The festive period is usually a joyous time spent with family and friends, it’s just a shame that our happiness normally comes at the expense of animals. It might not be so obvious but animals are massively overlooked when it comes to Christmas: puppies are bought as presents and then often abandoned at shelters, millions of turkeys are killed and roasted for dinner, foxes are hunted on Boxing Day (despite the ban)… The list is endless. If this makes you feel slightly uncomfortable then let’s take advantage of the Christmas spirit to help animals instead of ignoring the suffering that takes place. I have a few ideas…
1. Donate to Charity
This might be the most obvious option but it is a very selfless act! It’s quite hard to blindly give over money when we don’t know how they are using it, whether it be to help the animals directly or to pay someone’s wages. If that is one of your concerns then I would highly recommend you check out Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE). ACE research animal charities and find out which ones save the most lives per dollar donated. Whenever I have spare cash I always use ACE to figure out where to donate.
Recommendation: If you are looking to donate this Christmas then please do check ACE for their charity recommendations unless you have a rescue shelter/animal charity that is close to your heart. Donating to charity also works as a fantastic Christmas present for family and friends if they are passionate about a particular animal.
2. Become Vegan!
The most direct way to save animals (and the planet) is to stop eating them and their by-products. Using the Vegan Calculator, I found that since going vegan I have saved:
- 2,144,409 litres of water
- 1,442 square metres of forest
- 9,322 kilograms of grain
- 4,687 kilograms of carbon dioxide
- 515 ANIMAL LIVES!
By not eating an animal for Christmas day dinner (at least!) you would be saving a life – seems pretty appropriate on such a festive occasion. You can go a day without meat, right?
Several of my friends have even gone veggie/vegan for my birthday in past years. This year, Mega Bestie Andaroo has suggested that he may go vegan for January as my Christmas present – best Christmas present ever!
Recommendation: If you like the idea of cutting animal products out of your diet but you don’t think you can go vegan, why not consider going vegan for one day a week or at least trying some of the amazing vegan alternatives out there. Another idea is to give up one of your favourite foods, for example: give up sausages for a month. You never know, you might realise that you can live without sausages 🙂
3. Donate Your Time
Giving up your free time to help animals is an incredibly valuable way of donating to charity, sometimes even more so than money. Shelters are a very necessary but expensive way of saving lives and sometimes it is far more helpful when you donate your time to your local rescue. Several ways of donating your time at a rescue could be cleaning, fund-raising, fostering animals and if you’re not very hands-on then you could contact some charities about volunteering remotely (this is what I’m currently doing).
Recommendation: There are many ways that rescue shelters and charities would love you to help out. If you’d like to donate your time to a rescue but you are unsure of how to go about it or which one to try then please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can find one together.
4. Compassionate Clothing
Some of my favourite clothing has vegan messages, it’s a wonderful way of spreading a compassionate message to a vast range of people and you don’t even have to talk to them! If you, your friend or family member has a particularly strong opinion about animal rights then a great way to express it is through slogan clothing. You can find slogan clothing from independent sellers, charities and even mainstream businesses that donate a portion of their sales to non-profit organisations.
Recommendation: Check out Etsy for an incredible array of independent vegan clothes designers. My particular favourite is Munky Make owned by an incredibly talented clothes designer and activist. I have purchased several of the items featured in his Etsy shop. Another terrific, more mainstream, company is Sand Cloud. Their mission is to save marine life and 10% of their profits are donated to non-profits that support their mission. Otherwise if you’re looking to purchase direct from a charity then I would highly recommend checking out Mercy For Animals.
5. Vegan Food
If you’re looking for something small and inexpensive to send out to your loved ones then food is the way to go. In keeping with the Christmas spirit, it is also important that this gift is not at the expense of an animal and therefore vegan. Lovely Friends Alba and Victor gave me a basket of yummy vegan food for my birthday, it was such a mega, thoughtful present!
Recommendation: I would highly recommend Booja Booja truffles for an inexpensive vegan Christmas present. My favourite are the stem ginger ones which are currently priced at slightly over £10 on Amazon (link here).
You can be assured that I have received NOTHING from ANYONE for writing this blog post and all opinions are genuinely my own. On top of the recommendations above, I have sooo many more ideas for Christmas presents and ways to have a compassionate holiday time (but Wonderful Husband says that a long blog post is a bad blog post) so get in touch if you’d like to find out more. Additionally check out the mega blog Beauty for the Brain for some environmentally-friendly Christmas ideas and tips.
