19 ways you can host an eco-friendly Christmas in your home

While the festive season is a time to relax and spend quality time with our families, the Christmas period results in mountains of waste each year. From wasteful plastic packaging, kilometres of non-recyclable wrapping paper and thousands of turkeys unfinished, tackling the Christmas waste crisis starts from your own home.

As families, there are many things we can do this Christmas period to make our celebrations as sustainable as possible. With DIY decorations to craft and eco-friendly gifts to purchase, we’ve found 19 simple ways your household can reduce its waste this Christmas.

What are you waiting for? The festive season is upon us.

19 ways you can throw an eco-friendly Christmas this year

1. Go for a real Christmas tree over an artificial one - The Carbon Trust has found that real Christmas trees have a smaller carbon footprint compared to artificial trees, as fake trees have a carbon footprint of almost 80 per cent more than real ones. If disposed of properly your real Christmas tree could have a minimal carbon footprint of around 3.5kg CO2e.

If you do decide to buy a fake tree this year, buy the best you can afford. Go for something of great quality that will last many years, also opt for a classic green that won’t ever go out of style.

2. DIY Christmas baubles and decorations – While we understand you will want to quite literally deck the halls with gorgeous new decorations and baubles, try to go greener and make your own! Think dried fruits, crochet baubles and paper snowflakes galore. This YouTube tutorial is perfect if you want to give your old baubles a crochet makeover.

3. Recycled and biodegradable Christmas decorations – If you’re not too keen on a DIY project and want a few new decorations, look for recycled glass baubles. Wood or beeswax decorations are great eco-friendly alternatives, and real dried fruits and acorns are compostable and biodegradable.

4. Single-use Christmas cracker alternatives – Go reusable with Christmas crackers, there are many available to buy that can even be personalised or made yourself at home. We've got a great tutorial on how you can make your own Christmas crackers this year.

5. Thoughtful long-use gifting – Gift loved ones items you’ll know are an investment and they will use for years and steer away from trend-led pieces. Gifting an experience, like afternoon tea or a trip to the theatre is a great way to cut back on material waste.

6. Eco gifting – Gift reusable and even plantable! Reusable water bottles make great stocking fillers. Plantable stationery and books are all the rage right now and are great fun for kids, as the fun doesn’t end straight after the story.

7. Shop handmade or DIY - Amazon has an amazing handmade storefront where you can shop gifts from local businesses. Etsy is also a great place to find unique and thoughtful handmade gifts. Shop small and support businesses that create handcrafted gifts with love, or have a go at making some gifts yourself, whether that’s a knitted blanket or a scrapbook of memories.

8. Wrapping in recycled papers – If you’re shopping for wrapping paper look out for FSC certified wrapping paper, that is 100 per cent recyclable and better for our planet! Another great idea is collecting newspapers throughout the year, it’s free and they make a great DIY wrapping paper and look beautiful under the tree too.

9. Ditch wrapping paper completely – more and more of us are choosing to gift in gift bags, sacks, hampers and gift boxes that can be reused by the recipient over and over again.

10. Switch out the sticky tape – Standard sticky tape is not often recycled in the UK this means that it creates an enormous amount of plastic waste each Christmas. Choose ribbons that can be re-used or recyclable washi tape for your wrapping needs.

11. Eco gift cards or e-cards – We’re seeing more eco-friendly Christmas cards appear in high street stores and online retailers each year, pick recycled, biodegradable or plantable if you want to post your Christmas cards this year. E-cards are also a great alternative, just design, write your message and email away to your loved ones. You can even have a go at making your own Christmas cards.

12. Reusable advent calendar – Advent calendars add to the huge amount of plastic waste each year. Invest in a reusable advent calendar you can use for many years, and fill with whatever you wish, from beauty to chocolate and even alcohol if you please!

13. Opt for LED Christmas lights - LED Christmas lights use roughly ten times less energy than normal mini bulbs. You can purchase LED lights for your Christmas tree, any indoor decorative ornaments and even your outdoor light displays. Remember to save energy and switch off your decorative lighting at bedtime.

14. Create outdoor displays with solar-powered lights – Even better than LED lights, go solar-powered and create the same Christmas magic outdoors with solar-powered string lights and festive pathfinders.

15. Shop local for your Christmas dinner – To reduce your carbon footprint this Christmas, try shopping in your local farm shops and local farmer’s markets, where the scale of production is small, and the food is still delicious.

16. Try to go meat-free for Christmas dinner – Going meat-free this Christmas is a great way to have an eco-friendlier Christmas, as the carbon footprint of meat production needs to be minimised as much as possible. There are lots of meat-free alternatives, from nut roasts to a veggie wellington or even a mushroom, pepper and pesto strudel.

17. Don't let Christmas leftovers go to waste – After all that endless preparation don’t let your leftovers go to waste. Jamie Oliver has some delicious recipes you can create with all your leftovers like turkey burgers. You can store your leftovers sustainably too! Ditch the plastic Tupperware and get yourself some beeswax wraps.

18. Explore the great outdoors – leave the car behind and ditch sitting by the telly all day and explore what the great outdoors has to offer. Bike, scooter, or walk and spend some quality time with loved ones, creating memories you’ll cherish.

19. Dressing for the party season – You don’t need a new outfit every Christmas, dig through your wardrobe and you’re sure to find an outfit you forgot about or thought was missing. If you are after something new, try shopping second-hand or renting an outfit for the day.

Related: 16 napkin folding ideas to impress your guests

Shop: Our top pick of the best eco-friendly Christmas décor

Just so you know, while we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this page, we never allow this to influence product selections.

Shop: Our top pick of the best eco-friendly Christmas gift ideas

How do I dispose of my real Christmas tree properly?

The Carbon Trust has found that real Christmas trees have a smaller carbon footprint compared to artificial trees, with fake trees having a carbon footprint almost 80 per cent more than real ones. If disposed of properly your real Christmas tree could have a minimal carbon footprint of around 3.5kg CO2e.

How to dispose of your real Christmas tree:

• Burn your tree on a bonfire.

• Plant it outdoors.

• Have your tree shredded and chipped to spread in your own garden.

• Most councils in the UK offer a kerbside recycling scheme, where they will collect your tree in early January – they will shred into chippings for use in local parks.

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