‘It looks good, feels good, and is practical’: Guardian readers’ top tips on reducing waste over Christmas

If you’re concerned about waste and overconsumption as the silly season gets under way, you’re not alone. Many of us are dreaming of a greener Christmas.

To help you plan for a low-waste celebration, Guardian readers share some of their sustainable Christmas rituals, from bon-bons without the plastic to non-traditional Christmas trees.

Giving without the waste, and DIY Christmas crackers

Our family now does “food or homemade” gifts for Xmas. We are all adults, it cuts down on unwanted presents, and usually everyone makes a treat to gift others, which is so lovely. Last year we invested in a reusable cracker set, so we just have to buy the fillings each year. Things like seeds for the garden, tea and mini soaps make great sustainable cracker prizes!

– Christine, Brisbane

We do presents for children only, and with a price limit – usually “how to make things”-type of presents or an Australian-made soft toy. We reuse brown paper and raffia ribbon for wrappings. Everything is homemade for Christmas and New Year’s Day lunch/dinner.

– Robyn, Tasmania

My large extended family has ditched crackers. Instead we have developed an extensive collection of headwear that each person gets to pick from a box. Everything from a plastic tiara, to an Akubra, to a builder’s hard hat, to kitty ears (you get the idea). The kids all write terrible jokes, which are put in a bowl on the table for us to pick out and read. I wasn’t sure how it would work but everyone loved it!

– Gail, Blue Mountains

We have a large extended family and we only purchase a specific gift if we know they need it and that they will get excellent use and enjoyment from it (for example a new stainless steel frypan to replace a failing Teflon one for a low-income family member). For all other gifts, we spend time in the days leading up to Christmas making and decorating gingerbreads and biscuits with our small children, and everyone gets a small package of these treats. One year our eldest, at three years old, decorated each gingerbread person to depict the person it was being given to – to much amusement. It saves a lot of money and instils a sense in our children of giving and love being about service and giving time, rather than just how much money you can spend. Whilst the initial shift to this approach was a little awkward, we focused on how much effort the children had put in, and our family now expects this each year and look forward to it.

– Anonymous, central Victoria

Wrapping with re-use in mind

For a number of years I’ve used nice tea towels to wrap smaller gifts. This makes the wrapping part of the gift. It looks good, feels good, and is practical – everyone uses tea towels!

– Anonymous, Bondi Beach

I cut up a worn-out doona cover earlier this year and made a heap of bento bags and cloth squares to wrap gifts. They’re really pretty and I love that they will be regifted again and again. I buy ribbons from the craft section of op shops, and I’m a bit crafty so I make or thrift a lot of gifts for my friends. When I do have to buy something new, I try to buy it from a b-corp or a local maker.

– Val, Preston, Victoria

Non-traditional trees

We bought a Wollemi pine tree as our new Christmas tree tradition. It lives in a pot outside and then on the first of December we bring it inside and decorate. It reduces land and water use of chopping down traditional trees farmed in paddocks, or plastic trees that inevitably end up in landfill.

– Jayden, Melbourne

My Christmas tree is made of seven-foot long bamboo stalks which I cut from my yard years ago and painted green. I make them into a tipi shape, tie them on top, string reusable lights and ornaments, and it looks great. Everything is reused year after year, and nothing is thrown out.

– Diana, Florida, USA

Christmas lunch, Aussie-style

No turkey, only barbecued prawns – they cook in five minutes. Saves two hours running an oven at 200C. Eat the prawns outside – saves a few hours running the A/C if it is over 30C on the day.

– Sean, Fingal Bay