From recycled wreaths to fabric Advent calendars: 12 genuinely reusable Christmas things

The festive season isn’t known for its sustainability. This year, eschew throwaway decorations in favour of long-lasting, waste-free finds that you’ll use year after year • The best homemade Christmas gift ideas I met a woman one January who told me that every year she throws away her tree with all the decorations attached, and then just buys everything new the following year.

Not only is this horrendous, environmentally speaking, but she’s missing out on the best bit, as far as I am concerned. For me, Christmas is all about nostalgia and sentimentality, and nothing speaks to that like taking the tatty little robin made of real feathers that belonged to my grandparents out of its storage box and nestling it into the branches of my tree. My favourite day of the festive period isn’t actually Christmas Day, or even Christmas Eve. It’s the day that we get the decorations…