What to do Now🔄

Now that Christmas day is over, even if the actual Christmas feeling isn't, you may have a lot of things that you have no idea what to do with. So I'm going to help you with that on this post.

First up: food. Christmas dinners have a habit of leaving a whole load of leftovers, and so the most obvious thing (which I think most people do) is to eat it over the next few days, like in a Leftover Food Buffet! Before Christmas, it was estimated that almost 200,000 tonnes of food would be thrown out after Christmas, and the number hasn't come in yet, but let's hope we didn't actually throw out that much!

Second of all: wrapping paper. If you followed my advice and used recycled paper for your wrapping paper, then you can recycle it! (That is, if your neighbourhood take it.) Make sure you take off the tape around your wrapping paper, and there is no glitter or anything on it either before doing so, though, This year, not only did I get presents wrapped in recycled paper, I got it wrapped in maps from old atlases! 

Number 3: all your presents, and no space! I have this problem: I got 6 books for Christmas (and 5 more - a series - coming😬) and 4 out of the 6 of them are over 500 pages long, and will never fit on my shelf, even though I just had a clear out of books. Don't worry, most - maybe all - of them were second hand books. The best and easiest thing to do, have a clear out. I mean, I guess you could buy more storage space, but that's not so easy. You could give your cleared-out stuff to charity, or to a Swap shop that I mentioned in this post. 

Finally: your Christmas tree. It's literally a day after Christmas - I don't think anyone is getting rid of their tree yet, but this might be helpful in the near future. The best thing to do is take it to your nearest drop off point, where they dispose of it in a sustainable way. You can find yours at Recyclenow.

Thank you for reading this week's post. I hope you had an amazing Christmas! Next stop, 2022!

Violet 

         xxx

Best Christmas Presents! 🎁

 It's getting very close to Christmas now - less than a week! - and at the time where a lot of people go "Oh, it's nearly Christmas... OH, I haven't got presents for a whole load of people!" And then buy loads of useless, unsustainable things that will occupy the receivers of said presents for about half an hour, and then they forget about it. For me, and probably a lot of other people, at this point in time, I just make something because ordering something online (which is how I buy most things by now) probably won't arrive in time for Christmas. 

So I understand if this post is a bit too late, but you can always use it for anything, like birthdays or next Christmas. Anyway, here are some eco-friendly gifts you can get for someone:

• Give them memories. This sounds really poetic, but could mean anything from buying them a ticket to see theatre to making them a photo album. 
• Buy them a membership-thing for a charity (it doesn't have to be environmentally-focused). Or you could adopt an endangered animal for them to 'look after'!
• Natural things, like houseplants. We've given a lot of Pilea plants over the years, because if you cut off a bit of your own pilea and plant it, it grows  a whole new one. 
  
• Buy from a charity shop, or re-gift. It's the easiest thing to do, and you can find the most random things in a charity shop that anyone could love. 
• Homemade things! This is my favourite. Most of what I make for people are posters of quotes from their favourite things (movies, books etc) and it can be easy. You don't have to be incredible at art to create things. 

 I absolutely love Etsy - there's such a wide range of things on there and, especially if it's a local seller, it can be environmentally friendly (depending on what you buy). I just bought a notebook made of recycled paper where the money you pay goes to giving children in less developed countries better education. It's called Vent For Change. I also love using World Of Books. They're so good for buying second-hand books. 

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you have a good time this holiday. See you next week!
Violet 

         xxx

Go Eco-Friendly For Christmas! ⭐

This is basically going to be a summary of what you can do this year to make Christmas an Earth-friendly time. I will have already mentioned some of these in past blogs so I will put links you can go to if you want to go into more depth. 

1. Think about your Christmas tree. Last year, I wrote: What's better: Artificial or Natural Christmas Trees? and decided natural ones were better, because actually a study showed that you'd have to keep your artificial Christmas tree for over 20 years to make it more sustainable. But, you could go even further: renting one! You can search up your local farms that deliver to your door, you take care of it (keep it alive!) and then they come back, pick it up, and replant it. Unfortunately, many businesses who do this have ran out by now - sometimes you have to stay on the waiting list months before Christmas to make sure you get them, especially since they're getting popular now. My family just got our tree yesterday (but we didn't rent it - who knows, we might do it next year!). If you buy, instead of rent, a real one, you should make sure it comes from a local farm to reduce product miles, and then you could take it to your local recycle point, where people will recycle your tree. The website to found your local one is here: Recyclenow.
2. Wrapping paper. My very first post (written 30 November 2019: Wrapping Presents) was about this, and I still do it. You can use the brown paper that comes in a lot of Amazon packages, or you can buy wrapping paper made from recycled paper from your local supermarket, which is what we've done this year. I feel like it's so pretty when you have presents wrapped in brown paper under the tree. Or, you could also use fabric! You'll definitely reuse that. Also, make sure that you don't buy any sort of wrapping paper with glitter, because that immediately makes it unrecyclable. 
3. Be smart about whatever you buy. This basically includes: not buying anything with glitter on (and if you always need some glitter in your life, buy eco friendly glitter, like: Eco Glitter Fun) and buying things you know you'll use repeatedly over the next few years. You could buy recycled or environmentally-friendly  Christmas crackers (or even make them!), buy, make or reuse your wreath, and buy recycled Christmas cards - which was my second ever post: What do I do About Cards?

Thank you so much for reading. I hope, if you celebrate it, you have a wonderful time before and on Christmas day. 

Violet

         xxx

Vegetarian Christmas Dinners! 🍴

For those people who are very 'experienced' vegetarians/vegans (as in; you've been one for a while😁), you probably already have traditions of what you like to eat instead of turkey, or any meat you eat at Christmas dinner. It's funny because - with the family I eat Christmas dinner with - a few years ago, only about three of us that were vegetarian/vegan, and now, there's only about three of us who eat meat! 

In 2020, 54% of Britain said they were planning to have a turkey for Christmas. On average, Britons buy quite big turkeys, enough for 10 people to eat sometimes, which would probably leave a lot of leftovers for boxing day, or even just a lot of food waste. In the UK, a normal Christmas would mean 2 million turkeys being thrown away. I'm not asking you to go fully vegetarian for Christmas, however you could buy a smaller portion - a turkey crown, I guess. These were popular last year, when people weren't allowed to meet up with wider family and friends, so they got smaller turkeys. 

Of course, you could go to the shops and buy meat alternatives, like Quorn, who have an endless range of alternatives to meat - and their website also has recipes you can make with their products, including pigs in blankets. I think I mentioned this in another post, but I'm yet to find a good bacon alternative. 

However, I think the best thing about Christmas dinner is when it's homemade (although it does take a long time). As a vegetarian, over the past few years I've been having a nut roast. They're delicious, and there's so many different recipes online, but you could also buy some quite nice ones too. The only problem is they've got nuts in it, as said in the name, which isn't good when you're allergic to any type of nut. You could make: a vegetarian wellington (which could have anything in it really), a whole roasted cauliflower, like I mentioned in one of my last posts, or any sort of pie - because pies are delicious. 

I also want to say that it has been just over two years since I wrote my first post, and 1 haven't missed a day! I hope I go another full year without missing one. Thank you to everyone who has read my blog since I started. See you next week!

Violet

         xxx