Who knew that your Christmas tree, wrapping paper and leftovers could be repurposed in such brilliant ways?
Parul Sharma GAU audience writer
08:00, 29 Dec 2025
An expert has shared ways to reduce your wastage this Christmas(Image: Getty Images)
We can all agree that Christmas is a time of excess — whether that’s in relation to food, gifting, or decorations — most people tend to go all out to celebrate the festive period in December.
For those who hate wastage and are always looking for ways to reduce and reuse their waste, a former royal gardener has shared how to do just that over this festive season — by redirecting the waste to your gardens and making them bloom.
A Christmas tree is usually the centrepiece of decorations in a house, but it can prove to be a large and wasteful item — especially once the festive period is over. The key lies in knowing what to do with it once Christmas is over.
Jack Stooks, who worked at Highgrove for 20 years, has partnered with Heart Bingo to share his top-tips on how to repurpose a Christmas tree for your gardens after December 25.
Jack Stooks worked at Highgrove for 20 years(Image: Instagram)
King Charles’s former gardener shares: “The problem we’re seeing nowadays is a massive throwaway society. After one use at Christmas, they are chucked out to be recycled. Instead, that tree should go straight through a shredder and be turned into a woodchip that can be composted.
“There’s really no way you can use a dead tree in the garden — it just starts to look vile as soon as it goes brown. But if you’ve got a shredder, you can shred it into woodchips to use on your garden borders or put it into your compost. The easiest option for most people with a fire or wood burner is to let it dry, chop it up, and burn it.”
It’s imperative not to forget about the lights and baubles on the tree, warns Jack: “There is also the added problem of people leaving Christmas lights, plastic baubles, tinsel on the trees, which obviously can’t be recycled in this way, so this just creates another problem later on.”
The gardening expert adds: “Another thing I would advise to do, would be to get your Christmas tree and cut the branches off. The wood can be used on an open fire and slowly burned over a few weeks — but it needs to be dried out first.
“This is then essentially a free way of keeping your house warm, as it’s free wood, whilst getting rid of your tree in a sustainable way. If you don’t have an open fire, then you should still chop it up and put it into the recycling bin. Chopped up is easier for people to take away if needed as well.”
Leftovers lead to excessive wastage over Christmas, but they can be reused in gardens(Image: iStockphoto/SolStock)
Speaking about the growing trend of Christmas trees with roots, Jack says: “You can actually get Christmas trees with roots now, and they are obviously beneficial as they tend to last longer in your house. You can keep them watered and then you can either put them into bigger pots and keep them going into the summer, or even plant them out into your gardens and then re-buy a new Christmas tree next year.”
Leftovers are another aspect of Christmastime that contribute to excessive wastage. Elaborating on ways one can use their Christmas leftovers in gardens, Jack has revealed some ways in which they can be put to work.
The gardening expert shares: “Ideally, if you’ve got anything that’s not cooked, like vegetable or potato peelings — all of those kinds of things, that’s always perfect to put in the compost. So there’s no need to waste cooked food, but any of the raw peelings, like I say, that’s all compostable and quite easy to go into the compost for use in the garden next year.”
So what should one do with leftover cooked food? The former royal gardener elaborates: “You don’t want to be putting cooked products into the compost. For cooked foods, what you’d want to do with that is use it up in soups or stock, or even in pet food. Avoid anything containing garlic, onion or chocolate though if giving to dogs.”
Jack has suggested ways through which wrapping paper can be used in gardens(Image: fcafotodigital via Getty Images)
There’s another festive-time item that, if disposed incorrectly, can lead to major wastage, and that is wrapping paper. Luckily, Jack has suggested ways through which wrapping paper can be used in gardens.
The ex-Highgrove employee shares: “You can shred paper and you can add it into the compost and that will just slowly rot down. This is useful if you have a small amount of paper from a small gathering or something, but if you have large amounts then it’s a bit harder. Just make sure you are putting small amounts in there at a time. A reasonable amount can be shredded and composted.”
It’s important to be careful with wrapping paper that has a metallic side to it, cautions Jack, as he urges people to check which type of paper they’re trying to get rid of.
The celebrity gardener adds: “You can also recycle wrapping paper into mulch to regulate soil temperatures and prevent weeds. It’s the same principle — if you’re making it into compost, you can use that on the borders. Paper’s made out of wood pulp, so it’s similar to wood chippings.
“But if you shred your paper and chuck it on your border, the wind will blow it everywhere. You’re better off composting it, mixing it into the compost, and then adding it to the soil once it’s rotted down.”
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