12 Ways to Keep Your Holidays Simple and Sustainable
The holidays can be magical and full of wonder.
They can also be too rushed and stressful. We can’t wait for the holiday season to begin, but once it does, we get caught up in the tidal wave of activity. Before we know it, the New Year is upon us, and another Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa has passed.
Here, at the start of another holiday season, I want to share a few (12 to be exact! 😉) easy steps to help you make this season both simple and sustainable.
Continue reading for 12 of our best tips to keep the holidays simple and sustainable. (Photo by Tim Gouw, Unsplash)
Two Ideas to Guide Your Holidays This Year
Simplifying the holidays begins with two main ideas. If you can hold these in your mind and let them guide your decisions, you will feel less stressed. That’s when you will begin to enjoy the holidays more, instead of just getting through them.
Forget The FOMO.
Fear of missing out causes all kinds of problems in our modern world. Social media makes it worse, and FOMO is amplified during the holidays. First, it makes us feel envious, or not good enough if we miss out on any holiday fun. Second, FOMO can lead us to overschedule ourselves and to spend more money than we should.
Decide You Don’t Need To Do It All.
Breakfast with Santa, craft fairs, 5Ks, tour of homes, tree lightings, parades, choir performances, ice skating - there are hundreds of things to do during the holidays. That’s true for any city or town.
Participating in every holiday activity is impossible. When you feel the need to do it all, you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment.
Whether we realize it or not, many of us might still be attempting to make up for experiences we missed out on during the pandemic, but trying to do it all will leave you feeling frazzled and overwhelmed.
When you can get over the fear of missing out and decide you don’t need to do it all this holiday season, then you can ask yourself how you want to feel. Maybe you want to slow down and focus your attention and energy on family and friends. Maybe you want to be more intentional about your spending. Or maybe you just want to feel more present in the moment so that you can enjoy the holidays more.
One way to make the holidays more enjoyable is to cut back on how much we consume. According to a survey from the Center for Biological Diversity, American households generate 23% more waste every December than in other months. This is in the form of trash like single-use food containers, wrapping paper, and packaging from online shopping, for example.
We also end up giving and receiving gifts we never use. How many items in your overstuffed closet right now were well-intentioned gifts that you never used but felt obliged to keep?
Luckily, there are some easy ways to make the holiday season both more simple and more sustainable. Here are 12 of them.
The 12 Steps to More Minimalist and Eco-Friendly Holidays
1. Prioritize your favorite traditions.
Is baking cookies with your family one of your favorite traditions? (Photo by Kari Shea, Unsplash)
Think about your favorite holiday memories and which traditions you love the most. Many of our favorite memories are low-cost experiences like driving around the neighborhood to look at Christmas light displays or baking cookies with family. Prioritize the most meaningful traditions that you know will create cherished memories.
2. Let go of expectations.
When we have very specific ideas of how the holidays should be or how things should go, we tend to stress over every little detail instead of just enjoying ourselves. Let go of expectations, so you can enjoy the holidays more.
3. Focus on gratitude.
One easy way to be more mindful and remain in the moment is to practice gratitude. Recognizing and valuing what we have can also help us buy less during this busy shopping season.
4. Keep menus simple.
Even if we’re not hosting a lot of family or friends, we can often make holiday meals overly complicated. Then all the planning and cooking can be overwhelming. By paring down menus and focusing on a few dishes we love the most, meal planning and prep can be less stressful. You can make meals more sustainable by using more local ingredients. With a quick visit to a farmers market, you can find organic, locally-grown ingredients and support farmers in your community.
Here are a few farmers markets in Atlanta.
Freedom Farmers Market at the Carter Center
Marietta Square Farmers Market
5. Share responsibilities.
Think of all the holiday tasks you normally handle all by yourself. What can you delegate to someone else in your family? Sharing the load of added holiday responsibilities can help cut down on stress levels.
