“Oh mom, look at the trees!”Could we have one? “ You didn’t even pay attention to it.But the child grabbed by your hand, 4 years under his hat and flowing nose, has developed a kind of unstoppable radar.The windows of florists love him as attracted, a few days ago, the hinge heads of the supermarket garnished with Advent Kinder or Pat’patrol calendars.The question is: are you going to remind your ecological principles at the bottom of Santa’s hood to please your offspring?

However, solutions exist to reconcile both.Many readers of Reporterre Delivered their tips for more environmentally friendly parties.

First challenge, the Christmas tree.6 million conifers are sold each year.They are responsible for 52% of greenhouse gas emissions for Christmas decorations.It is possible to swap them against a reusable plastic tree (at least twenty years for its environmental cost to be amortized), a wooden or pallet tree, etc.It remains to convince his offspring.

Cécile, a consultant in the eco -design of computer software near Rennes, is the mother of three children aged 10, 14 and 16.She skipped the paces of the green wooden fir removable wood six years ago. “I chose it quite refined.The first year, it moaned a little.Even after decorating it, they found it sad. “

She then explained her choice to them: “I reminded them that the trees were cultivated on very large spaces without animals or almost, transported by truck and that they only served once before being thrown.That this new tree was to protect the planet. “ These arguments were “Fairly welcomed”.

Above all, alternatives can be even more fun.Navy tinkered a “Christmas teepee” replacing the tree for her 9-year-old daughter-in-law and her 5-year-old son. “An organic producer of the Tarn gives me the cut branches which would otherwise end up at the recycling center.I garnished a teepee frame that children decorate “, says the director of a small school near Béziers.A cabin of choice, where Santa Claus got into the habit of placing his gifts.

Read also: The ultimate guide for a green and successful Christmas

Decorating the house with eco -fashioned fashion can also be an opportunity to spend quality time together.At Marie Jaouen and Florian Curtet, organic winegrowers in Savoy and parents of two girls aged 4 and 7, no fir tree, but large outings outside in search of branches and natural decorations. “We make it a huge bouquet that we decide as our DIYs: wicker, origami, pine cones, sewing.”

Marie Yared, who lives in Vienna in Austria and works in the international sector, established the same ritual with her daughters aged 4 and 6: “We bring back fir branches that have fallen to the ground, pine cones, pretty leaves, paint pebbles.They take a large basket and choose themselves, it allows them to participate. ” Back home, the small family completes the whole with salt paste figurines and dried orange slices assembled in garlands.

Once the house is decorated, remains to wait until D -Day. Reporterre There is no shortage of ideas to dodge the supermarket Advent calendar and its plastic frame.

Marie Yared opted for the perpetual fabric calendar that she garnishes with “Small treasures” :: “When my daughters were smaller, I had made small salt paste figurines in the shape of animals, totoro … they were super happy.Now that they are larger, I have replaced them with treats that they are not allowed to eat the rest of the year. “

At Karène Antoine, the same type of calendar contains “Small toys, Lego and Playmobil purchased used”.For this year, Marine has innovated: “As children are fully in precious stones, they have a different mineral every day, bought on the local market, with a beautiful used box to store them afterwards.”

Then comes Christmas Day and its traditional unpacking of gifts.However, it is in Santa’s hood that one of the nodes of the problem hides.On December 25, the French offer some 300 million presents, of which almost 1 million ended directly in the trash.First lever for action identified by readers Reporterre To avoid this carnage, the second hand.

Célia, maternal assistant near Avranches, and Thomas, an employee of a humanitarian, hunt all gifts for their 3 and 6 years old daughters on Leboncoin and Vinted or in garage sales. “We only buy electronic games that require a guarantee”, specifies Célia.Karène Antoine also appreciates new toys made in France in noble materials like wood.

Beyond the second hand and made in France, the sense of the material gift also has a great importance for Marie Jaouen. “We favor things that last and linked to the living”, she explains.The previous Noëls, his children thus received a swing for the garden, trees and seeds, a herbarium and a nature notebook to complete, a magnifying glass, an adventurer knife, etc.This year, they will discover, creative leisure equipment & mdash;wool, felt, painting & mdash;and books on nature.

