Nobody Panic - Still Panicking: How to Have a More Ethical Christmas

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Still Panicking: This week we look back at the best Christmas How Tos, to help guide you through the festive season.Trying to have a more ethical Christmas this year? TesSanta Claus Coates, and Stevie MarTin Soldier from The Nutcracker, are taking Christmas very seriously/ They discuss making your own wrapping paper, shopping from independent businesses, buying local, and making small good changes. Alternative Book RecommendationsHive: www.hive.co.ukBookshop.org: uk.bookshop.orgSharing/ Surplus RecommendationsNeighbourly: www.neighbourly.com/service/product-surplusOlio: olioex.comRecorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Happy holidays. Happy winter. Happy wintermas. Happy winter festival. Happy December. Happy, yeah. Happy whatever you've got going on.

I'm Stevie. Tessa Coates. Okay. Here we go. We've smashed it. We're out. We're out the gate. We come.

And they're off. So, quite an erratic start. We're a podcast. We like to help you figure out. up some things each week. And we had a nice email, didn't we, Jesser? Yes, we did.

We actually had quite a few emails about this. Great. More than one. Two emails. Two emails that said. Can, and it's something that we've, I think, been increasingly interested over the years and especially this year. What's it going to be?

What a buildup. It is, how to have a more ethical Christmas. Emphasis on the more. More. Because before we even, even do our adults, things, which we do every episode. I would like to say that for so long, when, like, I wanted to be more sustainable, more ethical, and I would like look things up. And when you do look things up, you then, you see that there's often, the initial tips and tricks are for rich people,

or for people who have slightly more money than yourself, perhaps. If you were listening and you're like, oh, I'm loaded. That's great. However, I just wanted to say that sometimes, these things can be, you can be like, you know, like things like, go to vegan and like, cool, vegan cheese is like seven pounds. So anything that we say, we'll be very careful not to just like shout at everybody, but like the idea is like, just, there might be one thing in the episode that you go, oh, I could do that. That's enough. There's absolutely, this, podcast practices a policy of no shade, no shade in any direction. Sometimes a little, we got something. It sounds like Tess is shading. It's not. It sounds like shade, but it's not.

It's not shade. No shade in any direction to be like, listen, kid, do you, do you. It's life is tough. Get through it as best you possibly can. But if you, yeah, this is about, these are just some ideas and suggestions to be like, and if you think, oh, yeah, I could do that. But also, you know, listen. Yes. If you are struggling to make ends meet and you need the, you need, and on one hand, you've got a lovely homemade version of whatever for 20 pounds, but then you've got an unethical shop for six pounds and you've got no. No money. Well, you're going to go for six and one, aren't you? And that's, we totally get that. But this might just, like, give you some ideas for, like, easy little things that you might be able to come up with.

Can I talk to you about the idea of the time thing? We can chat time, man. Yeah, let's go for it. You've got a moment to talk about time with me. I've just been thinking about the idea of time is money this year. This year, honestly, I mean, I've been alive for a while now. And I always thought time is money was just an expression that, like, a Danny DeVito boss character. would say to make you hurry up to be like, ah, come on, time is money. Like, do the thing faster. But really, time is money means, like,

if you are pushed for time, if you are running out of time, you will spend more money to get the thing done. Like, if you, if you, you know, if you forget to print your boarding pass at the gate or whatever at the airport, like, and you physically can't do it. Your only option is to spend the money.

Or like, if it's Christmas Eve and you haven't got the present, you will spend whatever it takes to get that present. there. Like it's just a real... You will sign up to Amazon Prime. You will sign up to Amazon Prime. You will do those things. And so it's so easy to be like, why don't you get your, you know, thing on the December? Make your decorations out of pasta. Come on, guys. Yeah. Why don't you do that? Well, when you get to Christmas Eve, you can't. Before we get into it, we're already

chomping at the... We're chomping at the ethical bit. At my hemp bit. There's the most adult thing you've done this week. Mine is, I've got my Christmas, first, I mean, it's multi-layered. I've got my Christmas tree in well early. As I think is the case for lots of people this year, there's a real vibe of like, listen, it's mid-November, let's crack on. What else have we got on, surely? Normally I don't get the tree until, you know, Christmas Eve, but I've got nothing on. Christmas Day.

