Starting to get into the Christmas spirit and wanted to share some ethical festive decorations for making your home gorgeous and green for the holidays.
CANDLES
I love filling the house with candles during the winter months and I like to choose beeswax for the gorgeous smell and because they are more sustainable than petroleum based candles. Green House in Jersey have a range of Bee Good candles in terracotta pots with seeds enclosed so that you can really give something back once you have used the candle. At fig1.co.uk, the English hedgerow candles are proving popular and who could resist an apple and elderflower scented candle in an antique pot?
TREE DECORATIONS
We love making small treasures to hang on the tree but I also buy a few decorations if I spot something I fancy – we went to a local craft fair last week and a friend had made mini felted hearts with tiny beads, which will look gorgeous sparkling away amid the branches. I love these felt hearts from Ethical Kidz – I seem to have a real thing about hearts. Apparently, this makes an ideal baby’s first Christmas gift as it is tradition to gift the child a decoration each year until 18th birthday by which time they’ll have enough to decorate a tree of their own. And check out this guy – a fairtrade gingerbread man, knitted in Bangladesh – he is pretty special. And from Greener by Nature you can purchase a kit to sew your own festive doves for the tree.
CRACKERS
Wow – I love the intention and beauty of the crackers at Conscious Crackers. The Goddess Bless crackers each contain goddess card, blessing, wishing card, bindi, a raw chocolate goddess and loving intention. What a special way to celebrate the magic of Yule or Christmas and a gorgeous treat to share with the family. 2% of profits go to help with the work of the Beekeeping Trust.
NATIVITY
We have a wooden nativity scene with a star path leading to the barn that the children love to play with. Laughing Bear offer an Ostheimer nativity complete with camels, angels, figures, animals and a stable. We love the Kathy Kruse soft nativity trio at Myriad Natural Toys, the wooden cut out and for smaller budgets, the matchbox press out nativity scene at £3.50.
CARDS
Make your own Christmas cards using the printing block set at Daisy Daisy. It’s a set of six wooden printing blocks with Christmas designs- ideal for printing on your own cards and decorations. At Nyoki, we love the huge range of hand designed Christmas cards, decorated with feathers, fabric and felt.
Melissa Corkhill is the editor of The Green Parent magazine, mother of two and author of the book Green Parenting
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