How to Celebrate a Sustainable Nature-Inspired Holiday Season

With holiday season coming, so does ad upon ad of sales, deals, discounts that start coming into your social media feeds, your email inbox, your physical mailbox, and anywhere else that we get information. How do you feel when you get the ads? Do you get anxious thinking about all the gifts you need to get for everyone in your family, your friends, your coworkers? Do you get annoyed hoping the ads go away or leave you alone? It can be hard to not get caught up in all the holiday marketing at this time of the year.

Our society is a very consumer focused society. Holiday season amplifies this focus. However, let’s think back to what the purpose of the holidays are in the first place, a time to gather with family and loved ones and cherish the time we spend with one another. So let’s bring that back, let’s focus on that time and experiences with one another. If you do want to buy a gift for someone, let it be something you’ve thought intentionally about instead of something that you’ve purchased because there was a sale.

This week, we discuss how to create a more intentional, sustainable nature-inspired holiday season focusing on creating outdoor traditions, intentional consumerism, and mindful giving.

Creating Outdoor Holiday Traditions

I’m sure your family already has some holiday traditions that you participate in. Depending on where you live, are there any that you can shift outdoors? Can you have Thanksgiving breakfast, lunch, or dinner outside?

Or if this post inspires you to create some traditions, are there any that can be done outdoors? Perhaps your neighborhood, as many communities do, has a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5K that you can participate in. Or start an annual Thanksgiving family football game. Think, Friends episode The One With The Football. Get your family moving with some fresh air before enjoying a hearty and delicious Thanksgiving meal.

Perhaps your family celebrates together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is a slower day. Could you start an annual Christmas morning park walk or lunchtime picnic?

Instead of shopping the day after Thanksgiving, #OptOutside instead and spend your time outdoors.

Maybe your family does not celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas, regardless of which holiday it is, can you and your family start any nature-inspired holiday traditions to carry forward year after year?

Embracing Intentional Consumerism

Holiday shopping can be overwhelming and lead to overconsumption. In a society that is already focused on stuff, it can feel almost unnatural to go against the grain. While I’m not saying don’t buy anything, practicing intentional consumerism and mindful holiday shopping can help focus on quality over quantity when it comes to gift giving. Being intentional about what you purchase encourages you to think about the brands that you choose to purchase from, supporting brands that align with your values.

Give the Gift of Experiences

Experience gifts provide opportunities for families to have that outdoor quality time. Shared experiences can often be more memorable than material gifts.

Some examples of nature inspired experience gifts include:

Family passes to your local nature center or nature preserve
Membership to the local zoo, aquarium
Passes to an outdoor dining experience
Ski or snowboarding classes
State or National Park pass
Gardening or composting workshops

The America the Beautiful National Parks Pass is an annual pass that provides access to over 100 national parks, monuments, historic sites, recreational areas among others. It also includes discounts for military, seniors, and those with permanent disabilities, making it an accessible option for everyone in the family. We have used it before for our trips.

If you have a fourth grader, you can even qualify for a FREE Every Kid Outdoors Pass for your family to get free access to these sites for the whole year.

Shop Local, Shop Small, Shop Eco-Friendly

If you do want to buy physical gifts or even some service-based and experience gifts, consider supporting local small businesses or mission driven businesses. Supporting local small businesses is more likely to keep money in your local community.

Support sustainable eco-friendly businesses with values that keep the planet in mind. Connecting with nature extends beyond spending time outdoors. It also includes choices that support the environment. Some company certifications to look for include being a Climate Neutral Certified Brand, a certified B Corp, 1% for the planet to name a few.

One thing to be cautious about when looking for eco-friendly products is whether there is greenwashing happening. According to the Webster dictionary, greenwashing is “the act or practice of making a product, policy, activity, etc. appear to me more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is.”

Sometimes, this can be hard to pick up on. Just because a company logo has green or earth tones or because a product is made of wood instead of plastic does not mean that it is actually a sustainable company. This is why it is important to learn about the companies that you are spending your money on and who you are supporting. If we are going to spend money this holiday season for our loved ones, why not spend it in a way that is not just good for them, but also good for the planet.

Consider Mindful Giving

The holidays are also considered the season of giving. So why not give to nature-based, environmental causes and values that you care about. This can be in the form of time, money, or resources.

Volunteer

Along the lines of gifting experiences, another outdoor memory to create can include volunteering for an environmental organization. This can include things such as volunteering for a local nature organization like a trail or waterway clean-up. This can be a great way to get older kids outside with you and spend time supporting a cause that you care about as well as teaching them about environmental stewardship.

If it is too cold where you are and local organizations have put outdoor volunteer events on hiatus, there are still ways to volunteer. While not directly outdoors, many nonprofit organizations welcome volunteers to help with all sorts of projects including helping with fundraising events, phone banking, monthly meet ups, educational projects, and other administrative tasks.

Donate

Are there environmental or eco-friendly organizations that you can donate to? If you are not yet ready to support an environmental organization, are there other social causes that you can support instead?

Some to consider include:

You can also consider smaller local nonprofits to donate to depending on where you live where your dollar may stretch even further.

Let’s go back to what the holidays are about, spending quality time with the people that we love. Let’s not get caught in the overwhelm and pressure of the holiday shopping season and focus on intentional choices that are not only good for those we love but also ones that keep our planet’s health in mind.

So this year, pick one new outdoor tradition, one mindful purchase, and one act of giving back to have a more sustainable nature-inspired holiday season. Share your journey with us!

How to Celebrate a Sustainable Nature-Inspired Holiday Season

Creating Outdoor Holiday Traditions