Church Farm Designers' Tips For a Sustainable Christmas

As part of our efforts to combat climate change, we’ve put together a few tips and tricks, with the help of our designers at Church Farm in Radley, Interiors By Casa and Rasalo Interiors. These tips will help you stun your guests with a mixture of new styles and tradition, whilst encouraging a sustainable Christmas.

For many of us Christmas dinner is the highlight of the festive period. Creating an impressive dining area can make all the difference. With that in mind, why not go back to nature? Small bundles of scented herbs and foliage draped across the length of the table is a bold but impressive look. Use muted earth tones such as stoneware plates to ensure that you have a clean sophisticated look, or cool winter colours and frosted glassware for that Scandi-style. Use small simple vases to offset, some small, warm coloured sprigs at each place setting or tied to the stem of a glass will also bring this look to life. Be creative with dried fruit, pinecones, garlands of pecan nuts or jars of walnuts.

A rustic branch hung from the ceiling using command strip hooks and some string, decorated with foliage, flowers, dried fruit, fairy lights or hanging glass ball tealight holders, and spare baubles makes for an impactful, space-saving Scandi-style centrepiece, leaving more room for the dinner itself!    

Everyone loves a cracker, but most of the prizes are made from plastic and disposed of come boxing day. Why not be green and make this year the year of DIY crackers. Just take a small gift, a crepe paper hat and a little humour and place it inside a cardboard tube. Wrap in a material of your choosing and tie the ends to really bring that personal touch to your table.

“We’re going on a twig hunt!”

Twig trees and twig stars make for simple but beautiful, natural decorations and are a fun family project for the start of those Christmas school holidays.

Give something pre-loved a new lease of life by buying and upcycling items from Charity shops or Marketplace, this applies to everything, from furniture and decorations to gifts for all the family.  

The UK alone uses up to 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year (an average of 4 rolls per household)! Around 108 million rolls of wrapping paper end up in our bins each year, as those that contain plastic, such as glitter, or are laminated, are unable to be recycled. So why not try using something different this year? Fabric, such as linens, brown paper bags and old newspapers are eco-friendly alternatives that can be embellished with foliage and reusable ribbons to create a distinguished zero waste look. Failing that, unwrap with care and save your paper for next year!

Read more information on our Church Farm Community.