It's halfway through going to get one. Okay. I chopped my Christmas tree down myself. this evolution of your personality has now reached its end point. You're now chopping trees down. It's gone from being like, maybe I'll put up a shelf to being like, I'm now like a lumberjack where I source my own wood. I live off the land and I am a man of the woods. Okay, so I walked to the church just a mere 200 metres down the road where they've got a little Christmas tree forest,

all very sweet. This was Sunday. The guy was like, oh, there's no, there's only non-drop. And I was like, I don't want that. I want the smell. I want spruce. It's non-drop me. So you know how like leaves always, they all fall and it's such a nightmare.

Yes. And your whole carpet is like covered in green. Absolutely. So they've bred as something called, they've, so increasingly now trees are called non-drop and it's called a Nordic fur and they don't drop their leaves. I mean, they do a little tiny bit, but nowhere near as much as. spruce. But the payoff for that, what you lose is the amazing Christmas tree smell. Ah, yeah. Anyway, so they were like, there's no spruce. I was like, I want spruce.

Time is money. I've got nothing but time on my hands. I was like, okay, so I googled, looked up some other Christmas tree forests a bit further out of London. Important part of this story, I've recently got a car. My grandparents were going to sell their car and I was like, can I borrow it for a couple of months? Because it's lockdown and please. So they put me on the insurance. I drove to what I thought was just, it said Christmas tree. forest and I thought it was just going to be a car park full of things. We got there. I rode on the back of a tractor in a hay car, got to this forest. A lad, a young lad gave me a saw and was like, pick anyone you want, anyone you want. Oh my God, that's amazing. It was called, if anybody is

close to London or near to Epping Forest, it was called Howard's Park. And it is the best thing I've done all year. I cannot recommend it enough. So if you have access to get a car, if you have a car and you could get yourself there. Oh man, what a, what a joyful experience it was. I'm so thrilled for you, genuinely. Well, thank you. I'm really, really trying this year to just be like, I am embracing festivity so hard. Yes, I'm very much the same. I'm powering on all cylinders. Yes. My adult thing is very similar. It is that I, uh, uh, was Christmas, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. For anyone, long time listeners, when I have a tortoise. And, um, her name is Dr. Alison Parker. Alison is her first name.

And she has a little run. And normally she hibernates, but Alison has not been very well. And so we can't hibernate her until later. So she's going to have her first Christmas. Alison's first Christmas. She also does not care, obviously, or know what Christmas is.

She's more of a pagan, and she's celebrating more the sort of winter solstice, really. Yes, which was, you know, which is December 21st. There's going to be like a date, a date clashed, but that's fine. we've nailed little tiny nails onto her run and my friend, my mum's friend and my friend

Kathy, who listens, thank you so much Kathy, sent us some little woolen stockings which were actually for me and the shadow who I live with. But we're going to hang them on her run and then I've also made paper chains. Little tiny paper chains for just in general because I thought it would be quite nice to make some paper chains

but we're going to like hang the paper chains and then we've got a little wreath, a tiny wreath for her door So it's going to be a festive, a festive tortoise Christmas. Oh, I love it. It feels quite adult to be making Christmas for something else. That is, that is lovely. That is really, really lovely. And that is a transition, isn't it, of going from like,

why is no one making it nice for me to being like, oh, maybe it's nice if I make it nice for other people. And I can take actual joy in that. Yeah, also as well, very quickly, adult thing. My sister was like, oh, I just feel really down. because it's not Christmasy and we're not going home until quite late because we're going to like isolate

and then go home to see our parents. And then I was like, what do you make Christmas for yourself? You'd have to wait. And she was like, oh my God. So I've given my sister the spirit of Christmas, which I think is, I mean, it's amazing. I'm very proud of that.

