Over the years I’ve tried many different things to be more planet friendly over the holidays. I want to be mindful of the consumption, and the seemingly unavoidable waste, which comes with gifts and such. Though I have the very best of intentions at heart, my ideas are not always supported by my family.

One year I wrapped all of our presents in brown recyclable postal paper and tied pretty jute bows and crape flowers for decoration.

So pretty.

The kids, however, were disappointed in the dull wrap and missed the bright coloured paper. I’d forgotten that when you are little so much of the excitement of Christmas comes from the wrap. Sigh…it was a nice try but honestly, tape doesn’t stick to the brown paper that well anyhow and it just took so damn long to do.

We are back to bright paper although I’m big on reusable gift bags now that my kids are past the ‘rip and tear’ phase. That’s got to be better than nothing. (I also used newspaper years ago when I was a poor college student. It was ok except for the flimsiness of the paper and the fact that your hands were black from handling it.)

I’ve made Christmas cards from leftover paper from my scrapbooking days for a few years in a row. I’ve prided myself in purchasing very little and using up only stock I have as well as buttons, string, staples and whatever else I find laying around so not to be wasteful. I don’t mind tooting my own horn here and saying that they are beautiful. But as my stock dwindles and I feel that nagging pressure to up my game each year I’ve had to become more imaginative and the cards have become more and more complex. I actually have tendonitis (self-diagnosed) in my arm from this year’s batch. For these reasons I’ve had to rope my husband in to help with their completion for past 3 years. He has been a pretty good sport although makes it clear that he’d rather be doing….anything else. I told him that really it’s become a Christmas tradition that we make cute, crafty, Christmas cards together each year…he is not amused.

I’ve done huge baking days with plans on giving friends and neighbours some good ol’ home baked yummies instead of something store bought and cheap. But with three sons it is really hard to produce baked goods faster than they disappear from the cooling tray.

…I may eat some of them as well…

And sadly, I don’t really luv baking. The whole idea of giving a gift baked with love disappears and becomes baked grudgingly with good intentions, frustration with my grabby kids and fear of not fitting in my holiday dress because of the dozen cookies I sampled while baking.

Doesn’t really have the same ring to it, does it?

My absolute least popular idea was a couple years ago I replaced our very large Christmas stockings with incredibly cute, yet significantly smaller ones. This was for two reasons. One, these large stockings were originally purchased because Santa was delivering toys that came with large packaging. He could then fit two largely packaged items in and it would nearly fill the sock. It was for convenience and to help out the old guy. Now the kids are interested in high ticket items that are small. I mean have you noticed the price shift? It seems that the smaller the gift the greater expense. Craziness! A stocking could very well put father Christmas right out of business. (hmm…I’ve always wanted diamond earrings – guess the kids aren’t the only ones with expensive taste)

Smaller stockings it is.

The second reason is that I am no longer interested in accumulating more stuff. I believe in gift giving – enjoy it. But there is a difference between generosity and gluttony. I’ve watched far too many gifts go unappreciated by my children over the years simply because of the sheer number they received. They just couldn’t play with all of them. It creates clutter and chaos.

So where are we? Still with a little more paper waste than I’d like, complex Christmas cards, complicated baking practices and shrunken socks.

There’s hope!

We have the spirit of generosity and the time to give it. We have time to give to loved ones. We have time to support the organizations in the community. We have time to be good neighbours and friends. And we definitely have time to enjoy what is most important.