Eco-friendly Christian Christmas cards

One of Blushful Earth's eco-friendly plantable Christmas cards

On the eve of the COP26 UN Climate Conference, with just four weeks before the start of Advent - Blushful Earth Handmade announce the release of their latest Christian and eco-friendly Christmas cards....

As the year turned to Autumn and Winter and as Christmas cards became available for sale in our church vestibule, after Sunday Mass the parish priest would always finish with the words: "we must ensure that we keep Christ in Christmas". His warning didn't seem much to me back then, in fact it seemed unbelievable that there could be Christmas without Christ. But twenty years later Christmas has become transformed by the non-Christian seasonal symbols of our secular world. My former priest saw this at its early stages, a campaign which I knew nothing about, but which is now identifiable not just in cards, but also shopping centre displays, television advertisements and local street illuminations.

Back then, I didn't envisage that I would be making my own Christmas cards and so doing my bit to "keep Christ in Christmas". It was in 2015 when I started making ethical stationery which embodied my Christian faith; I was working as a nurse then, and it was a creative hobby. Now I work at it full-time and it is a family business - Blushful Earth Handmade. I use no plastic, everything is biodegradable even the corn-starch packaging, and my most popular range is cards printed on paper containing wildflower and herb seeds which are plantable after use and from which bee-friendly plants will grow.

This year I have two Christmas card themes, all made with natural materials and fully biodegradable:

The first is based on caring for the creatures who were Jesus' companions at His birth. I was given the idea by the charity Catholic Concern for Animals and the words on their website: "God created the earth and all that lives in it". I also based them on words from the hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem: "How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given" which to me describes how the life of animals is often one of silent suffering in factory farms and yet how they were silently present at our Lord's birth. Finally, I thought of the hymn "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small".

I do not know of any other cards that focus on animals at Christmas in this way. It is my hope that these cards will make people not just think about Jesus' birth, but also of the silent suffering that many of these same animals endure at Christmas, to remind people of this as they sit down to eat some stuffed turkey, goose or pig.

My second theme is directly focussed on "keeping Christ in Christmas". It centres around words from hymns and in particular: "Remember Christ our saviour was born on Christmas day". All these cards remind people of the nativity by ten different designs each with an illustration and words from a different well-known traditional hymn.

Keep Christ in Christmas cards are available from my website: www.blushfulearth.co.uk/handmade and also from my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BlushfulEarth. All are available in printed on either recycled grass paper, plantable wild flower seed paper or plantable herb seed paper. Individual cards are available but there is also a bulk discount for orders placed by churches. I try to keep traditional methods of payment so accept cheque as well as bank transfer. I am based in Caithness and can post to anywhere in the UK.