6. Declutter first.
Give away what you don’t use or need before you receive gifts this holiday season. A decluttered space is easier to clean, plus you’ll have room for new items you receive. If you have kids, you can give away toys they no longer play with to make space for new toys your kids will get as gifts. Plus, you can donate toys to local organizations that will either provide gifts to families in need or resell them at a price that is more affordable for low-income families.
7. Decorate naturally.
You can create lovely decor with natural items including greenery and pine cones. (Photo by Annie Spratt, Unsplash)
Some holiday decorations are designed to be used just once. Tinsel, plastic ornaments, paper tablecloths, or plastic snowflakes are just a few examples of single-use holiday items. These create waste. Packaging from other decorations, even reusable ones, creates waste too. This holiday season, you can choose decorations that are sturdy enough to be reused for several years, or you can opt for natural decorations like small branches, pinecones, flowers, greenery, or fruit. Natural decorations can be composted when the holiday season is over.
8. Give gifts you make.
People recognize that taking the time to make a gift is special. If you choose to gift food or beverage items, they can be consumed and won’t take up space in someone else’s home. (Photo by Travis, Unsplash)
Whether it’s cookies, sourdough starter and recipe cards, or a hat you crocheted, handmade gifts are better for the environment. There is less packaging waste and less energy consumed when you give a gift you’ve made. You’re also not rushing around from store to store or spending hours shopping online to find the perfect gift. When you receive a gift someone made rather than purchased, you feel special that they took the time to make it. Plus, if you choose to give gifts you can eat or drink, those can’t become clutter in someone else’s home.
9. Recycle holiday lights.
If you’ve ever unpacked all your holiday decorations only to discover that a string of Christmas lights doesn’t work, you know how disappointing that can be. Instead of adding broken lights to the trash, you can recycle them. According to Fulton Metals Recycling, copper in Christmas lights can be reused in electronics, and the plastic parts of lights can be recycled. If you have a natural Christmas tree, don’t forget to recycle it too. Local public works departments will pick up trees along with yard trimming pickup at your curb. Some locations of The Home Depot run tree recycling events as well.
10. Rethink wrapping paper.
Commercial wrapping paper creates a lot of waste because most of it can’t be recycled. You can choose paper that is recyclable, or you can select a material that can be reused, like fabric. (Photo by Priscilla Du Preez, Unsplash)
Wrapping paper generates a lot of waste during the holidays, and not all wrapping paper is recyclable. Instead of commercially made wrapping paper, you could use newspaper, magazines, or fabric scraps to wrap gifts. You could wrap or package gifts in items that can be reused afterward, like glass jars, scarves, baskets, or flower pots.
11. Choose experiences over physical gifts.
Most people have too much stuff. Rather than contribute to clutter in someone’s home, you can give experience gifts instead of things. They can be more thoughtful and create more cherished memories than physical gifts. Plus, experience gifts can’t be returned to a store and end up in a landfill. Theatre tickets, museum memberships, digital subscriptions, concert tickets, or classes to learn a new hobby are just a few ideas for experience gifts.
12. Send e-cards instead of physical cards.
Paper holiday cards contribute to deforestation for the paper and emissions from postal delivery. Many cards with foil, glitter, or plastic are not recyclable. After the holidays are over, cards often end up as trash. E-cards are a more sustainable option. If sending paper cards is a tradition you love, you can make them more eco-friendly by selecting cards that are recyclable and reducing the number of cards you send.
Find More Joy and Hope This Holiday Season
I hope these ideas I’ve shared are helpful for you as you plan and celebrate the holidays this year. Paring down our belongings and our plans can help us feel lighter and less anxious, and taking small steps to live more sustainably can help improve the health of our planet (and hope for the future).
Let me know if you would like help clearing out any clutter from your home this season or hands-on advice on how to make your home more environmentally friendly. I’m here to help.
May your holidays be filled with more peace than waste and more joy than clutter.
