Your ultimate guide to an ethical christmas

Between family expectations and the last-minute rush, Christmas can be a challenging time to put our ethics into practice. Here we make it simpler and a little bit easier with our ultimate Christmas guide.

Ethical gifts have a low or even positive impact on the world, and can be incredibly meaningful.

One place to start is thinking about how to avoid buying lots of stuff by giving creative and personal alternatives.  

Alternative gifts

Gift an experience

Physical gifts expire, break, wear out or get forgotten. Experiences can last for a lifetime. Why not gift an experience that you, family members or friends can enjoy together, whether that’s theatre, a sports event, an escape room, or arts and culture. 

Lots of cities and towns have brilliant alternative arts scenes, with small theatres, comedy or gig venues. It could be a great chance to support them.

You could also get inventive and plan a trip, design an itinerary and fill it with activities. A membership for your local nature reserve could make a great present, or look up local classes or events in foraging and then enjoy making a meal together with your free finds.

Get crafty

Getting fully involved in a good hobby is an excellent way to pass the long nights and raise the spirits. Why not turn your talent into presents? 

Collect secondhand wool and make socks or scarves, make a scrapbook full of shared memories, make vegan and Fair Trade chocolates or gather some bulbs and plant them in vintage pots. Why not hand-pour homemade beeswax candles into old teacups or pots and infuse them with your own essential oil blend? Swap the beeswax for soya flakes for a vegan alternative.

Gift your time

You don’t have to spend money to show you care. 

Make a promise to help an elderly relative by clearing out their attic or garden. Volunteer to babysit for stressed-out new parents. Offer to sort out a friend’s paperwork if your an organised person, or invite your neighbours over for dinner. 

You could create a physical 'gift voucher' out of paper or card to put in an envelope which can be opened like other presents.

Buying pre-loved

Some gifts just get better with age. Rather than buying new gifts, why not explore the treasure troves of the pre-owned, pre-loved and vintage. 

Vintage clothes and handbags are a great place to start – check out Beyond Retro, Rokit, We Are Cow, and Oxfam online for some quirky pieces or have fun exploring the charity shops. Check out our guide to buying secondhand for more options. 

Look for local adverts selling second-hand bikes or toys: kids often don’t care if a toy comes in a shiny box and it might mean that you can afford a better quality item second-hand. 

Vintage or limited-edition books are also a great choice. Choose a signed favourite for that extra-special someone or find recently released second-hand titles for half the price of new either locally or on some of the recommended online second-hand bookshops.

Consider refurbished

Items such as electronics, phones and laptops are linked to a whole host of issues, unfair working conditions, pollution and conflict minerals to name just a few. 

By buying refurbished items you don’t directly contribute to these issues. Many reconditioned items come in original packaging, complete with warranties and they are often a lot cheaper than brand-new equivalents. Our guide to buying secondhand tech has lots of handy information.

Check out local repair companies too for items like hairdryers, white goods or vacuum cleaners. 

When you do buy new...

Whenever you buy new, you have a choice to help ethical businesses grow and prosper.

Many unethical businesses, such as Amazon, lure you in with convenience, cheap prices and the promise of almost immediate delivery. Instead, join us in boycotting Amazon this Christmas, and beyond, until it sorts out its huge list of workers’ rights abuses, its unsustainable business practices and its blatant tax avoidance, to name just a few.

Local high street shops really benefit from buyers at Christmas time, and can have a nice festive buzz about them. But if you don’t have time, there are also plenty of ethical retailers selling online. 

Books

Books are a real favourite at Christmas, but the market is in real trouble. Independent bookshops have been struggling for the past decade, notably since Amazon sprung up as the ‘Earth’s biggest bookstore’.

Our guide to bookshops has a link to find radical and independent bookshops. You could visit your local one, or many do online orders and delivery. For example, you could order directly from Lighthouse, a radical stockist in Edinburgh that is queer-owned and women-led.

Consider buying secondhand from top scoring companies such as Better World Books, Biblio, World of Books, and Awesome Books, (many of their books are like new). Other recommended companies include bookshop.org and Hive for print, or xigxag for audio books. 

Check out our full guide on booksellers for other online shops. And, most importantly, avoid Amazon and its popular brands AbeBooks, Audible and Book Depository.

Perfume and aftershave

Perfumes make great gifts and some people love taking time to test fragrances and choose the perfect one, but they are not without their issues. Perfumers are legally allowed to keep their ingredients list a secret which means that they might contain hidden animal ingredients or toxic chemicals, such as parabens.

The great news is that there are loads of vegan and cruelty-free brands out there, using natural, non-toxic fragrances – see our guide to perfumes and aftershaves to select the best scoring brands. We recommend Flaya, and Neal’s Yard Remedies, both of which offer vegan products that are not tested on animals.

Ethical and vegan clothes

As slow fashion continues to grow, championing fair working conditions and embracing sustainable fabrics, more ethical and sustainable brands emerge.

We recommend over 20 brands as best buys in our shopping guide for ethical clothes shops - with lots of choice to suit different styles and budgets.

Why not take some time to read around the ethical problems that exist in the fast fashion industry and understand the carbon cost and sustainability issues around many of the most popular materials.

And did you know fair trade labels can apply to textiles, not just tea and other food items? Read our quick guide to fair trade fashion and recommended brands. We have a quick guide to organic fashion, with recommended brands, too. 

Chocolate

Choose sweet treats that are full of fair trade and deforestation-free ingredients this Christmas.

