Vegan Design Holiday Guide: How to Create Stylish, Cruelty-Free Holiday Décor

The holidays are a time for warmth, beauty, and connection. Instead of filling your home with items produced in toxic, cruel processes, you can preserve spirit of the season by choosing home décor that reflects compassionate holiday values. A vegan holiday home avoids materials that harm animals like wool, feathers, leather, silk, beeswax, and instead works with plant-based, recycled, and cruelty-free design.

This guide breaks down multiple holiday styles, with ideas for how to create a cozy, elegant, and fully vegan home for the season.

Decorations

Unfortunately, many holiday decorations can be toxic and manufactured using materials that harm animals. Many shiny decorations contain PVC that has been shown to be harmful for health, and there are so many other materials used in the production of decorations —  such as glue made from animal products — that are cruel or detrimental to the environment.

Instead of gravitating towards all that glitters (but has a harmful effect), think recycled metallics, upcycled ornaments, and natural foraging (pinecones, branches, dried citrus slices).

Ornaments

Here are a few ideas for ornaments and decorations that harmonize with nature and make your home more beautiful:

Natural, plant-based materials: Wood, metal, ceramic, felt made from plant fibers (not wool)

Foraged and kitchen cabinet items: Dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, star anise, pine-cones, tree branches and vegan gingerbread ornaments

Recycled, natural ornaments: Try recycled-glass ornaments that are re-formed in beautiful and unique ways, or you can make your own ornaments from upcycled old metal and other materials – even from packaging, home DIY or manmade objects

Paper Ornaments: Paper ornaments (Scandi-style) are beautiful and unique, and they can be hand-made, which creates a holiday tradition of crafting kids can engage with.

Vegan Garland Ideas

The following are just a few tried and tested garland ideas, but you can create many variations using many different materials:

• Popcorn and cranberry strings
• Paper chains
• Twine and dried fruit
• Olive-branch garlands
• Cotton-fiber macrame garlands
• Branches, greenery and berries

The Vegan Holiday “Tree”

The holiday tree is the heart of winter decorating, but you don’t have to go with a traditional tree. In fact it’s often often better to skip cut trees and go with an alternative, or a living tree that can be used year after year.

Tree Options:

Potted living trees — can be replanted or kept year after year.

Responsibly sourced FSC-certified cut trees — there are no animal products used these trees, but bear in mind that forestry can have some harmful affects on the environment so choose wisely

Artificial trees made with paper or cruelty-free, non-toxic products

Creative alternatives — wall-mounted branch trees, stacked-book trees, or minimalist wooden trees.

Keeping things Cozy without Cruelty

Holiday coziness often leans on wool, fur, or cashmere, but the vegan world has amazing alternatives.

These include

• Organic-cotton throws
• Recycled polyester blankets
• Bamboo fiber blankets
• Linen or hemp table runners and stockings

Vegan Holiday Lighting & Candles

Vegan, sustainable alternatives include:

• Soy or coconut-wax candles
• LED flameless candles
• Paper lanterns & string lights
• Salt lamps and lamps with natural or handmade holiday shades that scatter light or create colored light

Vegan Gift Wrap

Gift-wrapping is one of the richest opportunities for creativity when it comes to the holidays. There is no limit to how creative you can be, and one of the best things about vegan holiday gift wrapping is that it can be an opportunity to reuse old materials in creative ways. From brown paper carrier bags, to old gift-wrap, to tissue paper, or even old t-shirts, there many ways to create enticing gift-wrapping.

Try a few of the following:

• Fabric wrapping (Furoshiki)
• Recycled kraft paper
• Handmade tags from scrap paper
• Gift bags made from old fabric
• Twine, dried leaves or dried flowers
• Recycled tissue paper from old purchases, or paper carrier bags

Support for a Stylish, Creative Vegan Holiday

If you are rethinking the holidays from a vegan perspective, our vegan interior design consultants at Earth Science Design can help you come up with creative ways to embrace a compassionate holiday season. There are many emerging vegan materials and alternatives that our team can suggest. We also encourage creativity and resourcefulness for those who are ready to bring talents in arts and crafts to the home. We have offices in San Diego, CA and Bozeman, MT and we consult with people nationally and internationally. Contact us to speak to a member of our vegan, compassionate design team.