Every year, it's more important for us to pay attention to environmental protection . Every year, we're closer to an irreversible situation. That's why, at Alma Eko, we always encourage you to review your consumption habits to make them as sustainable as possible.
Christmas is a time when we can easily go overboard with consumerism , whether it's gifts, get-togethers (this year, that's not going to be the case), or food. Therefore, today we want to encourage you to take a look at your consumption this month and consider certain changes you can make in three areas: gifts, decorations, and food .
Sustainable gifts
We already have a comprehensive blog post telling you how to identify if a gift is sustainable . We also gave you ideas for non-material gifts and suggested some gift options you can purchase at Alma Eko.
Since then, we've expanded our Christmas gift section and want to highlight some of the packages we've designed especially for this time of year and that you're loving.
This is our selection of the 5 best sustainable gifts from Alma Eko .
Ideal for beginners . Contains Alma Eko's best personal care products.
We've selected your four favorite varieties of Jabones del Zorro d'Avi in a single pack so you can purchase them at a more affordable price and give them as gifts together or individually.
This complete pack will provide a pleasant feeling of well-being by pampering your skin and your senses. Treat yourself to a moment of relaxation with an exfoliating shower using a loofah sponge and one of our Ayurvedic soaps. Fragrance the room with one of the crackling soy candles or by burning a jasmine or white sage incense stick.
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Matarrania treatment packs: sensitive skin , dry skin , and combination skin
They're a real gem . They all include an eye cream, a cleansing and makeup remover lotion, a gentle rose toner, and a moisturizer of your choice (for dry, combination, or sensitive skin). Plus, they come with a gift bag.
This complete pack is carefully selected to care for babies' hygiene and skin. It features top-quality cosmetics and useful items, such as sponges and brushes, suitable for their sensitive skin.
Natural Christmas decorations
Conventional Christmas decorations are full of plastic . Today we're going to give you a ton of much more sustainable and affordable options . We're going to suggest decorating your home with natural, compostable, reused, reusable, and, in most cases, handmade elements . All of them are zero-waste options ; they don't generate any waste.
You will see that we will more or less always opt for the same materials :
- Citrus fruits and dried apples
They're very easy to make. You slice oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and/or apples and place them in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius for two hours. Turn them over every 20 minutes. If they're well-dried and toasted, they'll last the following year. If not, they'll be less toasted and have more vibrant colors, but they won't last from one year to the next. In that case, you can compost them. That means they don't generate any waste.
- Cinnamon sticks
A couple of cinnamon sticks tied with string make a simple and attractive decoration. You can save them and use them the following year. They're compostable.
- Natural pineapples
This topic can be controversial. Please don't buy them. It's best to pick them from your garden, if you have that option. If you do pick them from the wild, make sure they're not from a protected area. Once the holidays are over, save them for next year or return them to their environment. Their environment is very important. Don't leave pine cones where they don't belong, as this can disrupt the ecosystem.
- Pine or rosemary branches
In our case, we picked them from our own garden, from plants that periodically need pruning. Opt for alternatives like this whenever possible.
And just like in the previous case, after using them, return them to nature or throw them in the compost bin.
In the case of rosemary, once Christmas is over, it will be dry. What we do is wash it to remove the dust, let it dry again, separate the leaves from the stem, grind them, and use them to season our food.
- Kraft paper and cardboard
In this case, we encourage you to reuse it. Throughout the year, you'll come across this type of material because it's very common in package wrapping. Don't throw it away (or at least not all of it). You can use it to decorate and wrap gifts in very original ways. (We'll talk about gift wrapping next week.)
- Raffia rope and ribbon
These materials are easy to find by the meter and without plastic packaging in local haberdasheries.
- Candles
If you're handy, we encourage you to make your own candles, of course. If you'd prefer us to make it easier for you, Alma Eko has several options. We're going to highlight three of the ones we're in love with: coconut shell candles (with three different scents: toasted coconut , tropical fruit , and coconut and lime ) or Innocence Christmas candles in glass or ceramic .
Once the materials have been proposed, we will give you specific ideas :
Make your own Christmas tree ornaments
We suggest a minimalist tree , with few decorations and simple, yet very attractive. In the image, you can see five options: natural pine cones, dried orange slices, dried apple slices, a tag made from kraft paper, and some cinnamon sticks.
For the photo, we hung them from a tree in our garden. This is an option, as is decorating any other plant you have in your home , whatever type it may be.
Of course, if you have time, don't buy a plastic tree, much less a real one. But if you've had an artificial one for years, keep using it. Don't throw it away. We say the same with any ornaments you already have. Keep using them as long as you like them and find them useful and decorative. The most eco-friendly and sustainable option is to use what we already have .
Room decoration
If you prefer to decorate multiple corners or give each room a Christmas touch, we suggest using options like the candles we mentioned earlier. We also recommend our Christmas plantable card , which you can use to decorate a corner of your home or your Christmas tree. After the holidays, you can cut up the card and plant it in the ground, as the paper is biodegradable and contains lettuce seeds. Plus, all profits from the sale of these cards will go to the Rivas Food Recovery Network , a recipient of the Madrid Food Bank . With this money, they can buy food and/or cover the organization's expenses. So you can decorate and help people and the environment. It's a 3-for-1!
Do you like putting up a Christmas wreath on your door? We do. We made this one with rosemary, orange, pine cones, and cinnamon sticks. You can find a video showing how we made it on our IGTV . We got the idea from this Vida Minimalista video .
Finally, in this home decor section, we suggest a simple vase. As you can see in the image, we've decorated it with cinnamon sticks, pine cones, rope, orange and apple slices, and also includes cloves. You can see it in more detail in this video on our Instagram account . The aroma it gives off is indescribable. Our inspiration, in this case, was this video by Estelamaca .
Christmas table decoration
Some people love to set a beautiful table. We're going to suggest two options for centerpieces and napkin rings.
The first centerpiece is very simple. It consists of only pine cones, some fir branches, and a coconut shell candle . All of this sits on a pretty tray.
Another more elaborate, yet simple, centerpiece is this one with oranges, rope, cloves, cinnamon, and fir branches. You can see the orange decoration in this video by Solitude of Alanna .
We made the napkin ring with raffia ribbon (you can make it with several twists of thick rope), orange slices, and rosemary. But it also looks great with cinnamon. We were inspired by this video by Sara Sabaté, although instead of hot glue, we tied it with thin twine.
Sustainable food
We've left a big topic for last: holiday food. It's easy to go overboard here, whether it's because of the quantity or because the food may not be healthy or sustainable.
We're not going to ask you not to eat meat. This is a very personal matter. But we do want to tell you that foods of animal origin are more polluting . So, we are going to ask you to at least reduce your consumption. And if you do eat animals, try to make sure they're organic .
We also urge you to shop locally . Return to neighborhood stores, and if they can serve you local products , even better. Plus, these types of stores won't bother you with bulk purchases . Bring your own reusable jars or bags and avoid plastic containers.
Finally, regarding food, we are going to recommend four Instagram accounts where you will find healthy and sustainable options so that you have a delicious Christmas: Chef Bosquet ,
