We all love the food, the lights and atmosphere at Christmas. Sadly, the majority of Christmas-centred activities come packaged in plastic. Christmas time, of course, feeds consumerism through excessive shopping and eating. I wondered if I could live my “best Christmas life” with minimal waste, as well as inexpensively and without too much effort.  I set myself some Christmassy tasks, keeping in mind factors such as cost, time and practicality.

 

First, Advent Calendars. If I was aiming to reduce waste, I didn’t think I should buy an advent calendar, since they’re mainly made from paper and plastic. Instead I set myself a “7 days of Waste Free Advent” challenge: in the first seven days of December, I attempted to do something new and/or exciting, inspired by the end of lockdown on December 2nd. This helped both with money and waste, and meant I did activities I wanted to do, with the excuse of it being my “new fun thing of the day”. Here’s my list!

 

1. Watched the sunrise at the beach. 
2. Made a collage from scraps, including pretty take-away coffee cup covers I’d kept (to re-use them).
3. Saw a friend I hadn’t seen during lockdown. 
4. Saw the light show over the river. 
5. Tried a new restaurant sitting inside (!!) – this meant less waste because of no takeaway containers!
6. Went to two galleries (National Gallery and Hugh Lane Gallery) which were open and free!
7. Had a Zero Waste Dinner!

 

The seventh activity brings me onto my next section. Usually, Christmas is a time of events, which generate waste both from using pre-packaged items and having leftovers. I wanted to see whether I could have a dinner with minimal waste, and without breaking the bank (or myself). Research is key for going zero waste: looking up farmer’s markets or bulk stores to help find loose items. Planning what to make or buy minimizes waste but also time, and there are many “mummy-bloggers” and YouTubers out there offering advice. I came to the conclusion that I would have to make most things myself. 

 

I decided to make focaccia, cookies and cinnamon rolls, alongside crudités (carrot, celery and cherry tomatoes), hummus, olives, cheese, grapes and roasted vegetables. 

Why these dishes? The baked goods all involved flour, and I had cinnamon and sugar already (the blogs advised using what you had). The focaccia and rolls both needed yeast, so I figured that if I bought ingredients for one dish, I might as well use them for the other.

 Making them didn’t take too long: I kneaded the yeasted doughs until they formed, let them rise for a whole afternoon, shaped them and left them again overnight. The focaccia dough was simple – flour, water, oil, salt and rosemary (which I picked myself, because most herbs in supermarkets come in plastic). The sweet dough needed eggs, butter and milk: all easy finds but not in easily recyclable containers. I tried to minimize waste by buying only as much as I needed. Bulk stores (like Veganic in St Stephen’s Green Arcade) are great for avoiding packaging for items such as flour, since you can put it in your own container.

I made spiced cookies, tweaking a recipe with ingredients I already had. It was easy to follow and my flatmates helped, adding to the holiday fun! I didn’t have a cookie cutter so I used glasses and jars, and added cinnamon sugar on top because I had the ingredients already.

 

I chose not to get any cured meats because they all came in plastic and some people eating were vegetarians. I made vegetable dishes because I found most vegetables loose in the supermarket – I say most because I had to go to a farmer’s market to find loose cherry tomatoes, and I couldn’t find loose grapes, so had to resort to buying them packaged. Also vegetables are cheap and I knew I would happily eat any leftovers – which I did. My favourite farmer’s market is on every Sunday in Herbert Park: it’s very wholesome; but since it’s only on one day a week, if I don’t go on Sundays I don’t get to go at all – which can be annoying. In town I found that delis like Fallon & Byrne sell loose cherry tomatoes (most supermarkets only have them in plastic tubs FYI!), which is handy but expensive. Farmer’s markets are fun, but I would say require more effort. 

Cheese, olives and hummus were trickier: most supermarkets have them in plastic containers, so I bought cheese in a local shop asking the owners for recommendations and they kindly let me use my own container. They were so nice and everyone liked the cheeses, so I didn’t mind spending a little bit more than I would have spent in the supermarket. I bought olives in a deli, and though I asked if I could use my own container, Coronavirus measures didn’t allow this, which, in fairness, I had anticipated. They put them in a recyclable container, which is still better than plastic – though I later realized I could have bought them in a glass jar. They had no hummus, so to save myself time and money I resorted to 1 euro hummus in plastic tubs. 

 

Overall, planning and making the food only took around one day: visiting different shops, making different elements, and around an hour of prep just before eating. Multi-tasking and planning were key: for example, prepping some items while others cooked. For the amount of food we had (including leftovers) I think per person it was relatively inexpensive. Would I do this again? I’m not sure. It was a lot of time and effort. I love browsing supermarkets, cooking and baking, so I didn’t mind. I would say that you need to enjoy this sort of activity, since it was more work than a normal dinner, but everyone had fun, so it was worthwhile. I also found I socialised more with people working in shops, which was really heartwarming.

I had also found ideas for home-made decorations (drying oranges or making garlands from cuttings fallen from trees) but time and effort constraints meant I focused on the food. I would say going zero-waste at Christmas is *probably* impossible: I didn’t find many Christmas treats or accessories in supermarkets that didn’t come in packaging. 

So farmer’s markets are great for finding loose and local produce, but they can be far or occur only once a week, which is logistically more challenging. Visiting independent shops can also be more expensive, adding another obstacle. There are substitutions and compromises which can help reduce waste, without needing to go the extra mile: knowing exactly what you need will help you save both money and waste, as will simply making use of the loose grocery section or making things from scratch. In a time when everyone usually buys new things, trying to minimise our waste is the least we can do.