Many thanks to #GoEthic for inspiring this post, their article on ethical Christmas presents is the most extensive list I have ever seen! 💚
Zoe, another fantastic post! As you know, I’m going Vegan as well very soon and I’m super stoked. Another tip for anyone reading is that some of your clothing may already be vegan…check the label! Cotton and polyester are very common and very vegan. Merry Christmas!
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Ah thank you so much for the mega comment! I think your point about the material is a great one, people will be very happy to find that most of their clothing is already vegan and no animals were harmed! Merry Christmas to you too 🙂 💚
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What a cute post! I love the idea of these gifts instead of the normal gift ideas. These are great.
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Ah thank you so much Gloria. Hopefully the animals won’t be so overlooked this year 💚
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Lovely lovely advice. I will be donating some time this year. Can’t wait to get involved.
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Ah that’s lovely to hear! Do you know where you’ll donate time to or what you’ll do? Let me know if you need any help 🙂 💚
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What a great holiday concept. I would love to try the truffles! Gifting myself is ok right 🙂
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Gifting yourself is amazing, but remember to share one and let that person know that the truffles are vegan… Their minds will be blown! 💚
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Lovely ideas Zoe.
Dogs Trust is my thing for donating and I’m thrilled that I have been able to put people in touch with them who have successfully rehomed dogs.
Some charities w ont consider older people who want to adopt but dogs trust take the time to consider us oldies too.
xx
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It’s lovely that you donate to dog’s trust. Very troubling to hear that older people aren’t considered by a lot of rescues considering anyone should be considered if they can provide everything a dog needs 💚
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I always love reading your blog and your dedication to animals! This is such a great post! Thank you for reminding us all to help out our furry friends!
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Thank you so much Christina, this comment is incredibly sweet of you! Let’s hope that this Christmas a few animals will be saved! 💚
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I love your idea of going vegan just one day a week. I think it’s a great option for many people. And donating to charity is always so important!
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So glad you like the idea. I think it’s so important that people view veganism as though they are doing something to help animals and not just giving up foods they like (which can see super overwhelming). Completely agree with you about charity 💚
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These are great gift ideas, not only for vegans, but for anyone. Thanks for bringing this to my attention during the holiday season!
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Yea that’s what I thought Christine, I wanted it to be a post for everyone incase they wanted to give a gift of compassion. Thank you 💚
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I try to eat a vegan meal for breakfast and dinner time and I definitely feel so much better. I prefer the term plant-based because till I eliminate all animal products including silk, leather etc.
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I can totally understand your reasoning for that Blu and thank you so much for the compassion you show to animals by eating plant-based 💚
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I try to get animal friendly products as much as I can. I also like to donate my time to the animals. We need to give them a voice since they have none.
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Ah you sound lovely!! Thank you for everything you’re doing! 💚
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I like The ideas of donating time – Sometimes the animals are forgotten. I also like going vegan once a week. It could lead to a lot of good habits !
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Yes Jenn, unfortunately the animals are always forgotten. I wish it weren’t the case. I don’t know why festive seasons are always at the expense of animals – surely we can make festive occasions which include the animals happiness too. Thank you for your lovely comment 💚
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I’m a vegan and I can relate to this post so much!!! I’ve been vegan for six years and loving it! I try to help animals in any way I can :))
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Oh wow Rosy – you’re a pro!! I’m way behind you in length of time being vegan. Thank you for all the animals you’ve saved by being vegan for so long! 💚💚💚
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Agree! Thanks for reminding, it has not crossed my mind for ages, but I remember now how we decorated Christmas trees in forest with carrots for rabbits to eat 🙂 (living in Estonia, where it is really cold in winters, and snow cover food for animals)
Also donations for dog shelters – simple woolen sweaters will do!
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Oh and.. of course. Being vegan is just being kind to everyone! (and you can still donate woolen sweaters from your pre-vegan life 😀 )
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Hahahahah I love this extra comment! I was wondering where the woolen jumpers were going to come from but you have totally answered that. Thanks 🙂
I think it’s fantastic that you used to do that for the animals, I had never even thought about anything like it but I guess I’ve never lived anywhere rural. It does make me think what I could do for the birds though. I really appreciate this comment – thank you Anna 💚
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I love that you’re so passionate about the welfare of animals! These were some great tips.
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Thank you Emily 💚
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