The majority of Christmas tree decorations in the shops these days are made of pesky plastic! If we delve deeper into what kind of plastics are used in our beloved Christmas tree decorations, we find that PVC is the main plastic used in tinsel. Uh oh. PVC is a major culprit in problematic plastics, which has been labelled as 'Don't Recycle' by packaging recycling label organisation OPRL. If you're a dab hand (or a newbie!) at arts and crafts and want to fight back against the hidden plastic agenda at Christmas, try making some of these beautiful Christmas decorations.
1. Twig Ornaments
This one is an oldie but a goodie. All you need to do is collect some twigs from your garden (or local park), some glue and embroidery thread. You can use the twigs to create different shapes, and then use the embroidery thread to decorate them in pretty colours. So, for example, you could create a star using small twigs, then wrap a festive green and red colour scheme around it.
2. Salt Dough Ornaments
This one is a fun one to get the kids involved - and makes a great rainy day activity. All you need is four cups of all-purpose flour, one cup of table salt and one and a half cups of warm water.
- To make the salt dough, add the flour and salt all together and stir well.
- Once mixed, stir the warm water in slowly whilst continuing to mix.
- When the dough has formed, knead it through with your hands to make sure you can work with it.
- Separate the dough into pieces on parchment paper and roll it out until it's about 3cm thick.
- Then you can shape it into whatever festive shapes you please! Take a metal straw and poke a hole through one part of the shape (remembering to remove it in the straw asap) to give you space to thread some twine through.
- Just pop them in the oven for 1-2 hours at 140 degrees Celsius until they're hard. Then decorate with whatever you have in your cupboards.
3. Paper Snowman Ornaments
This is a popular one with schools - the paper snowman classic. You'll need enough paper to cut at least 6 x 2-inch circles and 6 x 3-inch circles. Make sure it's either scrap or recycled, to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
You'll also need some orange and brown paper - you'll be making the noses and arms out of these so if you have any old magazines with orange and brown colour on them - this would be great. If not, get some pens and colour the white paper in.
- Firstly, cut out 6 x 2-inch circles and 6 x 3-inch circles (with adult supervision).
- Then you'll need to layer the circles on top of each other in two separate piles (top body and lower body), before folding them in half.
- Tape the shapes together (although don't open them up into a ball just yet).
- Attach a loop of twine or ribbon on the 2-inch circles.
- Cut out a carrot nose and twig shapes for arms and attach them where you'd like them on the snowman.
- Open up all the folds into a ball - voila, a fabulous snowman.
4. Festive Popcorn garlands
If you have some stale, plain popcorn on hand then this one is a great way to decorate (and lots of fun too!). Why not try following this video - you can use children-friendly needles to include all the family.
We hope you have a brilliant time creating environmentally friendly decorations this festive season! If you don't have the time to make them, feel free to check out our gorgeous, eco-friendly decorations collection.
Remember to upcycle and use what you already have when you can. Being creative is good for the mind and heart! If you have any other festive decor ideas, feel free to let us know in the comments.