One of my basic questions for this year was how to make the annual Christmas fest of spending, affluence and overconsumption into something sustainable, as a party of joy and sharing without the big spending that is normally associated with Christmas.

The answer was a lot easier than I thought – especially since we made Dumpster Diving a frequent activity here at the house, which started as a very practical way of feeding our hungry casa-visitors without emptying our wallets but turned quickly into our normal way of living.

Three delegates of the house therefore started already three days ahead of Christmas, bringing back home bags full of food from the market-dumpsters; good food that otherwise would have been thrown away. And each day, this food was only piling up…

Christmas eve itself was great. We had around 17 people coming over, everyone was participating in one way or the other to create the right setting for a perfect celebration – and although the laughing went on for the whole night, the day after I was fresh enough to hitch to my hometown & to have a great time with my family.

part of the xmass crew

Casa - Xmass crew