It’s Christmas!

What follows here is in no way a comment on the generous spirit of those wonderful people who organise and support annual Christmas toy and food appeals, with hundreds of gifts donated by our lovely community.

However it is worth reflecting on the annual season of consumerism and waste that Christmas can so easily become.

How many of those gifts under your tree have layers upon layers of plastic packaging, destined to be ripped off within minutes and discarded? 

Anyone spending Christmas in a home with children will know of the chaos of paper, packaging and plastic that quickly gets strewn through the lounge room on Christmas morning.

How much food leftover after Christmas lunch will be chucked straight into the bin? We’re all guilty of it. We make no bones about that.

But it does raise questions as to how we could approach things differently.

Do we need to buy all those rolls of wrapping paper? Could we re-purpose something else instead? Old newspapers perhaps! 

One suggestion seen elsewhere was to wrap the present in reusable materials such as a colourful bandanna or scarf, in itself an additional gift.

What about the strings of Christmas cards from people and family you haven’t seen or spoken to since last December? 

We all love the personal touch and feeling connected, but given a lot of them are simply ‘To You, From Me’ with little else other than a festive image or slogan, are they necessary? 

How about a phone call to those people to catch up personally, share all your news and wish them the best for the season. 

For those who of course understandably use cards and wrapping paper, make sure they go to recycling rather than landfill after the big clean-up.

Full respect to small businesses making a living by selling gift ideas and stationery. 

But it doesn’t take much to think more carefully about making informed choices about what we actually need to buy, make better use of what we do, and deal appropriately with any waste created.