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Eco-Friendly, Plastic-Free Christmas Decor & Gifts: Beautiful Ideas From Reclaimed Items & Nature
The Christmas season sparkles with warmth, joy and creativity, but it can also come with an overwhelming amount of unnecessary waste. From plastic baubles to disposable garlands, store bought decorations often leave behind a hefty environmental footprint. Fortunately, there’s a more mindful and meaningful way to create seasonal magic: crafting your own decorations using reclaimed items and treasures from nature.
Handmade décor not only looks charming and authentic, it carries stories, smells, textures, and memories that plastic simply cannot compete with.
Here are four creative, planet friendly ideas inspired by reclaimed materials and natural elements that Clayton and I have got up to this month. These projects are simple, affordable and beautiful enough to become new family traditions.
Gingerbread House Garlands From Cardboard Boxes & Chalk Pens
Nothing says Christmas quite like gingerbread houses, cute, cosy and irresistibly festive. But instead of baking a batch (and watching them crumble or go stale), you can create a long lasting, zero waste version using cardboard boxes and a white chalk pen.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard from cereal boxes, delivery packaging or old gift boxes
- White chalk pen or Paint
- Yarn scraps, string or twine
- Scissors, Hole punch or Stapler
How to Make Them
Cut out your house shapes
Add the details: With your white chalk pen, sketch windows, doors, bricks, snow drifts and icing-style patterns. The chalk pen mimics the look of real piped icing beautifully.
Punch holes at the top: Use a hole punch so the designs can hang without tearing (we stapled our string to the back of the card instead)
String them into a garland: Thread twine through each piece, knotting as needed (we stapled our string to the back of the card instead)
Why This Craft Is Eco Friendly
This project repurposes cardboard that would otherwise be recycled or tossed. Because the decorations are lightweight, durable and reusable, you can store them flat and bring them out year after year or add them into your recycling at the end of the season so you don’t need to store. I plan on keeping one and adding a date on the back and each year we do it save one to add on each year, it’ll become a chain of memories over the years.
Gingerbread House Garlands Video Reel
Stick & Yarn Tree Decorations
Nature is full of creative inspiration sometimes all it takes is a simple walk outside. These minimalist tree ornaments made from sticks and yarn are rustic, charming and beautifully tactile. Perfect for Scandinavian inspired décor.
What You’ll Need
Small sticks or twigs gathered from outside
Yarn scraps, string or twine
How to Make Them
Form your tree shape: Cut up the lengths of twigs into different sizes from small to big to make a triangle tree shape
Wrap with yarn: Secure the sticks by wrapping yarn tightly around the joints. Continue wrapping until you create solid triangular “branches.” (see our reel on how to do this)
Attach a hanging loop: Tie a ribbon or twine to the top.
Why This Craft Is Eco Friendly
This decoration is completely compostable when it eventually reaches the end of its life. Every piece is reclaimed, sticks from nature, leftover yarn from your craft basket. No plastic, no waste and no storage!! We use longer sticks from the garden that we’ve pruned to hang them on for our window displays and dinning table centre piece. Nothing to be stored and all can be composted after, with no money spent, but wonderful large decorative features given.
Eco Tree Decorations Video Reel
Mini Rosemary Wreaths for the Tree
Few scents evoke Winter comfort like fresh rosemary, it’s woody, aromatic, and instantly festive. These tiny rosemary wreaths are gorgeous on a Christmas tree, and they fill your home with a beautiful natural fragrance.
What You’ll Need
Fresh rosemary sprigs (long stems work best)
Yarn scraps, string or twine
How to Make Them
Shape your wreath: Take a long rosemary stem and gently bend it into a small circle. Overlap the ends.
Secure the ends: Wrap a small section of yarn or twine to hold the circle closed and to hang. (see our reel)
Add a bow: Tie a simple ribbon on top or bottom for colour and softness.
Why This Craft Is Eco-Friendly
Rosemary is biodegradable and regenerative your plant will continue growing after you trim it. These wreaths replace plastic tree ornaments with something natural, fragrant and zero waste. They dry out so perfectly on the tree over the holiday season that they are ready to store in a jar to use on your food for months to come when the season is over.
Eco Rosemary Wreath Tree Decor Video Reel
Seed Packets: Sustainable Gifts From Your Garden
Giving seeds as gifts is a timeless, meaningful gesture symbolising hope, growth and the cycle of the seasons. Seeds collected from your own garden feel even more special.
What You’ll Need
Seeds from your garden (flowers, herbs, vegetables)
Envelopes or homemade paper packets
How to Make Them
Collect and sort your seeds: Make sure they’re fully dried. Divide them into small portions.
Create your packets: You can fold simple seed envelopes from old book pages or use paper bags.
Label them clearly: Write the seed type, year collected & any growing instructions
Why This Craft Is Eco Friendly
You reuse paper that might otherwise be wasted, and you give something regenerative plants that can grow for years. It’s a beautiful gift that encourages wildlife, pollinators and a greener future. We always gift sweet peas because they can grow anywhere on a balcony, a small pot outside your front door, a hanging basket. They give off the most wonderful scent, flowers can be picked all Summer long AND you can then collect your own seeds from the plant and never have to buy sweet peas again. A gift that gives back year on year.
Seed Giving Gifts Video Reel
And Don’t Forget To Be Thoughtful With Your Packaging This Year!
Read more ideas on: 5 Non Plastic Wrapping Paper Ideas This Holiday Season
Creating eco friendly, plastic free Christmas decorations doesn’t mean sacrificing beauty or festive spirit. In fact, the opposite is true: when you use reclaimed materials and natural elements, your decorations feel more meaningful, more authentic, and more connected to the world around you.
These four simple crafts, celebrate creativity, sustainability and the joy of making something with your own hands. They remind us that Christmas magic doesn’t come from spending money or buying plastic trinkets; it comes from intention, imagination and a little bit of nature.
Whether you make these alone on a quiet Winter evening or turn them into a family activity, each decoration becomes a memory and a step toward a more thoughtful holiday season.
Happy Gardening!
Follow Us Across Our Socials
Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The 2 Grow and Learn Courses with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. He is Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated since 2018. Katrina & Peter hold their PDC & PDC PRO Permaculture Design Course from Oregon State University.
They featured on BBC Beechgrove Gardens Ep23 2022 and returned in 2023 for an update, Katrina & Clayton are also columnists for ScotlandGrows Magazine, Guest Blog for Caledonian Horticulture as well as working with Gardeners’ World Magazine and many other brands.
They are also Author of the new Children’s Book Series: Clayton’s Garden Journey: Stories of Autism and Gardening. Topics on Growing, Harvesting, Sowing & Composting and 108 Page Weather and Seasons Weekly Gardening Record Book available on Amazon and Kindle.
Listen in on their Guest Podcasts to learn more about them.
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