More Fun • Less Waste
We all love celebrating Christmas at school, and we also care deeply about our planet—our shared home. Imagine if we could come together to make Christmas even more magical and kinder to the environment...
Your school can make a simple pledge to celebrate a greener, happier Christmas with more fun and less waste.
Find out what the pledge is, how your school can get involved and ideas to get started...
Christmas at school is exciting! There are Christmas fairs, Christmas jumper days, and giving cards and gifts to classmates and teachers. But some of these traditions hurt the planet without us meaning to, from creating plastic waste to using up natural resources.
By finding new, thoughtful ways to celebrate, we can protect the environment and still enjoy all the magic of Christmas.
The pledge is simple and powerful. By signing up, everyone in the school community – students, teachers, and parents – promises to celebrate Christmas at school in a way that’s more caring for the planet. Here are the guiding questions to help you:
More Fun, Less Waste:
Can we celebrate without creating so much plastic and paper waste?
More Connection, Less Stuff:
What experiences can we share together that don’t involve buying things?
More Meaning, Less Overwhelm:
How can we slow down, do less and focus on what really matters?
Each school can decide how best to bring the pledge to life. Sign up to take the pledge and we’ll give you a free pack of resources to get the ball rolling, including a charter for children to sign, an editable letter to parents and the School Council, some facts about the environmental impact of Christmas and more.
It might be too late to put things into practice for 2024, but it’s a great time to start conversations and look for things you could do differently next year.
And we believe it’s a wonderful chance for students to take the lead! This could mean involving the school’s student council, holding votes, coming up with ideas, or even writing to groups like the PTA to share the pledge. Show them that their voices matter and they can make a real difference when they work together.
PlanBee are proud supporters of this initiative which was created by a six-year-old girl (with a little help from her mum). Share this pledge with everyone and let’s make Christmas even more meaningful, joyful and kinder to our planet.
Let's show that even small actions can make a BIG difference.
This is just the start as we create and collate resources and ideas to help you – but don’t miss some example ideas below!
Did you know that if everyone in a class of 30 children gave a card to everyone else, you’d end up with nearly 1,000 cards – just in one class! And it takes one whole tree to make about 3,000 cards. So in a typical primary school that's four whole trees that need to be cut down. That’s a lot of trees we could save by finding new, creative ways to share holiday cheer.
How about making a big Christmas tree out of paper and sticking it on your classroom door? Then, everyone can write their Christmas message to the whole class right on the tree for everyone to see each day. You could even choose someone to go add a message from your class to another class’s tree!
It’s lovely that children and families want to show their appreciation for their teachers at the end of the year, but sometimes teachers get so many presents that they don’t end up using them – or run out of space to keep them all!
Why not embrace the spirit of Christmas by choosing a charity that means something to the teacher and asking the class to donate a few pounds each? Or create a class collage with a small picture or poem written by each child – something the teacher will treasure for years to come.
Some teachers enjoy (or feel pressured into!) giving their class Christmas gifts. Often these end up being cheap, plastic toys or stationary that soon end up discarded.
Instead, could you sponsor an animal that you might have learned about as a class? You can enjoy getting updates on the animal for the rest of the year! Or give each child a pack of seeds or a seedling so they can grow their own plants.
It takes a lot of work to organise a Christmas Fair and collect all the donations for gifts, raffles and prizes! Can we give the organisers ideas to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ needed and make the activities simpler and more fun for everyone?
Christmas jumpers are snazzy but the truth is that most are made from plastic materials. That means when they go in the washing machine, tiny plastic fibres are released into the water that end up in the rivers, oceans and even the water we drink. Plus a lot of jumpers are thrown away after just a few wears and end up in the environment, harming wildlife.
How about starting a new tradition of a Christmas Wish Day at school instead? You could spend time across the day learning about and celebrating the meaning of Christmas as well as being thankful for everything we already have in our lives. Each student could write a wish on a star and then put them on display around the school. The only catch is that the wish can’t be about getting presents! You’ll be surprised at how many original and thoughtful things everyone comes up with.
Or how about wearing party clothes and for those that want to wear Christmas Jumpers – how about organising a second-hand Christmas jumper sale?
