Christmas Fallout: What to Do With Your Yuletide Remnants

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Christmas Fallout: What to Do With Your Yuletide Remnants

After Christmas is over, you’re left with some wonderful memories, an extremely full belly, and a whole big mess to tidy up. It can be tempting to shove everything in the trash and be done with it. But we’ve got some better ideas. Here they are.

 Gift Wrapping

There’s just so much you can do with leftover gift wrapping, depending on what state it’s in. But we reckon 100% of it is reusable one way or another. If the paper has already been torn apart by excited hands, finish off the job by shredding it altogether, and using it as a filler for gift boxes to use for next year’s prezzies. With more intact gift wrap, use it to make festive cards for next Yule. Otherwise, use it to jazz up the cover of the kids’ school exercise books. You can also do more crafty things with used gift wrap, such as making paper dolls, bookmarks, and drinks tray lining.

 Food

Something there’s bound to be lots of left over after Christmas is food. We reckon you can ensure that every last morsel is used up in a tasty dish though. The BBC Good Food website has some lip-smacking recipes, including Christmas pudding trifle, and turkey casserole (a turkey curry is another sure fire winner). Veggies won’t last long, so turn them into soups or winter salads. UKTV has some incredibly sweet leftover recipes including fried Christmas pudding (yikes!) and mince pie fridge cake. You can start on the diet when all that stuff has been polished off.

 Christmas Tree

It’s always sad to see a Christmas tree left out in the street after having been the centrepiece of a house for weeks. Instead of abandoning it, do something cool with it. There are plenty of ways you can please the creatures out in your garden using your Christmas tree. You could, for instance, cutt off the top two feet of your tree, and put it out for squirrels to climb on (they’ll love it). A Gardeners’ World blog suggests you use your tree to maker a bee hotel. Another fab idea is to smother the branches in peanut butter (yes, really) mixed with bird seed. Winged creatures from near and far will soon be flocking into your garden. The needles from your Christmas tree make an excellent mulch; save them to spread on your summer crop of strawberries. Another clever thing to to is saw the truck into circles, which you can then use as a garden border, or even drink coasters.

 Greeting Cards

If you don’t want to forget the cards you received over Christmas (but also don’t want to keep them under the bed forever), simply scan them into your computer, so you’ve got a permanent online record. After that, get creative with recycling and up-cycling. Make them into gift tags; cut them up and use them for decoupage; make them into a Christmassy wreath for next year; or fold them into paper bird cages. We love so many of the ideas here on Pinterest.

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