…we’ve had a recycled Christmas!
Well, mostly. We ate off reclaimed plates (Midsummer’s Stonehenge, from the Tip, and J&G Meakin’s Wayside, some still from our wedding but mostly acquired secondhand on Wimborne Market), drank from reclaimed lead-crystal glasses, and pulled crackers made from loo roll inners & covered with some lovely red sparkly wrapping paper we found blowing around outside the recycling centre. The hats were made from saved wrapping paper. Next year I’ll aim to use entirely recycled cracker presents as well, but at least the jokes were well-used… I’d forgotten napkins, so stamped up some kitchen roll (normally rationed like gold-dust around here) with cheery poinsettias & holly leaves.
And when it came to present time, we’d agreed in advance with my brother that all presents should cost a maximum of £5, and have been bought in a charity shop or homemade. Which was a roaring success with all concerned, and somehow 100 times more in the true spirit of Christmas than any amount of expensive tat.
Our tree decorations were all homemade, re-used, or from various swaps I’ve taken part in over the years. But I did crack & buy some new lights, because it appears that LED lights genuinely use less electricity to run, and our old fairylights gave up the ghost last year. Hopefully they will give us many year’s pleasure, whether in fashion or out. All of our room decorations are either entirely natural – and from our own garden – rescued, homemade or re-used for many years. And our cake was decorated with dried fruit, angels & a tree from several years back, the ribbon my younger daughter wore as an angel in her playgroup Nativity (she’s 14 now) and bits of no. 1 son’s old shirt…
I already have some ideas for next Christmas – I feel a new challenge coming on – but I’ll have to start earlier next year…
A recycled lifestyle... 