So now she's got a Christmas tree. She's got like decorations. Great. You can give yourself the spirit of Christmas even if you don't feel you can. Yeah. Even if you do celebrate Christmas, I think, fuck it.

This year, celebrate it. Why not? Oh my God. Anything. Bollocks to Jesus. Just like have a nice... Religion, any creed. Come on. Get in. Get in. Get in. Get in. Unless you don't want to, in which case. In which case, don't. Get out. Stay away. Okay, before we start, we are doing something new for Christmas this year, because obviously we can't do a live Christmas party,

which we've done in the past and loved. We are going to do something. This is for people, this for anyone can do it, but hopefully people who maybe aren't with as much family as they'd like to be with this year or, you know, it's tough for everybody. We're going to do something called the Nobody Panic, Big Christmas gift exchange bonanza. Yes. Maybe. There is a company called Elfster, like the word elf with stir at the end, that you sign up. There is a draw, which will be mid the midway through December. and then you get an address for somebody that you're going to send a present to and somebody will

send you a present and there'll all be people who are fans of the podcast and we'll put a price limit on it and encourage. So is there a link or something that we should put in the show notes? There is a link that will indeed be in the show notes, Stevie. It doesn't exist yet, but let me tell you, it definitely will. When you're listening to this, it does exist. You can definitely look in the show notes, but it will also be on Twitter and Instagram. So if you want to get involved, it won't be a pricey one, but it's just like,

if you want to get in the spirit of Christmas and get involved in our gift exchange, that would be lovely. We'd love to have you. It's a lovely idea from Tessa. I saw somebody else do it on Twitter and I was like, this is the loveliest thing I've ever seen. I was like, I want to, can I steal this idea? Can I steal this, please?

Great. Okay, right, we've got to crack on. So, yeah, would you like to begin? No, you kick off. Okay, Christmas tree. I'm reading about it, I thought an artificial tree would be, that that would be the way to go because I thought like

oh will you reuse it and like this stuff but like actually it's quite bad for the environment because it's just loads of plastic just shedding your microplastics all over the world you can but there are lots

there are so many and so many more than I thought Christmas tree companies all across the UK that you can either rent a Christmas tree so they can like collect it afterwards that also you can buy them and they are sustainable

so there's a place called Green Elf trees which is sustainable and delivered by out of work artists, musicians, performers. So that's nice for this year where no one's got any bloody work in the Great Forestry. How lovely. Sorry, say the name again. Green elf trees. And if you Google it.

And they're plastic or they're real? They're real. If you Google it, there are, there's lots of like places where, so there's lots of buy area like, here's good Christmas trees in your area. So like, yeah, check. It's not just like only in London. And what I didn't know is that most local councils across the country will be able to pick up your Christmas tree.

So it's very important, apparently, that you don't just like chuck it. Also because it's just very sad to see, but it's like your carbon footprint and all that shit. A tree just sort of dumped isn't great, whereas you want it to be disposed of in a proper way. And that's time is money situation. So it's almost like really good to now when you get your tree, you be like, and I know how I'm going to dispose of it.

So this comes to January and you're like, you know what, Christmas's over, I'm really depressed. I'm going to throw my tree in the white paper bin. Get ready. So on the fifth, you aren't like, oh, fuck it. Put it on the road. You know, like that's, we're just trying. I know this is the year you've got to try and stay away from getting yourself. We're like, oh, fuck it.

That. Yeah. I'll do the cheapest as much as you possibly can. Okay. Let's talk about books. Your local independent bookshop is desperate for you, for you. for your custom, for your attention, for, you know, going in and actually going in and speaking to a person and somebody recommending something and, you know, you really can't beat that. So number one thing would be your local independent bookshop.

And then number two. And also, I suppose like local independent all things. Like if you can, if there are even right down to like your Christmas dinner, if you get in that locally, then like all of these things help. So again, it's very easy to be like, just shop small guys. Yeah. And it's like, cool, don't have time, of course. But if you have it in your head, then you will do it a little bit more than you were going to do it anyway.

