Did you throw money at your Christmas planning to get it done? I’m sure that in our hearts, most of us would love to be practical but glamorous eco-warrior parents at this time of year but fitting all the extra preparation in on top of daily life is just too much. For the first time ever, I truly understand how the commercialisation of Christmas has snowballed.

Faced with the guilt I will put myself through if I don’t at least make some sort of effort, my family have clubbed together and tried various ideas to make Christmas feel homemade, environmentally friendly and ethical. Here are some of the efforts we’ve made:

1. No wrapping paper: we have made a rule that all gifts are to be wrapped in something reused. Most of us have used all the scraps of wrapping left over from previous years. I have used newspaper, even using my back issues of the Green Party newsletter!

2. Locally sourced food: we’ve aimed to buy all our food from local producers, retailers so it is British, at the very least. The goose has been supplied from the formidable Archers in Islingword Road who source from a farm in Robertsbridge, East Sussex. Our cheeseboard is British cheeses from local farmers and err…Sainsbury’s (I ran out of time!!). This is a huge change for my Francophile family, as their (superb) Brie and Camembert have this year been produced in Britain. We’ve also gone fair-trade on as much food as possible (lots of help from Infinity Foods here) to make sure our pennies are going back into something worthwhile.

3. Homemade gifts: some lucky family and friends will receive my specially concocted Raspberry Vodka truffles made with Fair-trade organic chocolate all boxed up in reused, hand-decorated, containers. Many of the diverse boutiques in North Laine helped me with stocking fillers such as Purple Heart, Malarkey and my bakeware buddy is Ransoms off London Road.

4. Skip the starter: as much as I love the abundance of delicious food frankly I stuff myself so silly, I don’t appreciate it fully. So we are preparing canapés to nibble on leisurely while we chat and have a drink (blinis, mini brioche) then we’ll go straight into our goose dinner.

5. No champagne: this is more of a money saving mantra than ethical or green. In fact, we’ll have to watch closely for carbon footprint where the alternative comes from (Spanish cava? mmm). I finally gave in to the idea that many sparkling wines are much more quaffable than some brands of champers.

6. Secret Santa: usually found in offices across the land this time of year but we’ve been doing this as a family for a few years now and I know we‘re not the only ones. If you’ve got a large group of family members coming together this is an excellent way to channel your cash into the purchase of one worthwhile gift rather than splashing out on tat. The kids are excluded, Santa‘s got them covered.

7. Homemade crackers: I’m sure this is something many others do and they can be fun to make. We have even asked Dad for some organic jokes - tough one.

Of course there’s always more that can be done but we’re learning as we go. I’m so enthused by the whole project and impressed on how little effort it is versus splashing out at the supermarket, I’m determined to keep it up in our day to day. Have a wonderful ‘contented’ Christmas Argus readers!