This Christmas, almost a third of people plan on making positive changes, including cutting back on gifts and donating to food banks.
The survey, commissioned by free-from chocolate brand NOMO, asked 2,000 adults who celebrate the holiday what positive changes they plan on making this year.
Jac Tyrrell, brand manager of NOMO stated: “Many people are seeing Christmas as a time of year they can make meaningful changes in their lives; reinverting traditions and creating new sustainable ones
“The smallest things can make the biggest difference, from changing what you eat to what you gift someone at Christmas.”
With the current cost of living crisis, this has also been a driving factor for these positive changes this festive season as well as people wanting to do their bit the help stop the also current climate crisis.
Here are some positive changes you can make this Christmas.
Cut down on gifts
People spend hundreds of pounds every year on Christmas presents and this year it is now more important than ever to re-evaluate your spending.
Cutting down on gifts or spending less on others overall can help ease financial pressure over the holiday season. Cutting down on gifts too can also help reduce buying items the other person will never use and stopping these unused presents from ending up in landfills.
To keep things fair you can ask others to cut down their spending on you too or even ask others not to buy you anything at all. If you plan of still getting gifts, asking what others want or need (and vice versa) can help tackle unwanted presents.
Be more eco-friendly
Christmas is one of the most wasteful times of the year and if we want to do our part in helping tackle the climate crisis, that starts with Christmas.
Instead of buying new decorations, you should try to reuse your old ones for as long as possible. If you already own an artificial Christmas tree for example, you should try to use that for at least 10 times to equate to the emissions of getting one from a local farm.
As well as decorations, you should try to shop more eco-friendly in terms of gifting. You should avoid cards and wrapping paper with glitter due to it being plastic and instead opt for ones without or even better, ones that can be recycled.
Help those in need
Christmas is all about giving so why not give to those who are in need?
Instead of buying gifts or cards you could instead make a small contribution to charity. You could send a loved one a digital card or message saying how you have donated the money you would have spent on cards to charity instead.
When Christmas food shopping, if you have any spare change, you could pick up some items to donate to food banks so those who aren’t so fortunate can eat this Christmas too.
Or post-Christmas when you have received some items you won’t use, you can donate them or give them away to others who would make use of them.
Feature Image Credit: Any Lane/Pexels
Lifestyle Editor • Fourth year Journalism student
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