An eco-conscious mum determined to reduce her environmental impact during the festive season helped her son write a green wish list to Father Christmas. Like many children, Darshan Cole had a long list of presents ready months before Christmas. His heart desired a pirate ship, building blocks and a mini-kitchen - as well as a lot of other toys. The only thing standing in between the eight-year-old and a very merry Christmas was his mum Lorelei. The 34-year-old takes her responsibility to the planet very seriously and tries to limit to damage she causes to the environment as much as possible. While she can go to great lengths reducing her impact, it is less easy convincing her boy to think about pollution over presents. On the list were a string of toys made from plastic - which is made from fossil fuels and can wreak havoc on the environment by refusing to degrade for thousands of years. Luckily Darshan was open to a bit of parental guidance. "Inevitably he does have plastic toys, things he got as presents," said Lorelei, who spoke to MirrorOnline as part of its Climate Edition. "He also had quite a few plastic toys on his list to Father Christmas. "So we had a conversation about it and asked him 'do you want that particular item or is there an alternative?' "He is quite thoughtful about these things and aware of the impact." The mum then set about looking for eco-alternatives ahead of the big day. Instead of a foam bow and arrow, she purchased a much more durable wooden set from the National Trust - which will last longer, doesn't take thousands of years to degrade and wasn't made from hydrocarbons. Also on the wood theme, Darshan's requests for puzzles coated in plastic, a plastic play kitchen and a plastic pierate ship were met - but with wooden alternatives. When it came to stocking fillers, Lorelei got a little creative in a bid to avoid going down the quick-and-easy but environmentally damaging route of little plastic toys. She bought wooden pick-up sticks and a origami book for kids, which Darshan has used to make little figures out of recycled pieces of paper. In an attempt to find an alternative to his request for plastic toy animals, Lorelei slipped a Gruffalo pop-up book into his stocking. The mum and dad are keen to get Darshan involved in the pre-Christmas preparations by hand decorating recycled brown paper with wooden stamps and pencils to use as wrapping paper. There is one particular thing made of plastic that Lorelei is willing to splash out on. "I bought a huge bucket of second hand Lego for Darshan when he was really young, the friend I bought it from said they had got a lot of it second hand," she said. "We do still buy some Lego sets but most of it is durable and can be passed on." Lorelei, who works for sustainable green energy company Pure Planet, has also applied her environmental approach to presents when it was Darshan's birthday. She said: "At a lot of kids' parties you get a party
Mum has green Christmas by buying sustainable alternatives of son’s Santa list
An eco-conscious mum determined to reduce her environmental impact during the festive season helped her son write a green wish list to Father Christmas. Like many children, Darshan Cole had a long list of presents ready months before Christmas. His heart desired a pirate ship, building blocks and a mini-kitchen - as well as a lot of other toys. The only thing standing in between the eight-year-old and a very merry Christmas was his mum Lorelei. The 34-year-old takes her responsibility to the planet very seriously and tries to limit to damage she causes to the environment as much as possible. While she can go to great lengths reducing her impact, it is less easy convincing her boy to think about pollution over presents. On the list were a string of toys made from plastic - which is made from fossil fuels and can wreak havoc on the environment by refusing to degrade for thousands of years. Luckily Darshan was open to a bit of parental guidance. "Inevitably he does have plastic toys, things he got as presents," said Lorelei, who spoke to MirrorOnline as part of its Climate Edition. "He also had quite a few plastic toys on his list to Father Christmas. "So we had a conversation about it and asked him 'do you want that particular item or is there an alternative?' "He is quite thoughtful about these things and aware of the impact." The mum then set about looking for eco-alternatives ahead of the big day. Instead of a foam bow and arrow, she purchased a much more durable wooden set from the National Trust - which will last longer, doesn't take thousands of years to degrade and wasn't made from hydrocarbons. Also on the wood theme, Darshan's requests for puzzles coated in plastic, a plastic play kitchen and a plastic pierate ship were met - but with wooden alternatives. When it came to stocking fillers, Lorelei got a little creative in a bid to avoid going down the quick-and-easy but environmentally damaging route of little plastic toys. She bought wooden pick-up sticks and a origami book for kids, which Darshan has used to make little figures out of recycled pieces of paper. In an attempt to find an alternative to his request for plastic toy animals, Lorelei slipped a Gruffalo pop-up book into his stocking. The mum and dad are keen to get Darshan involved in the pre-Christmas preparations by hand decorating recycled brown paper with wooden stamps and pencils to use as wrapping paper. There is one particular thing made of plastic that Lorelei is willing to splash out on. "I bought a huge bucket of second hand Lego for Darshan when he was really young, the friend I bought it from said they had got a lot of it second hand," she said. "We do still buy some Lego sets but most of it is durable and can be passed on." Lorelei, who works for sustainable green energy company Pure Planet, has also applied her environmental approach to presents when it was Darshan's birthday. She said: "At a lot of kids' parties you get a party
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