As this has been a huge success, I’d like to share my zero-waste Christmas gift ideas with you.

It’s a bit after Christmas, but I couldn’t share it before, since many of my friends and family follow what I post online.

So, if you find these ideas useful, please bookmark & save for next year!

The story: This year, I decided to go all in and not buy any Christmas presents at all.

Instead, I made everything myself, and tried to make it as zero-waste as possible.

And today, some days after the big gift exchange with my family, I can say that I could not be happier about my choice.

These zero-waste Christmas gift ideas, probably work best for friends and extended family, and not so much for young children.

Though, even my 8-year-old nephew noticed my gift among all the other ones he got and paused for a moment to pay some attention to it.

Everybody else seemed more happy about their gifts, then the last years, when I did buy gifts for them.

Because let’s be honest, we all have enough stuff.

There’s nothing I could buy for any of my family members that they couldn’t buy themselves.

And while a nice and thoughtful book is always something sweet, we probably also all have a couple of books stacked up somewhere that we didn’t have a chance to read yet.

Gift giving is mostly about paying respects and bringing joy into people’s lives, and the gifts I like best are the ones that make me pause and think, or the ones that I can actually use while thinking of the person who gave them to me.

And that always works best if there’s a connection.

So, here is what I made:

My Zero-waste Christmas Gift Ideas:

1. Smudge-Sticks

I’ve been drying a lot of what grew in my garden this year, so I already had a few mugwort and sage smudge sticks prepared. I added a paper wrap to tie them together and they made an excellent gift. People asked about smudging and how to use the smudge sticks, they looked up mugwort and it was something that caught their curiosity.

2. Dried Sage Leaves

I also dried some single sage leaves and collected some jars over the year, so I filled the jars with leaves and added a little sign to them to make it look nicer.

The sign is made from packaging paper, glued onto the glass with wheat glue (mix a bit of wheat flour with boiling water and then brush onto the paper).

The fabric comes from a quilt set somebody gifted to me, but it was too thin to be used with my sewing machine and so I was very happy to find a different purpose for it.

For the tying, I used Raffia.

3. Hand and Body Scrub

Using the same packaging as above, I made some hand and body scrub.

There are two variations, one is with sugar, coconut oil and coffee grounds, the other one with salt, lavender (also from the garden) and coconut oil.

I also added some essential oils to them.

4. Clay Ornaments

I love working with clay and I love drawing, so making these made me very happy.

And the people who received them, also seemed very happy and told me how much they liked them and where they were going to hang them.

5. Wooden Wall/Window Decoration

Same with these wooden decorations. I cut some of the leftover wood, I found in my house and used paints I still had.

I’m excited to start making my own paints next year with natural ingredients, but I’m also happy to be able to use up the manufactured paints I still have.

These are my 5 Zero-Waste Christmas Gift Ideas.

What do you think about them?

I think I will do something similar for Christmas next year again.

I love the idea that people will be using things I made for them, ingredients that have grown in my garden, and that I get to share some of my passions with them.

I also loved taking the time to prepare the gifts and to think of everyone as I prepared the gifts for them.

And what I really love the most is that no plastic was needed, no tape to wrap the presents, only a bit of paper and fabric, which can be disposed of much more easily.

How about you?

Have you been making all or some of your Christmas gifts yourself as well? Or received something handmade?

What’s your experience?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments!

In the I AM CREATOR School we are not only looking at mindset shifts that help us become our best selves and find more clarity, creativity, confidence and calm, we also invited new rituals and practices or DIY projects like this into our lives to promote our overall wellbeing.

Are you curious to learn more? Click here.