Our Best Buys go above and beyond to deliver guilt-free pleasure - check out ‘57 Chocolate, Pacari, Mia, Fairafric, Chocolat Madagascar, Conscious, MonChoco, Moo Free, OmBar, Raw Chocolate Company or Vego – all of which have fair cocoa sourcing practices, and many of which are vegan.

You can also read about the issues in our guide to ethical chocolate.

If you are looking to avoid palm oil this Christmas, see our list of palm oil-free chocolates.  

Self-care packages

Ethical and reusable products sometimes come with a higher price tag (although they also often last much longer). Gifting ethical toiletries can be a really lovely, luxurious present. 

Why not create a carefully selected box of self-care treats, giving your loved ones the chance to try some novel ethical alternatives, including a shampoo bar, handmade soap, leave-in conditioner, biodegradable floss, a couple of Lush products or some solid toothpaste tabs? You could even buy the ingredients for a make-your-own style gift, such as a DIY deodorant.

Hampers

Creating your own hamper can be loads of fun. Grab an old basket, stuff it with shredded newspaper and fill it full of handmade treats, such as mince pies, chutneys or fudge. Alternatively, try some ethical shop-bought items, such as palm-oil-free biscuits, Fair Trade tea or organic honey or vegan alternatives.

Electronics

If you’re looking for high-value electronics items, make sure your money contributes towards better things. Look for Fairphone in our mobile phone guide, Framework or a TCO-certified ASUS model in our guide to laptops. ASUS, HMD, Nokia and Acer. options in our guide to tablets could be good options too.   

Buying refurbished secondhand tech equipment is also an option, and our separate article on buying secondhand tech will give you top tips on what to look for.

Bikes

Bikes are a great environmentally friendly gift if you have a bit more money to spend. 

Try to find a well-built second-hand bike. Lots of local bike repair shops offer refurbished options. Or, if you’re looking for new, try to support local bike shops and buy a steel-based, ethical brand. Check out Raleigh and Trek in our guide to ethical bikes.

You might also want to think about an electric bike - these can be great ways of managing a regular ride or shopping trip that would be a bit too far on a push bike.

Places to buy ethical gifts

There are lots of ethical online retailers such as Ethical Shop* (gifts, some groceries and clothing, fair trade), Neal's Yard* (for toiletries and remedies), Brothers We Stand* (for clothing), and Veo* (vegan food, gifts, home, clothes etc). 

Our guide to online retailers highlights a range of online shopping options, none of which are Amazon! It also has a handy 'what they sell' section, so you can work out where to look for the gift you have in mind.

Ethical Consumer subscribers also qualify for discounts with several ethical companies. Sign in and visit the My account area for the discount codes to various brands including the Ethical Shop.

Also look out for our 'Places to Buy' sections in our shopping guides. These are links to recommended retailers who are also affiliates, so if you do shop with them via the 'Places to Buy' link, we receive a small bit of money - share the love!

*Affiliates

Ethical gift vouchers

Lots of ethical companies offer gift vouchers. 

These are an easy stocking (or card) filler. They also help to avoid waste as people can choose their own gift - presumably something that they want or need.

We’ve compiled a list of companies with high ethical ratings that offer gift vouchers, which is especially good for those who want to avoid Amazon and support ethical businesses instead. 

These companies cover a broad range of products - books, electronics, food, and pet food - and include Oxfam, the Ethical Shop, and Guardian.

You can find a full list in our voucher guide.

Wrapping your gifts

Christmas isn’t just about the gifts

This is something that we are told from a young age. Christmas means something different to each of us and many of us spend weeks getting the house decorated ready for the big day, not to mention the food. So much food. Of course, we can bring our ethical values into every element of Christmas.

All of the fun with none of the glitter

It’s hard to make it through your local garden centre or supermarket from November onwards without being blinded by the dazzling lights and glitter. As fun as it is to marvel at the bright displays, resist buying a whole new set of decorations this Christmas.

So many decorations are made from cheap mass-produced materials and are covered in shiny microplastic-containing glitter. You probably have a whole attic full of decorations and, if you don’t, you can be sure someone nearby is looking to clear some out. 

Make do with what you have and ask around if you need to stock up. You could also look at websites like Freecycle, where neighbours give things like decorations away for free.

Your tree might not look like a page out of a designer home magazine, but remembering old, treasured childhood decorations and handmade baubles makes a slightly mismatched tree all the more charming.

If you have built up far too many decorations, consider donating the ones which are in good condition to charity shops.

Spreading seasonal cheer

Christmas cards are a mainstay of the festive season.

Sending e-cards or calling or visiting friends and family can be a welcome alternative to Christmas cards. Pledging to give saved money to your favourite charity is a great way to do good without the waste.

Letting people know where you are sending your money, by email or through social media, gives much needed free advertisement for the charity – perhaps your idea will catch on and prompt others to do the same.

If you’re looking to send cards, look for recycled and recyclable ones without the plastic wrapping. If you’re buying charity cards, buy direct (rather than from a supermarket) so as much profit as possible goes to your chosen cause.

Making your own cards can be a heart-warming exercise that makes you think of your loved ones while getting you in the festive spirit.

And finally…

Whatever you do, enjoy yourself this Christmas. One of the most meaningful things you can do is to look out for those people who might be on their own and spread genuine love and happiness by ensuring everyone is involved. It’s also a great opportunity to show your friends and family that everyone can make a difference, by taking small steps to make this Christmas an ethical and sustainable one.

Additional writing by Katalin Csatadi.