How to prepare for a Plastic Free Christmas!
By the way kids hate wooden toys except wooden trains or those wooden bees we have in New Zealand but there are only so many wooden trains a person can give and the wooden bees are for toddlers!
And for a start we can’t use wrapping paper! Last year all the wrapping paper was made of some kind of plastic that even sticky tape rejected. And sticky tape! We would not use that either. String then and newspapers or decorated butchers paper for wrapping. I am good with that.
I think at least half of this is a discussion with the children about why I am not giving plastic this Christmas. So they get it but not in a way that decreases their joy when they do receive plastic from someone else!! How to phrase that sentence.
I have always been the book giver- safe in the knowledge that later in life all my dears will understand. As long as the books are collected. Because every year I see my books set aside by the parents for later! Maybe I should be giving hope chests or book cases.
Also by making a stand I make all the other givers of plastic wrapped gadgets and plastic toys and plastic made garments, feel judged in a way. Some grandparents get offended very easily especially by their peers. Especially me! Somehow I have made an artform of saying the wrong thing!
Anyway! For us today I would like to make a list of Christmas presents ( other than books book cases and hope chests) that I can wrap and that would travel, for all ages, that will excite all the little people who would rather have a bright pink dolls house made entirely of plastic!
Just drop all your ideas in the comments – riff off each other. I need help. All I am sure of is that I don’t want to continue to contribute to the bags and bags of plastic that go out to the curb the day after Christmas!
Wine for the parents is a wonderful plastic free gift!!
Already I feel a list coming – but I have put the bread in the oven so I have twenty minutes to shower and get ready for work – then when the buzzer goes off I take the lids off – turn the pots and I have another twenty minutes. Usually by the last minute of baking bread I am stood at the door ready to exit with my hot loaves on their cooling trays in the bin ready for travel.
Talk soon c
The Kitchen's Garden 
81 responses to “PLASTIC FREE CHRISTMAS”
Also when I read the title first thing this morning my brain thought you meant providing a Free Plastic Christmas. No charge! hahahahahaha
Great ideas everyone! I’m spending Christmas with my two sons and their families in a warm beach area, so sand toys are a must. Plastic free? That’s harder to do but you have some great ideas. We just have to get back to basics. Books are always given and new pjs for Christmas, with a dinosaur or super hero on the shirt work well. Over the last year and a half, I have subscribed to a S.T.E.M. Crate delivered monthly to each of the 3 grandsons 2, 4, and 8 years They love getting something in the mail. They get to do some things themselves and the parents enjoy getting in on the fun too. Most materials are recyclable when done. So Christmas will be small gifts and concentrating more on good food and spending time together. I think we are all remembering our quieter family times. We would get 1 gift from Santa, 1 from our parents, our Christmas stocking with an orange in the toe and rarely mail from far away family. Good memories.
That is exactly like our Christmas- and when we were all a little bigger mum would give us 2 dollars each to buy something for our siblings – there were 8 of us so we saved our pocket money madly. One for FC one from the parents then one from each sibling!
Always always a small pile of books and one especially from mum – she bought the best books. We would read all Christmas dAy afternoon.
Books always books! Hand made items, jams and jellies and bread! Large cardboard boxes…no joke! Once I got a big cardboard box at work…
it had held a big machine. I folded it up took it home and painted it,cut windows in it and a door. I made a play house that could be folded up
and put under a bed when not in use. It was great fun to make and fun for the kids!
That sounds fantastic!!! I love that big box idea!
Introduce them to the world of bread baking, or cookie making, give them a whole day of cooking fun things to eat and give to others.
Or give them seeds and small tools for their own vegetable and flower garden, then spend time helping them to plan and work in the garden and harvesting the garden and arranging flowers.
Take pictures with them and help them make a memory book. Or show them how to keep and record a daily journal of what’s important to them.
Kids love the time you spend with them more than the gifts you buy them. Granted your time is a priceless commodity to you, but spending time with children means so much to them.
I know – I alwAys spend lots of time doing art with the kids but I live so far Way – sad.
My Granddaughter and I enjoy those wooden puzzles. The 3D puzzles that once put together they can paint, then play with. Amazon has several choices, animals, trucks, dragons, trains etc., plus they come in different grades of difficulty for different ages and they pack flat! We enjoy doing them together but she usually does the decorating on her own.
That is a great idea!
I think you can have a photo turned into a puzzle. A Farmy photo made into a puzzle maybe.
Books for kids and consumables for adults, like homemade cookies, jam or chutney and handmade products like body oil bars, lip gloss in little glass pots, and things like cute, themed post it notes or good wine or whiskey! I use tissue paper and ribbons or string for wrapping.
These are wonderful ideas. I really wish I lived closer to my family so I could make food as gifts.
I don’t live close to family either, I do the foods for my local friends.
I don’t know how crafty you are but some of those “tie off” homemade blankets (throws) look pretty cute and no doubt something they would love for a long time. I know our grandkids have loved the ones they have received or maybe you can make them together. If you can’t make them (I hear they are very easy but I am not crafty at all) I know someone on Etsy would have them. Perhaps a special necklace for the little girl. Maybe a collection of pretend dress up costumes/play clothes. I have seen kids turn a big cardboard box and some play clothes into something pretty special. Plus you have to travel with it all……….