You know, it's like, if you're like, if you're walking past the butcher, you're like, you know what, I will get my cutoff meat from Musa rather than, you know, the big, it's a big supermarket. It's like things like that. Like, because I think so many, so many places are struggling. And now it's the first time that I've seen that that idea of like supporting independent businesses is jumped outside of like just a few like quite ethical sustainable fashion activist it's now like a thing that lots of people sort of know about and hopefully yeah hopefully

we can all we can all help them out and help them have a happy Christmas yeah absolutely and like I think it's um I think we're all this year really physically seeing what's gonna like understanding it on a much deeper level of like what it means to support your local shops or your local because rather than just, you know, nobody knows who owns Tesco's or who's making money in Tesco's, you know the man who owns your local butchers, you know. It's John. It's John. It's John the Butchers. And I, you know, there's a really sweet little wine shop that I never knew about around the corner from me. And I, you know, chatted to the girl in there who they're running it. They've got like a little barrier at the counter and then, you know, you can stand outside and sort

discuss, you know, what you like in a wine. And she gave me the most delicious wine I've ever. drunk in my life. That will happen. And that will happen. And you're like, of course, like, you know, it costs £12 as opposed to £6 pounds from the supermarket, but maybe you have... Oof, certainly, but maybe you have one less wine than you might have drunk this week. And it was a nicer one. You know, it's tricky to be like, of course, that is the price you pay for going to a small place. But like, that's an actual person who is...

Well, so not always. It's not, I think it's like, it's not always ridiculously expensive going to a little independent shop. it's often because it's not like the big sales on and stuff like that but it's also like online there are so many so like i was looking at places like not on the high street in Etsy where you can get like incredible we all know that like incredible little gifts sort of things so if you're looking if you find yourself like looking for something on amazon for example then it's always worth checking like the big three as in Etsy not on the high street in eBay like it's just always worth a check just to see and the one the one thing to be aware of is

like on Etsy quite a lot of times I've been burned by this where I've been like oh little independent oh great oh it's in Latvia oh it's going to take me seven months for to arrive so it's always good to like yeah time is money it's always good especially Christmas is coming up so it's good to like pop in like the country of the of origin that you would like it to come from definitely and then you could see like only UK sellers or only wherever country you're from sellers and also like places like oxfam do um really which this is two birds in one stone do really good sustainable Christmas decorations from small businesses. So there's lots of places that are like collecting small businesses together that you can like go on the Oxone website and there's

Christmas cards swell and like so much stuff. And then that's you give in to charity. It's also not bad expensive at all. But again, it is more expensive than poundland. Sure. So you have to like pick and choose where you're spending the money. Yeah. I saw this lovely tweet that was like when you buy online from an independent seller, somebody does a little dance in their living room. And I was like, yeah. Like when they get when they get in the motivation beginning like one sale to Stevie Martin, they're like, they do a little like, we made a sale, you know, and you're like, okay. Then you sort of shift that idea of like, oh, ethical, like, oh, it's good for the planet. Oh, I guess I should. Worthy, worthy, worthy to being like, I'm helping an individual who has definitely had a really

tough year this year. And I can, I can spread that good will around. Yeah. Some more things on the books thing. If you aren't leaving the house, totally understandable, and you want to do everything online. hive.co.uk is a fantastic resource for books. They have every book under the sun, but they also, when you get to the checkout, they say make a donation to your local bookshop. And a little list comes up and they say, who do you want to donate some money to? And they support independent bookshops. And then something called bookshop.org has just launched to directly, sort of reclaim the book industry. And they are doing a marvelous job

and they are supporting independent bookshops, doing everything. They also are combined with a penguin, the publishing house, has joined forces with bookshop.org and neighborly.com.com. UK, which is a charity supporting communities. And for every book you buy from the penguin range,

penguin will donate that same book to a charity. Oh, lovely. So much good stuff about surrounding books there. So lovely. And that thing I know, because a lovely listener told us on Instagram. So thank you so much. Who works at Naveling. So thank you so much.

Yeah. So hive.com. UK and bookshop.org for your book needs. Brilliant. They will be, you know, they won't get there as fast as Amazon Prime, but, you know, somebody does a dance in the living room when you... Order now. Order now, yes.

