Merry Thriftmas! Holiday tips from a Sask. sustainability pro

On a brisk December morning in Saskatoon, before the malls began to hum with frantic footsteps and holiday playlists on loop, Launne Kolla pushed open the door of a quiet thrift store.

The air smelled of old books and pine-scented candles donated last January — a strangely comforting pairing that seems to show up in every secondhand shop this time of year.

Kolla, the co-founder of Reroute, proudly calls herself a sustainability expert. For her, this is where Christmas really begins.

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“Thrifting, with the nostalgia, with the slowness of it, it’s a treasure hunt,” she said, walking between aisles stacked with vintage ornaments, tins and figurines. “It’s like, ‘What am I going to find?’”

Her pace is unhurried, almost reverent. And that’s the point.

“I think it just brings that magic back into Christmas,” she said. “It slows your pace down a bit when you’re shopping. It’s very thoughtful, very intentional… It just brings some of that magic back.”

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Christmas decorations fill aisle after aisle. Chances are, you’ll find something that reminds you of your childhood Christmas experiences. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

The rediscovery

A decade ago, secondhand Christmas shopping was something done quietly, not celebrated. Kolla remembers those days.

“Some people thought it was kind of gross,” she said, veering off toward a set of vintage wine goblets that caught her eye. “Whereas now it’s really come back to life. It’s saving so many items from the landfill. But also, you can’t find those items in box stores. You find something that you’re like, ‘Oh, that really reminded me of my grandma.’ Or, ‘I should get this for my mom, because that would really remind her of her mom.'”

That feeling — recognition, memory, connection — is what she chases.

A blast from Christmases past. Kolla said secondhand shopping is the perfect way to track down items full of nostalgia. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

In one aisle, she stopped suddenly, lifting a kitschy Ogopogo plate from the shelf. It’s the kind of quirky, unexpected find that only ever appears in places like this.

She laughed softly, turning it over in her hands. This is the sort of object that jumps out when you’re not shopping for something new, but for something that feels right.

“I think when the person receives that gift, they kind of understand that you didn’t just grab this from Amazon,” Kolla said. “It’s a very intentional, ‘Hey, I found this for you and I really thought you would enjoy it.’”

The pressure cooker of Christmas

The magic of this season competes with something heavier: pressure.

“To be honest, gift giving is something that really stresses me out,” Kolla confessed as she inspected a bag filled with rubber ducks, the perfect present for her duck loving toddler. “Shopping can be stressful, and probably is for a lot of people.”

Christmas has a way of turning generosity into obligation, joy into checklists. There are office parties and teacher gifts and Secret Santas with spending limits nobody sticks to.

Yet this year, Kolla feels calm. “I got so much done today myself with second hand items, and I’m so thrilled that they’re secondhand.”

She expects most of her gifting this year to be secondhand, local, consumable or experiential.

Not because she’s anti-Christmas. Because she’s pro-magic.

From decor to wrapping to cards, you can find pretty much all of your Christmas essentials in secondhand stores. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Kids don’t need the box

In the toy aisle, Kolla makes a point that many parents need to hear.

“Everyone thinks they need to get their kid the newest thing in the box,” she said. “But when it comes to kids, they don’t care.”

She lifts a doll still wrapped in stiff, shiny packaging.

“It’s in plastic, and then you have to take the twist ties off. That’s almost more hindrance,” she laughed. “Kids don’t care about that. They just want what you get them, and they don’t care that it’s new.”

Some may see a bag filled to the brim with rubber ducks as an obscure item to purchase. Kolla saw it as the perfect gift for her toddler this Christmas. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

And secondhand isn’t just easier on the wallet. It often leads you to things you’d never find new.

“You can find anything secondhand if you take the time to search for it,” