By Sophy, Good Energy

 Kids’ Christmas stockings can be a real challenge for the eco-conscious -- traditionally filled with plastic tat that will be discarded after a couple of days and then left hanging around for several hundred years in landfill.

After several years of practice though, I think I’ve got it sussed. So follow my advice to make sure your kids’ Christmas stocking has a minimal carbon footprint:

1. Give something they need anyway

   My children always get new socks and underwear in their stockings. To make it more fun, splash out on branded merchandise for once – in our house Doctor Who is the current favourite. Other ‘necessary’ items can include school stuff such as pens, pencils, pocket calculators and geometry sets and bathroom kit like toothbrushes and face flannels. 

2. Support  your local charity shop

   A DVD in the Christmas stocking helps guarantee Mum and Dad a bit of a lie-in on Christmas morning, and the kids won’t notice if it’s second-hand from the charity shop. I always throw in a paperback book as well to give the appearance of encouraging literacy. I’ve never visited a charity shop which didn’t have an ample supply of Enid Blyton, which most kids like, never mind if the grandparents don’t approve.
   
   I’m of the old-fashioned school which believes the only edible things in a child’s stocking should be a walnut and a tangerine (nowadays we call them clementines). But if you  don’t mind yours  eating sweets at 5am (let’s face it, that’s what’s going to happen), then make them organic or at least fair trade. Oxfam sell fair trade chocolate gold coins which are suitably festive.

3. Recycle stuff 

   Have a dig around the bottom of the toy box, under your child’s bed and down the sides of the sofa cushions and you may well find stuff from last year’s stocking that was hastily discarded. I guarantee that if your child is below the age of six they will not remember that they got it last year. Really.
   
   The office is also be a source of freebies which make good stocking fillers. I save up memory sticks, unusual pens, mugs etc. that I get sent over the course of the year for redistribution at Yuletide.

4. Give something home made.

   Home made marshmallows, playdough and bath bombs are all quite easy to make and go down well with the younger generation. And if you’ve made it yourself you can guarantee it’s free from nasty additives.

5. Shop ethically 

   You may not be able to avoid buying some new stuff but if you do, try and shop ethically. Your favourite charity probably has a good range of ethically-sourced stocking fillers on its website, and of course the money you spend goes to help the charity. I put a fair-trade Christmas tree decoration in the stocking every year for each child – the idea being when they leave home they’ll each have enough to decorate their own tree. I also like to encourage green fingers with packets of seeds.

This year I’ll be getting my 10-year-old a shower timer from the Good Energy Shop, which I hope will finally persuade him to graduate to showers from baths, and my 7-year-old is getting a penguin squeezing torch so he can read those Enid Blytons under the duvet.

Please share your own eco-stocking  ideas with us on the blog.