Also, last year I am... I trialled out not using gift wrap, thinking that's going to be a nightmare. It's actually really fun. I already had some, like, brown string. I was like, oh, that's enough. A traditional, that's enough, I just sort of like pops and string on it. They know what I mean. But I used, you know, like, when you get deliveries and it will have, like, stuff in the actual box to, like, stop it.

I used that person to, like, wrap the presents with. also old magazines and newspapers. Genuinely, so I thought of I was like, I'm doing it, but I do feel bad because the presents are not going to look as nice. They looked charming. Were they? Were they?

Were they? Were they? No, tell me, tell me. I'm sorry. No, it just, it looked, they looked so like, and also now, you know, being sustainable is like so cool and everything. So like, like countryside and all that.

It looked great. Another, another thing that's like lovely. paper that can be made into envelopes and cards and looks adorable is old sheet music. Oh, Jesus, why. Yeah, if you got some of that hanging around. Well, there's always, I actually do because of course my classical music career. No, because I always, it's always at carbot sales and like, it's so cheap because it's, oh my God, it's so cheap.

And you can get reams and reams of sheet paper for 50p. But I use that all the time because it looks slightly old, you know, music paper. Yeah. Faded old, lovely sepia paper with music paper. with music notes on them adorable. I mean, car boot sales and charity shops as well, like absolute gold mines for like little gifts, little things. Like, you know, getting them, there's always those,

like, if you really don't know what to get somebody, there's always like those old picture frames with, like, pictures in them that you can get rid of the picture and then, like, put a collage of you, like a view in them or put like a, make a little thing for them. Like, that homemade, homemade gifts this year, especially. I think it's going to be so appreciated. Cut the stuff up. into something. With like Christmas cards as well. There are loads that I found like a couple of like

there's those are really not if you want to spend a little bit of extra money. There's like plantable cards that are massive now which are lovely which like wildflower papers and not on the high do some and also but if you're like I can't do that that's fine. If you just look like the Woodland Trust do really nice Christmas cards and if you look for this like a brand on the back of them called FSC and that means that paper has been produced ethically or sustainably. Otherwise you could make your own Christmas cards from like so for example we have a printer and then like shit paper that's got something on the other side of it or whatever you can like stick those sides together so it's just one's and then make your own Christmas cards with collage things

from magazines that would be nice wouldn't it it would be so nice and I think like oh god two years ago I made my own Christmas cards and then my I made my own stapled my own envelopes I didn't have a lot on and then sent them to people and I don't know if they're saying it because these little pom-pom Santa hats are actually not, but it's a step towards it. Absolutely a step. And so treasured, I bet. I'm not.

But this year, my friend has made, has made her own Christmas cards that are sustainable and go to a charity. So, like, I bought a few of those, and now I'm just going to send them out. But yes, Christmas cards is a good way. And also, I've been looking at reusable advent calendars, which are like, you can get like the little wooden ones

with doors and stuff. And I've already got my advent. calendar of this yet. It's not a reasonable one, but I think next year I'm going to do that because I think like it's a great, it could be like part of your Christmas festive land where you like coming up with little things to put in each of those Advent calendars and just like some chocolate, just like a crisp, like nice little things. I think it's a lovely idea. It's so sweet. But they are pricey, but I suppose it's the idea that you add up every time you buy an Advent calendar for the next. I know people, you know, who've had the Advent calendar in

the in the family for 50 years, you know, it comes out every, it comes out every year and it gets filled with the little boxes and treasures and yeah. And so obviously it's a, that would be a big investment at the first time round. But if you use that every year and it's like loved and treasured, then that's a lovely thing to, to get. On a non-expensive note, though, because a lot of those stuff, you'd be like, you know, the whole like reusing thing, you would have to have saved things the first time round in order to reuse them. But there are things you can do to save for like next year. Yes. So like, old, this sounds, better with,

the old Christmas crackers can be used to make bunting. So, like, ooh. There's, you know, the cardboard from the crackers, you can, like, cut into, like, fun shapes and just keep, or just keep the crackers in the next year. Then you, then you, like, thread them through again, like a lovely brown string or whatever. That looks beautiful.

