Book Review: Green Christmas by Eilidh Gallagher

The ‘Green Christmas’ Book by Eilidh Gallagher is a user friendly guide on how to enjoy a slower, simpler and fun packed Christmas without the waste, extravagance and excess now associated with our modern Christmases.

It’s full of tips, advice and ideas that are planet friendly and that are designed to help us plan ahead so that Christmas doesn’t become a stressful, frantic time with panic buying at the fore.

The book is divided into 24 bitesize sections and is full of inspirational ideas like reusable advent calendars, homegrown gifts, festive foraging and shopping green at Christmas. As I enjoy crafting I loved the simple projects featured which include willow napkin holders, home made crackers and salt dough gift tags.

Preloved

One aspect of the book that really resonated with me is one that encourages careful planning ahead so that gifts, decorations, wrapping paper etc that need to be bought can instead be sourced preloved from charity shops, online stores such as eBay or gumtree or local buy and sell group on Facebook before resorting to buying new. As someone who has sourced most of their Christmas decorations second hand its great that the author also encourages this. With the growth of eBay and Facebook marketplace it really is so easy nowadays with a little forward planning.

Presents

There are also chapters about growing gifts, making or baking Christmas presents with crafts, recipes and upcycling projects. Non-gifting is also explored along with inspiration for experiences such as afternoon teas, cinema vouchers and spa days instead of physical gifts.

The book is perfectly suited for those new to sustainability wishing to make a few small changes at a time to those who are already doing lots but want to go the extra mile. The colourful illustrations and clean layout of the book mean you can dip in and out as you wish. It’s certainly the type of book that you can bring out year after year to try new crafts or recipes, tackle a new area of Christmas to improve on or learn how to reduce your carbon footprint further. The Green Christmas book can be found in all good book shops and online here.