Planning a sustainable Christmas dinner

Create a menu and organise your shopping

First, prepare a Christmas food list. When you shop, buy only as much as you need for your Christmas plans, with enough for a day’s leftovers.

Batch cook side dishes and freeze any extra to provide prepared meals for another day. Plan your cooking schedule to better utilise oven space, and reduce the time and energy consumed.

If you can, order your turkey and other meat ahead of time from butchers who work with ethical farmers. Retailers who utilise and manage an ordering system are better able to avoid miscalculating demand, potentially reducing the number of animals killed and processed.

You could also choose to forego turkey – which can take hours to cook – and opt for vegetarian or vegan options instead. A meatless Christmas dinner reduces the chance of participating in unsustainable or unethical farming practices.

Don’t be afraid to break with tradition

If certain traditional Christmas dishes are unpopular with your guests, don’t cook them just because they’re expected. This just leads to food waste and expends energy that could be better spent on more popular options.

Cook instead of buying

Growing your own seasonal vegetables is the ultimate way to reduce the packaging and food miles involved in supermarket shopping. Eating seasonally has less of an impact on the environment, as fewer resources are needed to grow plants in their preferred climate.

Ask guests to bring a homecooked dish each to encourage less reliance on plastic packaging . Co-ordinating who brings what also helps reduce food waste, as each component of the meal will be accounted for.

Greet guests with a drink

Welcome guests into your house with a festive drink served from corked bottles or aluminium cans sold in cardboard boxes, instead of plastic bottles. Use glasses or compostable cups to stay away from plastic disposable or even non-compostable paper cups, as these will end up in landfill.

Corked bottles are better for the environment than screw tops. Cork is a sustainable plant while screw tops often contain plastic seals.

Using compostable palm leaf tableware to cater this Christmas

Prime guests’ appetites with snacks

Place small bowls and plates filled with an assortment of Christmas foods, such as chocolate coins, candied nuts or clementines, in the room where your guests will gather.

Sustainable festive table setting

Give yourself the gift of a Christmas day free from washing up. Straight from the table, palm leaf tableware can go into compost , where it’ll break down fully in 2–3 months.

More durable than ordinary disposable tableware, there’s no need to go easy on the gravy this festive season. Palm leaf tableware can hold wet, dry, oily, and sticky food without seepage onto the tablecloth, or suffering from bending or bowing.

Festive entrees

Whether your Christmas dinner calls for a starter of warming soup made from homegrown vegetables and stock, or oozing brie-and-cranberry parcels, palm leaf bowls present beautifully and can be trusted not to spill their contents.

Plating up a Christmas roast dinner

Set places with a large and smaller palm plate each. Choose from assorted sizes and shapes to suit any space and decorative theme. Set with birchwood cutlery to keep the table fully compostable or use metal cutlery.

Serve the turkey and all the accoutrements of a full festive spread on palm leaf serving trays. Dot bowls of bread, cheese, and cranberry sauce amongst the platters of chipolatas, vegetables, and stuffing, all surrounding a large serving bowl filled with enough crispy roast potatoes for everyone.

Christmas desserts

Trifle, mince pies, Christmas pudding – it doesn’t matter if you prefer custard, cream, brandy butter or a little of all three, you can have as much as your biodegradable bowl can hold without worrying about seepage stains.

Leftovers and evening nibbles

After dinner, serve a tantalising cheeseboard with grapes, crackers and berries on a stylish platter that will stand out amongst the wrapping paper and board game debris.

Once belts and buttons are loosened, and everyone is adequately stuffed, palm tableware is still able to assist, being both freezer and microwave safe.

Cover leftovers with reusable wrap and pop it away to keep for grazing and Boxing Day sandwiches.

Environmentally friendly palm leaf tableware is making the way people cater for others more conscious and less wasteful. Do your part for change: browse our full range of compostable catering supplies , and make this Christmas a more sustainable celebration.