I mean, a lot of the ethical decorations look, sound absolutely, like, foul. Like, just hang a bag of, like, orange peel over a radiator. Like, why? But, like, some of them were nice. Just get some foliage and moss. From where? Oh, so, yeah, it does involve, you know, time is money.

It involves you having thought of this last December. But, like, so our, my mom always put, my mom, she's a, you know, she's, we've got everything, actually a real hoarder. But all the Christmas cards from, all the Christmas cards go in a box. And anything that's really good. anything that has a horse on it is allowed to return every year and be put up again. My parents do that.

On string and you have a little on string. Oh, it's great. I think our generation need to get into Christmas cards this year because it's such a thing of the previous generation and we just don't do it

and I think we've got to get into it. So all the Christmas cards come out. Anything that's not nice or doesn't have a horse on it goes into the box that comes out the following year and then you cut those up next Christmas

and make the gift tags for the presents. This is bad. Dang it. Right? Yeah. Great. Yeah. So rather than feeling like it's ethical and sustainable and worthy and boring,

it's like what can I make with the stuff I already have? Like what can just be repurposed rather than buying new that's both cheaper and nicer and more fun and lovely. Let's do some more handmade things that people can do even if they're not creative. Oh, yes. If you're feeling you haven't got a lot of money jams, mass jam making, then everyone gets a home. made jam, get a lovely little bit of cut off of fabric over the top, put an elastic fan over it,

make your own labels, oh my God, adorable. Everyone will be... Yeah, you can use old jars. Use it like a pesto jar. Take the label off, no one knows. Absolutely adorable. So I'm going to like making, you can make your own candles relatively, easily and simply.

What? Yeah, it's a... Wax. You do need to have wax. You have to, like, buy loads of wax. I'm just thinking... You have to buy the fruit to make jam. You do have to put...

some expenditure. You can, if you have lots of old candles yourself that are down to the, like, there aren't going to be much more and like, so they're looking rubbish, you can melt those down into a pan. You tie your string onto the bottom. The string is the wick. It has to be sort of, it takes a bit of fath, but it is a totally achievable. And then you can put those into like, absolutely like demolishing like rented kitchens across the world. Yeah. I have fucked up in the past. Yeah, this has gone badly. I've filled the sauce pan with wax and it wasn't allowed to be used again.

Sure. You can also, you can put them into little teacups. You can do all kinds of nice, lovely things. You can write people. I mean, like, honestly, like, write someone a poem. Like, you know, the things that are just like creative and do. One thing I was younger, we did, went through a period of time of, so, you know, like, I'll take something that everyone's as much reviled.

You know, everyone's like, goo pots. You know, there's like little glass ramekins that you get from those. like fancy little desserts, things like that. And you're like, yeah, okay, fine. We used to, not goopots, but we used to like collage colors. Like getting like cheap things like a lampstand or a bowl or salad servers or whatever, they just look a bit naft. And then you can collage them with all different versions of the same color.

You know what I mean? So you just like rip up like a tally a little bit. And then you like cover it all. And then it looks quite like, it looks really cute. Tell you now it looks nice. But like craft things, yeah, that aren't over top. Or like learning to knit things like that. Where you're like, then it's like, cool, just knit everyone on a scarf.

Fine. Like those sorts of things. Yeah, I think very panicky about handmaking presents. I'm like, I can't do it. But having a go is the main part. If you're also out of, you don't want to buy a physical, if person's like, I've got too much stuff, could you sign them up to learn something this year? Could you buy them a voucher for an experience to,

learn something they've always wanted to do. Debbie, my mum recently got overwhelmed and started crying because she didn't know, didn't know Welsh. So you could see it. You could see everyone be like, uh-huh. And everyone just like making a note being like Welsh lessons by her Welsh. Christmas. Is there something the person would like to learn or do or could, you know, sign them up for a class or something? Yeah, experienced presents are way more ethical. And then also you can make it, even if you're like, well, they don't get to give them anything. You can like make them a fun like, voucher yourself. They're like, this voucher entitles the owner.

