The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Leave no festive footprint but lifelong memories
The festive season results in a huge amount of waste, but what can we do to change that? Follow Anya Hart Dyke’s example and give the gift of time
With awareness growing around the world about the impact our choices as consumers are having on our planet, Nora Mcelhone spoke to sustainability expert and local mum Anya Hart Dyke about giving the gift of time this Christmas.
Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background and work in sustainability?
I’m from Kent but married a guy from Perth and we’ve ended up in wonderful Blebo Craigs in rural Fife. I have a five-year-old daughter and two-yearold son and am writing a new series of ebooks for parents on how to raise children to consume wisely.
I’m dressing up as a giant Christmas present every Saturday in the build-up to Christmas to inject a bit of fun and humour into normalising giving time over stuff to children at this time of year. I do have a serious background in sustainability, honest!
Why do you think this issue is of such importance at Christmas time?
Christmas has always been one of my favourite times but it feels like it is all getting a bit out of hand. As a parent I feel pressure to participate in “elf on the shelf”, plan for a heaving stocking, buy gimmicky crackers, track Santa on an app and put out glittery reindeer food, among myriad other activities to make Christmas “magical” for my children. And not giving physical gifts is the least socially-acceptable sustainable choice at Christmas, even though the environmental impact of all the stuff we buy is huge.
But this year I will resist and treat Christmas as an opportunity to take stock of what’s important. I want to create our own unique family traditions on our own terms, that aren’t purely focused on ourselves and don’t generate oodles of waste and clutter.
The most important new tradition in our family is to ask loving friends and family to give the “gift of time” to my children in place of physical gifts. I see this as an investment in their future.
I want to build a network of role models and sources of adult support for my children and this starts now with them spending time on their own, where possible, with my closest friends as well as family members. Designating this time as a “Christmas gift” ensures it happens – over the year ahead. It doesn’t all have to be crammed into the holidays.
You scribble down that you’d like to go camping, write a story together or be shown how to knit – it absolutely doesn’t have to cost money – and then the recipient can open the envelope on Christmas Day.
The excitement is in the planning, anticipation, the doing and then the remembering.
Q. What are your top tips for helping families have a more sustainable Christmas?
It can be tricky to find the balance between giving
our children that magical experience while looking after our planet.
I loved Christmas growing up and wouldn’t want it any other way.
So Father Christmas will visit and my daughter will get her letter off to him in good time (she gets to request one present from him and then the rest of the stocking will be edibles).
We will bring our potted Christmas tree in from the garden to decorate and there will be two or three “wanted” presents under the tree for each child to rip open on Christmas Day.
The house will be decorated with tinsel and baubles and all the standard decorations that I have had, in some cases, since I was a child. They may be plastic but they are still in good condition.
So my top tips are:
1. Gift of time presents instead of physical gifts. 2. Rent or buy a real tree that then gets planted out (not burned or chipped); or make your own out of sticks, books, boxes, wine bottles (there are some amazing creations on Pinterest– my favourite is the one made out of a ladder).
3. Create an Advent “charity” box. Every day put food/toiletries for the foodbank or a toy or piece of clothing in good condition for local charities – take it to your local foodbank on Christmas Eve or in the New Year.
4. Make your own Christmas crackers from loo rolls with your own family jokes inside (and chocolates rather than plastic gimmicks).
5. No wrapping paper. Use magazines, children’s drawings, fabric or cloth bags. Again, Pinterest can show you how.
Q. Do you think people are looking to reduce the waste generated at Christmas?
It is tricky because we all bring our own childhoods to bear on Christmas, and it’s such a stressful time with the pressure to “remember” everyone with at least a card, costumes for children’s Nativity plays, buying a lot of presents, organising the social calendar to make sure everyone feels included and loved, and cook for large numbers.
As a result, being less wasteful at Christmas often takes a back seat.
If you’re going to make your own Christmas crackers and wreaths, cut up old Christmas cards to make new ones, plan an Advent calendar that has a positive social impact, and brainstorm gift of time present ideas with other parents it all needs time, so you have to start planning now.
I would argue that it is absolutely worth doing. You feel on top of the world for making that extra effort, and your children benefit hugely from seeing that it can be done (and being involved in the doing).
Q. Do you have memories and traditions from your own childhood that you still return to with your children?
My favourite part of Christmas growing up was the pranks my brother and I did with our cousins. Once we used a skateboard, a broom and a bedsheet to create what we thought was a brilliant ghost (my parents’ house is haunted) to spook my aunt and uncle. And we put small piles of earth on the front lawn to horrify my late father, who seemed to spend half his life trying to get rid of the mole(s) to create the perfect lawn.
Q. How can people in Courier Country get involved in promoting a more sustainable Christmas?
Choose a gift of time present from my website, or tell me about an even better one and I can add it to the list to inspire others.
Join me in a box (surprisingly warm) in Fife, Perth, Edinburgh or Dundee/broughty Ferry in November or December (the dates are on my website). There’s hot chocolate in it for willing volunteers.
Give one of my “gift of time” tutorials about raising children to consume wisely to a friend, relative or spouse (!) if you want them to get with the programme