Yes. The travel bit is always a problem. The home made blankets sound wonderful . I think I would cry if someone gave me a blanket they made for me
Walmart has fleece blankets for $2.50. You can use those to tie. I crocheted an edging around them and gave as gifts.
I have a large family and for some years now we no longer give presents to adults but donate to charity instead, most people have too much stuff anyway so we are all happy with this arrangement. It is always very interesting to see the scope of chosen charities across the family. Of course buying for all the grand children is more challenging environmentally speaking. I try to give essentials but with a particular individual interest, and of course books are always a great gift. I do remember when my own children were youngsters giving them wooden toys, they were always somewhat underwhelmed but they now wish they had been more appreciative and wish their own children would be, funny old world.
My absolute favorite to give and to get, a loaf of yummy bread with a small jar of homemade jam or jelly.
I found this interesting: https://www.surpriseride.com/, I have 7 step grands, 6 are 19 & up, one just turned three and there’s one due in May. I gave the 3 yr, old a subscription to Ranger Rick Cub, all about wildlife and animals and geared to 4 and under. He loves it and loves that it comes in the mail to him. They have two more publications available as a child gets older. I have given each grand a Christmas ornament every year since they came into my life also. Of course, the ‘bonus’ kids and the 6 older grands also get a ‘green’ gift. They do like that!
You made me laugh and feel like I’m in good company… we have often discomforted the other grandparents who believe more is more. Some great ideas here. I particularly love the idea of giving plants, and have done this on occasion to kids who kids… Do you remember those soft fuzzy lambs ears plants that used to be common in flower gardens… little kids love them. Books are my go-to small kid gifts, only given in person with time made for at least one read through at the time of giving.. which is not easy I know if it’s Christmas Day… we often do a pre-Christmas day of Christmas in July. The bigger kids have graduated to cash so they can buy things they want. Over the years I have also given successfully torches (good quality, metal)… boys in particular love them; pocket or Swiss Army knives; crystals – carved, natural, hanging lightcatchers; dreamcatchers and hanging mobiles… much handmade inspiration from Oxfam’s catalogue. I refuse to do gifts on demand for any occasion for adults rather waiting until I see something special in a second hand or antique shop, if they like that sort of thing as I do. Books, always for any age if they are readers. Local products… honey, macadamia nuts and we have a nearby lemon myrtle farm which makes lovely products. Beeswax wraps, fruit & veg and carry bags, silicone bags, wraps and bowl covers. I have seen some very cool stainless steel lunch boxes and containers for kids via Insta posts. Homemade things like: fragrance spray using vodka and essential oils; lemon cleaner; dried herbs and salt seasonings; tea; condiments.. all in nice reusable jars which I offer to refill. I know some of these will not suit your circumstances but may help others in their plastic free quest.
I enjoyed reading this. Great suggestions. And you saved the best for last, those home made things. Very creative.thank you!
There were always books at Christmas (birthdays too). I’ve made knited, sock and rag dolls wrapped with a blanket for the doll, wooden trucks, cars or other vehicles (I never played with dolls, I liked trucks much better). When the kids were very little they got a burlap or canvas bag of blocks (just odds and ends of wood that were around, sanded and finished with either non-toxic bright paint or non-toxic clear finish). A ream of copy paper, colored pencils or crayons, we didn’t do coloring books, we drew. A magnifying glass and guide book to bugs, or leaves, or something similar. A doll family made of clothespins with pipe cleaner arms and clothes of bits of cloth and some yarn for hair. Paper dolls, there are quite a few interesting ones available from Dover books (loads of really great books there – http://www.dover.com). I had a huge box when I was a kid and it was one of the greatest gifts, a house, castle, fort, store and much more. Show them how to make a “telephone” with clean cans and string. A bus made from a cardboard oatmeal container that can be painted. I’m sure there’s lots more but these are the kinds of things I gave the step-grands and that they liked more than the plastic.
Bees wax candles, Bees wax wraps, individual glass or stainless steel candle holders. Ceramic piggy banks with a special coin from you. Bee Hotels for the garden. Books always. Brown paper bags for wrapping. Laura
Some of my best-remembered non-plastic childhood Christmas presents: Always story books; a small brass telescope; a huge box of coloured pencils and pads of paper made from waste paper from my father’s office, marked on only one side, which later graduated to watercolours, brushes and pads of watercolour paper; any kind and size of hardback notebook; a good fountain pen and coloured inks; books of birds and flowers and animals, a small sewing box, hand-sewn and knitted clothes for my doll; a set of glove puppets with carved wooden heads made by my grandfather (the following year he gave me the puppet theatre to go with them; a Meccano set (I had to keep that one away from my brother); huge jigsaw puzzles; a painted box for my toys with a dragon on the lid and my initials; a doll’s house I shared with my sister, made by my grandfather; a basket of small gardening tools and seeds and my own plot in the vegetable garden; a harmonica; a kaleidoscope… well, I could go on. And how about using furoshiki, reusable Japanese wrapping cloths for the gifts? They could be made from repurposed cloth if you had time and the inclination.
PUZZLES – age related puzzles. Some can even be framed and hung. I have a lovely one my daughter made for me after her rabbit quit chewing on the pieces. She had to use Magic Markers to color in the chew marks!