A lovely... An owl experience. Yeah. A lovely, yeah, a lovely fun. Yeah, just, I think it's just being like what's... And that's the thing is I do feel this year we have got a little bit more time on our side. We aren't sort of like hurtling, screaming from the Christmas play to the next thing to, you know, being like, oh, Sandra's taking her children to Harrods. You're like, Harrods is, it's shut. Like, you can't. You can only be making... I've never been to.

to Harrod. Oh, we got to go when I was like five. It comes out every year the picture of me. I'm wearing the most lovely little velvet dress. And I'm sat on. It's so, I mean, I don't know what it's like now. Just sat on Harrod's. Sorry, sorry. Father Christmas is there. Yes. So they do this because now is any rich people that can go, isn't it. We have to like spend over 250,000 or something. Yes, I want to say that's disgraceful about Harrods. And it wasn't like that in my day when I went. I'm sure it wasn't. And 10 years before that, you could buy a pet lion in the pet shop in Harrods. So listen, everything's changing. Food waste very quickly, that's a big problem. So obviously we overbuy so much. And at the moment, you know, well, I'm just concerned that everyone's going to buy everything and there's going to be no food for anyone at any of the supermarkets because we're all going to freak out. But aside from that, it always is a time where you're like, why do I buy 10 cans of evaporated milk? I don't even drink it because you got overexcited. I've never ever had evaporated milk.

I don't know why I use that as an example. There's an app called Olio, O-L-I-O, which connects you to, I think it's very nice, connects you to people in the local area who need the food. So if you have any excess, you like basically post it with like a little picture and it will connect you to somebody who's posted being like, does anyone have any food? Or any like local charities or like communities or food banks. So pretty much everywhere now will have a food bank within reach of your house.

So if that's always, if you've got canned things, you've got anything, direct it there because this is a very, very, obviously incredibly difficult time. It's winter. It's freezing. Pandemic. There's a lot of people who can't afford to eat. So that is always a good. And then if you were thinking just of in terms of food waste in general,

I think just there you can, I mean, we could go through like an entire podcast on like things to make from leftovers as roast dinner, but like you could do some hard Googling. But again, do it like before. When the buzz around the food's here, it's arrived, you know what you're going to make. You already know what you're going to make it into. again.

Yes. Which will be turkey sandwiches. Yeah. Or not roast sandwiches. Or turkey pie? Beef sandwiches. Or beef. Or a curry.

That's what we've got to be doing. This has been really nice. And I hope people feel empowered as the bold word I'm going to use. But at least like enthusiastic and to be like, okay, this is something I can do. And I've got the time to sort of think about it. And I'm going to make this as nice as it's going to make this as nice as it's going to be like just shift that idea from being like this is horrible for me to be like how can I make this as as nice as possible for other people you know yes and it's just one thing you can take away from it

it's just like that's enough like one little thing you go okay well I can't afford to do any of those things but hang on I can um make Christmas gift wrap for newspaper exactly that's fine I think I think take take it on in the same way that we do our adult thing like we don't list we we have we only got one but like we are one a week you wouldn't you wouldn't list like all the things you did that were amazing this Christmas. You just say, hey, this Christmas, this was my thing. This was my one thing I did that I was proud of that I, you know, but Merry, Merry Christmas, everyone. Hang in there. I hope you're doing very well. I hope you're doing okay. And yeah, I hope some of these ideas were helpful. And sign up to the gift exchange, which is in the link. Sign up to the gift

exchange in the show notes. We are at Nobody Panic Pod, as ever. I'm at Steviem. The S is a Christmas five. I'm at Tensea Goats. Tea for the C for Christmas. I mean, that works. Love that. Wait, you all year for that. Nobody Panic Podcast at gmail.com. It's the email. I've got to eat a chocolate orange now for breakfast. Amazing. Well, have a lovely week here for dinner. And you two turns out and you see.

And you too, Stevie. Merry Christmas.