The other favorite tips for readers is the intangible gift.Marie Jaouen has already offered, or had a farm in the farm in the Jura, a yoga and another painting, a pony ride.Twice, Cécile squarely offered her children a calendar providing for a surprise getaway per month: cinema in January, bowling between cousins in February, skating rink in March … and even, once, a day in Paris.The opportunity to have a good time with the family.

“I offered my 15 year old daughter an Aquatonic course [from the gym in a swimming pool] To follow with his grandmother.It pleases the two and it’s time spent together. “ Psychologist near Toulouse and mother of 16 -year -old twins, Svetlana loves this type of gift: “We have known for years that accumulating material goods does not make you happy.While experiences provide lasting happiness that can be reactivated by drawing from its memories. ”

Convinced?It remains to prepare the main interested parties, these dear blond heads frying catalogs Joueclub, to the fact that Christmas will now be more sober.For that, nothing beats dialogue.To avoid big disappointments, Célia takes the time to discuss the list to Santa Claus with her elder. “If a gift seems to me to be completely inappropriate, because useless and full of plastic, I allow myself to tell him that she will not have it by explaining to him why.”

She also sometimes asks her daughter to recite her list to Santa Claus: “What happens first is what she really wants.What she does not remember, I take it off from the list. ” At Svetlana, we only receive one or two gifts from the list anyway. “If the child receives everything he ordered, it becomes a due.While the surprise provokes many more positive emotions. “

Sometimes holding good on its principles is not so easy.When she was little, Marie Yared adored Barbie.Just like her daughters today. “They don’t live in a cave.They know Snow Queen, unicorns, lots of things that we have never told them about. ” What to do, when it is expected that all the other cousins receive one of these plastic models at the foot of the tree?

“We looked on Leboncoin less sexy barbie Barbie Astronaut, with the image of [the ethologist specializing in chimpanzees] Jane Goodall … But there is not much or they cost 400 euros”, she sighs.Two weeks before Christmas, the question was not yet decided.

But most of the time, it goes very well.Charlie, the eldest daughter of Célia, “Failure to have used gifts, as long as she has gifts”.Naval children are “Proud to have a zero waste tree, with handmade and plastic decorations”.No worries either with Marie Jouen. “Girls have never asked for a different Christmas”, assures the winemaker.

What helps, she observes is that more and more families of friends are taking the plunge and that school plays its awareness role. “In class, they tinker with their own Christmas decorations and went to see a show on the plastic problem.I imagine that it is easier to put these convictions into practice than twenty years ago. “

It is ultimately the extended family that is most difficult to convince. “When we decided not to light Christmas garlands last year, my parents called me a tyrant and extremist and told me that I was depriving my Christmas children, sighs Svetlana, from a family from the former Soviet Union who has long lived in poverty. What is complicated is that this effort of ecological sobriety comes up against their desire to spoil with material goods. “

Cécile’s in-laws, refractory, continue to buy a new gift;As for her parents, she had to restore their enthusiasm, because they first took advantage of buying used gifts to buy more. “Now it’s natural”, she says.

For loved ones, the approach can indeed be destabilizing.Angélique Curtet remembers lasting last Christmas, where her daughter-in-law Marie Jaouen and her son Florian asked her to buy seeds for her granddaughters. “It did me something.I imagined them dream of this, of that, and I, offer them that?They will be so disappointed! ” The grandmother therefore took on her to write a long letter attributed to Santa Claus in which she explained the process.The missive has flop, but the gift met with great success. “Their parents had so well prepared them that they were all happy with their seeds!”

Finally, it is a different celebration that these families seek to prepare and celebrate, in reverse of the great mass of excessive consumption.Svetlana and her children thus cultivate the pleasure of preparing small gifts for their family, their neighbors, their friends: herb herb herbs flavored with lemon zest, solid cosmetics, homemade cookies.

It can also sometimes be a way of reconnecting with a family tradition.The parents of Marie Yared, very Catholic, already gave Christmas a deeper meaning than a simple commercial debauchery: they used to invite an isolated person to their party table. “I already grew up with this idea that Christmas was above all a warm moment of welcome and fraternity”, she recalls.

Pascal Lardellier, sociologist and author of the book , sees this evolution with a good eye: “With the boom in the consumer society, we went from the feast of the child-god to that of the child-king.But more and more people are sensitive to ecological issues, especially in the choice of gifts. ” December 25 can be an opportunity to accelerate in this process, by reconnecting with old rites “Opening up to the other, solidarity, respect for nature”.The true Christmas spirit?