Fall is officially here and I realized I haven't done a Christmas post this year. Ordinarily I have already posted an idea or project to implement for Christmas and have already started my own Christmas planning, but this year I am behind. I know that it is only September, but Christmas is approaching fast. I was at the store yesterday and the clerk reminded me that there are only 88 shopping days until Christmas. In the last few weeks I have received a dozen or more Christmas cards from various charities so yes, Christmas is right around the corner. As I started to put these Christmas cards away in my card box, I realized how many I had received over the last few years. The sheer number of cards that I hadn't used gave me the idea to have a recycled Christmas this year.
In past years I have always picked a theme early and then used that theme to create photo cards to mail out to family and friends come Christmas time. This year I have been slacking in my Christmas planning and didn't pick a theme or create photo cards. Part of me is grateful for that because it gave me the opportunity to realize the abundance of Christmas items that I have left from previous years. I have so many items left over that I no longer have room to store the planning/themed supplies in one bin. In an effort to reduce clutter and stay organized, I am trying to adhere to a one bin rule for seasonal items, which includes Christmas, Halloween, and summer activities. I had been able to contain Christmas to one bin with the exception of my Christmas ornaments, which are stored in a separate container to keep them safe.
I don't need to inform anyone of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" movement or our culture's tendency to have excess and honestly that's not the point. The point is how I am planning my Christmas and these are my ideas for a recycled Christmas. My goal in sharing these ideas is that other people would find them useful and be inspired, especially when ideas for a recycled Christmas are limited. If you've never looked then trust me they are very limited! Recycled Christmas isn't exactly a theme. This means that if you begin to tackle your Christmas planning with only recycling in mind that you can quickly become overwhelmed and your Christmas will appear messy. Maintaining a theme while also keeping recycling in mind is tricky, but allows you the opportunity to be creative and exercise your brain.
In choosing my theme, I inventoried my existing Christmas materials and thought about a theme I hadn't used in previous years. The Christmas cards in my box that I treasured the most were the cards that were rustic or images of childhood happiness. Initially I had trouble discovering a theme that would be able to incorporate both types of cards, but a review of the wrapping paper I had, although never used, helped me to envision my theme. Keep in mind that my overarching goal is for my Christmas to be recycled, to use the supplies I already have, and to reduce future clutter, which means that my theme is not going to be executed cleanly. My theme this year is a Moose Riding A Train, which incorporates both the rustic (moose) and the childlike (train) aspects of the Christmas cards. I already have the wrapping paper, which is quite literally a moose riding a train, and I will use the colors in the wrapping paper for everything else I create this Christmas. I will post a picture of this wrapping paper in a future post, where I will also show you how to recycle cardboard boxes using wrapping paper.
Upcoming posts:
September 30th, 2015 Recycled Christmas: Christmas Planner
October 2nd, 2015 Recycled Christmas: Christmas Gift Boxes
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