With so much talk on the upcoming COP26 conference, many of us are starting to look for more environmentally friendly things we can do to help save our planet. From being better with recycling household items and giving old pieces to charities. To swapping out cleaning products to more natural, sustainable brands instead. However, this can seem like an impossible task on the run up to Christmas and trying to find eco-friendly Christmas gifts for our kids. You don’t realise how much out there isn’t yet eco-friendly – from the glittery wrapping paper, cellotape and all the plastic packaging that comes with most toys these days.
Finding the perfect Christmas gifts for kids can be hard enough. Let alone if you try to add in the eco-friendly aspect as well. However, to make it as easy for you as possible, here are a few ideas to get you started this Christmas.
Children’s Mental Health At Christmas
Around this time of year is also the perfect time to think more about children’s mental health. With the rise in mental health issues in all age groups, but especially in children, we need to talk about it more often.
Studies have shown that if a child goes through a traumatic event, they’re at a hugely increased risk of developing some form of mental illness. It’s said to be around 25% of those who’ve experienced a traumatic event will develop PTSD, depression or an anxiety disorder. The founders of The Centre of Excellence in Childhood Trauma (COECT) recognised this.
This organisation have decided to put together a conference – Survival Strategies for Therapeutic Parents- from Chaos to Cake. Taking place 19th November 2021 in the National Conference Centre, Coventry Road, Solihull. It’s mainly aimed at giving foster parents and carers survival strategies. Offering simple strategies to help them reduce stress levels, and improve the lives of children in their care. You can book on to the conference by using the link above. They are offering both in person and virtual ticket options.
Experience Days
All children love a day out, don’t they? And don’t you find they talk a lot more about that ‘amazing day’ they had way more than they talk about any other toy? That’s why experience gifts are one of the best things to get your kids. From a tour of a favourite football ground, to feeding giraffes or going go karting – with experience days, if you want it you can probably find a company providing it.
Many theme parks and farms do special ‘VIP’ add ons which can include a huge variety of options such as Giraffe feeding or meet the Meerkats.
There are a plethora of different companies that offer experience days where you can sort by location, price and the activity you’d like to do. A great gift as you can give a voucher where the recipient can chose the date they’d like to do it on.
Or, perhaps the child you’re buying for would love to go to a theatre show, or a concert. There are some fantastic theatre productions – including Frozen, Wicked and Matilda. There’s always loads of music concerts taking place all over the UK, you can find a list of them at TicketMaster.
Eco Friendly Art & Craft Supplies
There’s a raft of eco-friendly arts and crafts supplies available for children. The big bonus with arts and crafts is that often the products can be used over and over again, giving joy to the children many times.
As with most things the choice of eco-friendly arts and crafts supplies is growing quickly. There are whole websites dedicated to supplying the most wonderful sustainable pencils, paints, play dough and loads more.
Craft kits can make excellent gifts, especially for those children who find it relaxing to get crafty. Whether they might enjoy – clay modelling, using chalk sticks, painting…etc.
Wooden Toys & Games
Not only are wooden toys and games attractive and durable, they are also substantially better for the environment than the plastic alternatives. The selection of these fantastic gifts seems to grow every year, particularly as more and more people become conscious of the damage plastics have on the environment. In fact, there are whole websites dedicated to wooden toys. Plus, they make great gifts and look lovely in any home.
If you’re after toys with an educational element then perhaps a wooden puzzle. Or, if the child you’re buying for loves trains, then how about a beautiful wooden train set. Something like this would be great to pass down through the family. An item to use and to treasure again and again.
Subscriptions
There’s nothing quite like a gift that keeps on giving – such as a subscription service where you can get deliveries regularly over a period of time.
The choice of what type of subscription to get for a child is vast. Popular ones include magazine subscriptions like the National Geographic Kids. Other magazine options for children include – Brilliant Brainz and The Week Junior which covers every day events for 6–12-year-olds.
For book loving children there’s the wonderful Hand Me Down Book Club which provides a subscription which you can tailor to your child’s age and how many books you would like to receive. All books are second hand but in good to excellent condition.
Do your children play with toys for a week or so and then cast them aside? If so, Whirli Toy Swap might be just the thing you need. By subscribing to Whirli you get to choose, play, then swap toys all from just £9.99 per month. Meaning you aren’t buying expensive toys, only for them to be redundant after a few weeks! A great money saver if you’re finding yourself buying new toys often.
Eco Friendly Clothing
Children always enjoy getting new clothing. These days you have plenty of options with what to buy, whilst still being conscious of your carbon footprint.
Many of these eco-friendly brands even find ways to be extra environmentally friendly by making their clothes out of recycled bottles!
Teaching children how to be environmentally friendly, or eco-conscious is so important for the future of our planet. Having an item of clothing made from bottles would be such an amazing and fascinating thing to a child. Although, i don’t think i would have believed my parents if they said what i was wearing was made from old bottles. However, this wasn’t even a thing all those decades ago!
What are your go to environmentally friendly Christmas gifts for kids?
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