reuse it each year as it grows. If you can’t do this, you can look at renting a tree, or borrowing an artificial tree if you know of anyone that has a spare or keep an eye on the selling apps for second hand options, some people do get rid of great artificial trees with a lot of life in them. An estimated 8 million real Christmas trees are sold in the UK every year, with around 7 million thrown out at the end of the season. The other one million will mainly be used as compost, but the ones that end up on landfill will each release 16kg of greenhouse gases. A single artificial tree will generate up to 40kg of carbon dioxide, and more than one million of them will be discarded every January. You’d have to re-use a fake Christmas tree for at least 12 years for it to become as environmentally friendly as a real one. If you want to minimise your impact even more, there are Christmas tree rental services available in some parts of the country. You can order one to your home, have someone collect it when you’re done with it, and then the tree it put back in the ground. Customers can even tag their tree, so they have the same one year after year.

3. Recycle your Christmas cards and bags into tags

This is such an easy but overlooked idea. Cut the backs off your Christmas cards and hole punch to use as tags on your presents. Some card designs mean you can cut cleverly to create a few tags from one. You can also do this from your gift bags too.

4. Limit food waste and use food waste you do have wisely, bring back the bubble and squeak!

Buying your food in bulk, part prepping or cooking it and then freezing or storing can help you massively reduce waste. 

5. Shop second hand for presents

Whether you’re charity shop shopping (which is a win win supporting charity and finding one off gems), car boot sales, or shopping on apps like Vinted, Depop, Ebay, Facebook marketplace etc, just make sure you start early enough to take into account delivery times etc. You can also get recycled plastic children’s toys now from places like Big jigs toys. 

6. Homemade presents

From soaps to food gifts to other arts and crafts, there are so many lovely homemade gift ideas. Get creative, try something new, loved ones will feel so thought of when you’ve gone to the effort of taking your time to make something for them. Professional candle kits e.g luxury candle supplies

7. The wish list maker

On the Wish List Maker you can create your wish list to make it easier for loved ones to pick presents you really want, reducing waste and improving your satisfaction in the presents you receive! This also takes the pressure off of a loved one to makes sure they like your gift. There is also a money fund option meaning people can donate towards a bigger gift that you want, rather than receiving lots of smaller things.

8. Use a reusable advent calendar

Reusable advent calendars save money in the long run and save waste. It’s lovely to become attached to them too.

9. Cheese board – reuse

We all love a cheese board at Christmas and get to excited with all the varieties, there are always left overs. A great way to make use of these are to grate or crumble it all up and put in a container in the freezer. It makes for the ultimate cheese on toast or great to finish off dishes like cottage pie, pasta bake etc.

10. Decorate your own Christmas wrapping

If you need an activity for the kids around Christmas, get them involved in making homemade wrapping paper. Use old newspapers or plain brown parcel paper. Stamp this with either stamps you already have or make your own with a potato. Great way to keep them occupied and get them involved with Christmas.

11. Make your own crackers

12. Give a voucher of the offer to spend time rather than a present, our day

Make a homemade gift voucher, the promise or plan of a date to make memories together. This can be a coffee catch up, a walk or a picnic. It is a great way to save a little on money and unique as this cannot be purchased or replaced. Time spend with loved one’s can mean much more than a physical gift sometimes. 

13. Play the present swap game

There are lots of great present swap games, where everyone brings one present and you play a game to see who gets what. They’re often super fun as people get the chance to steal other people’s present they’ve selected. Take a look online at lots of different fun ones you can play at home. One example is ‘Roll for it’ where when you roll a 6 you can choose a gift from the pile in the middle or steal from somebody else who has already picked a gift. This goes on until the last gift has been picked from the centre.

14. Save all the ends of your bread loafs from now for stuffing

Start saving the crusts and ends of your loaves of bread now, these can be frozen in a bag or container till nearer the time. When you are ready to make stuffing for the big day, get all your saved crusts out the night before. Blitz these up in a food processor with a few herbs from either the garden or cupboard. You can then either use them straight away or lay them out on a baking tray and place in the oven on a very low temperature to dry them out fully. These can then be stored in an airtight container anything not used for stuff can be used for breadcrumb coating. 

15. Children clothes rental

Get new outfits for the kids for Christmas so when they grow out of it a few months later you can send back!