Pressies!
Think quality: Around half of UK adults say they have received gifts they don’t want at Christmas. When buying gifts think less but better, quality not quantity, take time to choose an item they’d really like and which will last a long time.
Gift a wonderful experience and a forever memory: Giving an experience (rather than a ‘thing’) will reduce demand for physical resources. You could buy tickets to shows, concerts or events. Gift a home-made coupon book! Make a restaurant reservation or promise a home cooked meal. Plan a day out to a wild place. It also means Christmas comes twice for the receiver, when they get to go on the experience!
Gift sustainable: Buying second-hand items saves on resources needed to make new products. Vintage clothes and home furnishings, and refurbished technology can make great sustainable gifts. Avoid single-use plastic items that can’t be recycled and look for things like Fairtrade or Organic-certified food and clothing.
Planet loving packaging: Reduce waste by buying gifts with little or no packaging. Sometimes shopping local can help with this, especially if you have a local refill shop. If you do use packaging, use recycled, or recyclable, materials e.g. potato print bright green xmas trees onto old newspaper and tie with colourful waste fabric strips for a unique and personal gift wrap.
Food!
Cut your food waste: Try to cut any waste by planning ahead – be realistic about how much food you need and use up leftovers. Instead of cling film, use Tupperware, foil and wax cloth covers to keep leftovers nice and fresh!
Delectable & delicious (plant based) dinner: Poultry is in the top 10 most wasted foods in the UK and 100,000 tonnes of it ends up in the bin every year. Eating more plant-based meals is good for you and the planet.
Try this for a sumptuous dinner centrepiece!
Christmas Wreath with cranberries & dill
Put 250g spinach in a colander, then pour over a kettle of boiling water and leave to wilt. Once cool, wring out the excess moisture using a clean tea towel, then chop the spinach and put in a large bowl. Stir in 250g silken tofu, 2 tbsp olive oil, 50g pine nuts, generous grating of nutmeg, 2 garlic cloves crushed, lemon zest form 2 lemons, 1 small pack chopped dill, 1 tbsp sour cherries, ½ tbsp dried cranberries, season generously and set aside. On a well-floured surface, roll 500g block vegan shortcrust pastry out into a 60 x 20cm rectangle. Leaving a 1cm border, spoon the spinach mixture along the length of the pastry, leaving a 2cm gap at both short ends. Fold in the two short ends to stop any of the filling coming out, then roll the pastry away from you to enclose the filling and create a long sausage shape. Join the two ends together to create a wreath shape and stick together with a little almond milk. Transfer the wreath to a baking tray lined with baking parchment and chill for 20 mins. Can be made up to this point a day in advance and kept covered in the fridge. When ready to bake, heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Using a sharp knife, cut slashes across the top of the wreath. Mix a little almond milk with some olive oil (this will help the pastry colour) and brush all over the wreath. Bake for 40-45 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 mins, then transfer to a board and decorate with some dill fronds and some dried cranberries.
Shop locally, eat seasonally: Make your festive meals more sustainable by buying seasonal and locally grown wherever possible. Doing so reduces the energy spent growing foods out of season or flying food to the UK. UK fresh winter fruits include Apples, Pears and Cranberries; fresh veggies include Beetroot, Brussels Sprouts, Carrots, Celeriac, Celery, Chestnuts, Chicory, Jerusalem Artichokes, Kale, Leeks, Mushrooms, Onions, Parsnips, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Red Cabbage, Swede, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Watercress, Winter Squash. Delicious!
Try this seasonal festive dessert!
Seasonal Spiced Apple & Pear crumble
Peel 5 apples and 3 pears, then chop them into bite-sized pieces, discarding the cores. Place the chopped pieces into a saucepan with 1 tsp each ground cinnamon and ginger and 150g raisins, plus enough water to cover the bottom few centimetres of the pan. Let the fruit gently cook over a medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, until it’s really soft. Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan 180°C)
Meanwhile, make the crumble layer. Place 200g pecans in a food processor for about 30 seconds, until they form a flour. Tip into a bowl and mix in 300g oats and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Place 4 tbsp coconut oil, 8 tbsp date syrup, 1 tsp each ground ginger and cinnamon in a saucepan and gently heat the mix until the coconut oil melts. Pour this into the oat mix and stir it all together. Once the fruit has cooked, place it in a baking dish (mine is 31 x 21cm) and spread the crumble layer on top. Bake for 20 minutes, until the top turns a golden brown. Serve with coconut yogurt, if you like.
Decorate!
Get creative: Making your own decorations from sustainable materials (old wrapping paper into paper chains for example) not only save you money and protect the planet but you can gain satisfaction and praise from your awesome artwork. Look online for ideas or try these:
Fruity slices: Use up any oranges, lemons or apples that have been forgotten in the fruit bowl and dried up a little. Heat oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Slice the oranges, lemons and apples very thinly, using a mandolin for the apples, if you have one. Arrange the slices on the trays, then bake for 45 mins-1 hr, turning halfway through cooking, until completely dried out. Leave to cool. Once cool, stud the oranges with cloves. Thread some ribbon, twine or string through the centres of a fruit slice, then tie a knot to secure, follow with a slice of another fruit, then another knot, also tying a cinnamon stick to a few of the decorations.
Treemendous! If buying a plastic Christmas tree, make sure that you’re going to reuse it for at least 10 years. Otherwise, it would have been better to buy a living tree from a sustainable forest. Be clear on how to dispose of your tree once the season is over. If it is potted, think about replanting it. Or get it recycled and turned into wood chips. Purchasing a potted tree is a good solution as you can reuse it each year!
Relax!
Reconnect to nature: The festive season is all about spending time with friends and family. Try making one of your festive activities a walk around the great outdoors, your local park or nature reserve. Winter is a great time to spot all sorts of over-wintering birds. Download the Seek app, which lets you identify and discover more about local species. It also helps scientists to track global biodiversity!
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 