DIY unique & sustainable Christmas décor

Continuing from last post – Simple ways to bring in Christmas Cheer, we are talking about easy & quick ideas for a sustainable Christmas, especially if you have limited space or a Christmas tree might not be your thing.

Last post, I had used few pine tree branches with homemade DIY Christmas ornaments. Today we are going all bare on the branches & bold with the ornaments! If you don’t live in an area where you don’t get coniferous trees, this one will be an ideal solution.

These can be used as an sustainable alternate to Christmas tree or also as table or mantle décor.

How to get this look:

1. All you need or some bare branches. Make sure to clean & remove any dirt or loose particles.
2. Vase: A big tall vase is ideal if you are using big branches like I have. Add water or sand or some kind of weight to ensure the arrangement doesn’t topple over being top heavy.
3. Ornaments: I have used the traditional Christmas colors to balance off the unusual use of bare branches. Use a mix of sizes to create the depth in your arrangement. Different textures is always a good idea. As you see, I have matte, glossy, sparkly & also some simple designs.
4. Lights: What is a Christmas arrangement without some string lights?! The only problem I faced was, all the string lights I had are green in color and I don’t remember seeing string lights that were not either white or green. I didn’t want to use the green string lights on the branches, instead I have them draped over the table.

Christmas & Sustainability:

There are a lot of aspects of our festivities that can be made sustainable with just a little thought. Avoid plastic ornaments. Christmas ornaments can be handmade or be bought when they are made with quality sustainable materials. Artificial Christmas trees can be replaced with live trees. Compost your trees after the season ends. Recycle your string lights properly once they die. In an effort to be more sustainable at home, I have decided not to buy any more string lights and will be looking for alternate options when I exhaust the stash I already have. Do you have any alternatives for string lights? Do let me know! Gifts are undeniably a major part of Christmas and we could talk at lengths on being sustainable. I love the concept of gifting experiences. Avoid cheap quality products for the sake of instant gratification. Go for E-Gift cards rather than physical ones. Wrap them with recycled paper. Reuse old wrapping paper. In the pictures, I have used recycled brown Kraft paper and reused a sheet of white paper that came as packaging for a product that I bought. Stuck some pine leaves and a dehydrated orange slice instead of bows!

I would love to hear of your unique way of celebrating Christmas. Do let me know in the comments below.