Creating our Sustainable Christmas Window:

The starting points for our ‘Winter Wonderland’ Christmas window this year were, ‘plastic-free’ and ‘reduce, re-use, recycle.’ As a business promoting sustainability we wanted to highlight the waste we create during the Christmas season. We resolved to buy nothing new, make decorations from our recycle and reuse decorations from previous years.

Our plan involved creating a Christmas tree from recycled card. We made sketches and experimented with shapes and construction ideas. Eventually, we decided to adopt a sculptural, spiral effect. We achieved this by cutting strips of cardboard. The length of the strip was gradually reduced as we cut them out. We then attached the strips to a piece of curtain pole and rotated them at 30-degree angles. We decorated the card with swirls of white water-based paint and finer swirls created with a chalk pen.

 When we decorated last year we used some wonderful pale blue hanging tissue paper pom poms. Luckily these and some  3D paper snowflakes were still in good condition. To complete the winter wonderland theme, we finished off with small paper doilies stuck to the window. We have to confess to buying a couple of new snowflakes for this year, but they are made of paper and will be re-used!

Re-using baubles from a previous years display filled some gaps. Appropriately coloured silver and pale blue. These alongside some battery operated lights really brought a Christmassy feel! Once we had added some sustainable gift ideas the window was complete. We all wish you a Merry Christmas!