Eco Ways To Celebrate A Memorable Christmas

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[dropcap1]Y[/dropcap1]ou’ve been good and green all year – don’t let Christmas derail your eco lifestyle! From what food you make for your Christmas feast to how you approach decorations, there’s a lot you can do to be green and glam this year. Here are some tips.

Go Vegan With The Menu

Having a vegan Christmas menu this year is a great way to be kinder to the planet. It also makes you more creative, thinking up delicious and nutritious meals for your guests. The truth is: you don’t need turkey to get into the Christmas spirit! Tasty vegan alternatives include making a chestnut and mushroom Wellington, and stuffing veggies like butternut or peppers with delicious ingredients, such as pecans, couscous, or quinoa.

Some tips to boosting the satisfaction factor of your vegan meals include using spices; balancing meals with a mix of veggies, proteins, and grains; and trying different cooking methods, such as grilling or braaing, to encourage interesting flavours to come out.

Source Your Sauce

What’s a Christmas dinner without wine? Make sure you choose ethically sourced alcohol this festive season. Australia’s wine industry is one of the world’s biggest, and there are many companies that offer low-impact wines which don’t sacrifice quality. An example is Yalumba that has a range of organic wines, and the company’s been developing sustainable programs since the 90s! Even the wine packaging is sustainable.

Decorate Wisely

If you’re hosting Christmas dinner, you want to make your home look lovely and festive. Before you go out and purchase decorations, think about how you can recycle decorations or upcycle household items into fantastic ones. Some ideas include breaking old CDs and pasting the pieces onto last year’s Christmas tree balls for extra sparkle, and reusing old Christmas cards. These can be cut up into strips and then stuck together to create Christmas tree or table decorations.

Create A Unique Affair

You want your party to stand out and be memorable for guests, but you also want to encourage local business. That’s why shopping for food at local farmer’s markets and choosing handmade gifts from beautiful local stores can be wonderful ideas to encourage greener festivities. You’ll also be lowering your carbon emissions by not having to drive far to shop or getting online items delivered from out of the country.

Light A Candle

Instead of using lots of electricity during your Christmas party, turn the lights off and light candles instead. Their soft glow is much more relaxing. Choose eco-conscious candles, such as ones made from soy. However, when shopping for soy candles, it’s important to be sure that the company has responsibly sourced their soy. Email the company to find out how their soy was grown – they should make use of RTRS (The Round Table on Responsible Soy) certified plantations. Soy production has resulted in a massive strain on forests, with up to 70 percent of soy exports displacing forests in countries like Brazil and Uruguay. Maison Balzac is an Australia company that creates sustainable candles made with planet-friendly soy, so you can light up without the guilt.

 

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