I'm dreaming of a free Christmas

Gifts and baubles are hard on the purse, and the planet. Can Rebecca Armstrong do the festive season without spending?
The Independent 13 Dec 07;

'What do you want for Christmas?" is the question that's being asked up and down the country as we all wonder what we're going to give our loved ones on 25 December.

I know what I want. It's not a hi-tech hairdryer or a cashmere cardigan, an MP3 player or a pair of slippers. I want to get through Christmas without going into debt or obliterating my overdraft.

And while saving money might not seem very festive, it's a sensible way to approach a season that, according to the British Retail Consortium, saw us spend an extra £11bn on presents, decorations and food last year.

The BRC also calculates that Christmas Day costs each household £975. As Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, says, " Everyone wants the best for their families at Christmas, and some find it hard to avoid getting into debt at this time of year."

And it's not just the financial cost. The surge in consumerism and indulgence at Christmas is costly to the planet, too. By reducing what I buy, I can save money and avoid contributing to the waste mountain that accumulates before, during and after Christmas.

So I've set myself a challenge: forget doing Christmas on the cheap – I'm going to see if I can be festive... for free. And without short-changing my nearest and dearest.

My first challenge is finding and sending Christmas cards, and it's a toss-up between making my own and sending e-cards. While making cards is more personal, I will a) have to pay postage and b) add to the pile of cards my friends and relations will already be accumulating. The Recycling Consortium reports that Britain's bins are filled with 1 billion Christmas cards every year. You might not be able to put an e-card on the mantelpiece but they are free, green and, best of all, I don't have to remember anyone's postcode to send them. The World Land Trust (www.worldlandtrust.org) has a selection of 33 nature-inspired cards that fit the bill.

I've left it a little late but I fancy counting down the last days to Christmas with an Advent calendar. When I was growing up, my mother set a great example by insisting I used the same Advent calendar every year, saving money and waste. For a similarly no-cost approach with a new twist, Tate Modern has created a free online Advent calendar (www.tate.org.uk/adventcalendar/2007) featuring works of art from the Tate Collection chosen by Tate Members.

Now I need to find a Christmas tree and decorate it. I discover that a bauble exchange has been set up in Covent Garden Piazza as part of a " festive extravaganza" known as Christmas Deluxe (www. christmas-deluxe.com). The exchange, which will run to 23 December, is the brainchild of Judy Berger, the woman behind fashion exchange website www.whatsmine isyours.com. When I visit her in her underground grotto she is surrounded by tinsel, Advent candles, baubles and sparkling lights – spoils from the swappers who have already been to visit.

I'm hoping to exchange some beaded tinsel, a few plastic reindeer and a stripy bauble for some items to deck my halls. Berger works out how much credit I'm due – £8 – and points me in the direction of the exchange. I see some silver twine decorated with little angels at £1 a length – as Berger puts it, it gives "a lot of bang for my buck" – and some baubles. I grab three, then spy a bag full of mini silver baubles worth £5 – that little lot is more than enough to spruce up a tree.

Instead of getting one of the 8 million Christmas trees that Britain goes through every year – that generate 12,000 tons of rubbish – I'm going to make use of the long twigs scattered about in my local park. Dried out and bound together with some of the silver angel twine, they don't look half bad and once the baubles have been added, my arrangement is almost as impressive as last year's traditional tree. Then it's on to the biggest challenge by far – finding decent gratis gifts but not looking like a total skinflint in the process.

In this quest, my helpers are a handful of recycling websites that have got wise to the plight of penniless would-be shoppers and those who want to buy gifts without actually buying anything new. Efreeko.co.uk has a section for Christmas gifts, which must be new and unopened items to qualify. I spot a ladies' bathroom set my mum might like and Star Wars Monopoly – perfect for my big kid of a fiancé. The only thing I have to pay to get these gifts is postage and packaging, which amounts to a total of £9.50 for both items. Freecycle.org is another good site, and you can post a request for items or browse what's on offer. There's no guarantee any of the items are new, so check that out with whoever is offering a product before committing.

My little brother and sister are video-game addicts so, with a heavy heart, I sift through my collection of games and fillet out those I'm unlikely to play again. A quick visit to my local Computer and Videogames Exchange (www.cex.co.uk) and I've exchanged a stack of games for two very nearly new Nintendo titles I know my siblings are longing for. When it comes to my dad, a gadget freak of the highest order, I have a bright idea. Calling up a group of my techy friends, I suggest we have our own swapping party with bits of kit we've never used and, after giving up a wind-up radio – hardly used – and a set of miniature Óscrewdrivers, I'm left with a memory stick-cum-MP3 player that, unbelievably, has never been out of its box.

Other than giving up my own unloved objects, I had to spend a tenner on a couple of bottles of wine to encourage generosity but feel that I've done pretty well to source all my gifts for less than £20. Cards sent, calendar opened, decorations sorted and presents wrapped – in newspaper – and my work is done. It might not be the most chic Christmas shopping I've ever done but it's definitely the cheapest, and that's exactly what I wanted this year.

How to reduce your festive footprint

* Academics at the University of Manchester estimate that producing a dinner for eight people generates 20kg of CO2 emissions. Reduce the impact of your spread by buying local, seasonal produce, cooking food in the oven rather than using the hob and composting vegetables and suitable leftovers.

* Fairy lights can add £75 to your electricity bill and result in 500kg more CO2 emissions per household, say researchers at the Environment Institute at the University of York. Buy energy-efficient LED fairy lights or restrict lighting up to a couple of hours in the evening.

* Britain's bins are filled with an extra 750 million bottles and 500 million drinks cans after Christmas. There's no excuse not to recycle those extra containers so fill up your recycling box and visit the local bottle banks – or don't drink so much in the first place!

* Out of 8 million Christmas trees bought last year, only about 1 million were recycled. Most councils run a recycling scheme, so log on to to find out how to go about getting rid of yours in the greenest possible way. Real trees absorb an estimated 5 million tons of CO2 per year, so forget buying a plastic version and go for the real deal.

* Last year, 125,000 tons of plastic wrapping were ditched after the big day, according to the Recycling Consortium. When shopping for gifts, decorations and edible goodies, look for those with the least packaging to avoid leaving a lasting impression on landfill sites.