5 Paths to a Very Sustainable Holiday Season
I’ve heard this statement more times than I can count in the last month: “Holiday spending just isn’t worth the stress anymore.” You said it, friend! It’s not. And that’s why I wanted to put together this blog. While the word “sustainable” is often synonymous with taking care of the planet, that’s not all it means. Living sustainably will often take care of the planet as a side effect of you taking care of your emotional, physical, spiritual, mental, and even your financial self.
Baking
This path is my favorite, so that’s why we’re starting here. From the time I was 4 or 5 years old, I can remember sitting on the counter of my maternal grandmother’s kitchen “helping” her bake. She was the leader of our church’s kitchen, which was passed down to my mom. Both of them used to bake most of the wedding cakes for our church’s brides and grooms. Baking is synonymous with love in my family.
If you’re like me and you have a few tried and true holiday baked goods that people go ga-ga for, now’s the time to put those skills to use. Maybe splurge on some cute boxes to package them in - or find tins. Thrift stores are full of old tins that nobody wants anymore, but they make a perfect gift box for some baked goodies.
Here are some of my most requested baked goods from my friends and family:
Chocolate-covered peanut butter balls
Soft and chewy sugar cookies (slice and bake, not roll out and decorate)
Pfeffernüsse (a German soft and iced gingerbread recipe that is heavily spiced - translated means pepper nuts)
Mexican wedding cakes (aka Russian tea cakes, Italian butter nut - it’s a bite-sized shortbread pecan recipe covered in powdered sugar)
Make your own commonly-used goods
This is one of the ways I’m going to be gifting this year. I just learned that I can make my own homemade vanilla (who knew?). And there’s a super cute way that you can package it as well. There are tons of things that we can make at home that we often buy at the grocery store. Not only is it going to be better for you (and for the person you’re gifting it to), but it’s also a great way to teach yourself a new skill that you can use every day for the rest of your life.
Here’s the other cool bit. If you’ve been eyeing a bread maker or a gadget that can help you produce these gifts, now’s the perfect time to buy yourself the gift and allow it to pay for itself by creating more gifts to give out. For instance, I’ll be giving out homemade bread this year thanks to my Dash 1.5 lb bread maker. It takes up very little space, is affordable, and it’s literally made hundreds of loaves of bread for our little family. It comes with its own recipe book that allows you to add flavors, nuts, and berries pertinent to each season.
Here are some of the items with links that I’ll be creating and gifting this year:
A get-well-soon emergency kit with homemade elderberry syrup, tissue packs, etc…
and of course… homemade bread to dip into the olive oil.
Homemade skincare
Depending on how many people you normally buy for, this can be an affordable route to take to tick off the boxes of gifts to purchase. Instead of buying for 20 people, why not make luxurious skincare products that they normally wouldn’t think to purchase for themselves? All of the ingredients are readily available to make homemade hand scrubs, rose water face mists, and even body butter! If you’ve ever purchased skincare products yourself, you know how pricey they can be - and most of them can be made right in your own kitchen. Here are some of the products I’ve made and gifted over the years:
Here’s a list of 5 more DIY skincare products you can make in your own kitchen.
Here’s the beauty of working with your hands. Once you try making something for yourself and start handing it out, you get to experience the joy of making it. You get to infuse it with love you want to give to others. And let’s be honest - that’s the real gift isn’t it? Often times what happens when we do a simple DIY is that we become passionate about it. Other people start to look forward to getting that love infused DIY gift, and before we know it, we’ve started a passion project that can become a side (or full-time) business. You really never know what’s in store when it comes from a place of love.
Turn photos into slideshows
Most people already know about the design tool, Canva. If you have old photos that you’ve been saying you want to scan in - there’s no time like the present. When my mom passed away and my dad got remarried, I inherited 8 giant tubs of old photographs. It took me 2 solid days to go through each and every one of those photos. I would guess that 1/3 of the photos were of people I had never met in my life. They were tossed. 1/3 were photos I wanted to keep and 1/3 were photos I thought others would want to have.
Those photos for others can easily be scanned in and uploaded to Canva where you have the capability to turn them into a movie… add text and graphics over them. You can even add royalty-free background music. Download it and voila - you have a video movie that will bring memories flooding back to those you gift it to. Canva has free and paid options, but even the free option is less than $20/month.
If you’re going to spend money, buy moments that make memories.
One of my favorite ways to gift others is to gift passes to museums or parks that the recipient loves. If you have a family that loves art, buy a family pass that enables 4 or 6 of you to be able to enter. Then at the time of the gift, announce that every month or every other month, there will be a family date night where you all go to the art museum.
Or maybe theater is your jam. Annual passes are common at theaters, and it allows you all to build memories together. State Park passes or even National Park passes are a great way to spend time together without having to unload a bunch of cash. Pack a picnic lunch. Bring a frisbee or a ball, wear your favorite hiking shoes and hit the trails. There are children’s museums across the country that are just as much fun for adults as they are for kiddos.
The holidays can be stressful enough, especially as a woman who’s expected to do it all. The planning, the decorating, the cooking, the baking, the gift purchasing, the wrapping … all of it. And it’s a lot. These are some ways to relieve some of the financial aspects of a burdensome holiday season. Have some fun with it. Get others involved in the making aspect and make that one of your new holiday traditions. Be as creative as you want to be. I hope this helps you live this holiday season a little more joyfully, and a lot more sustainably.
Cheers to you!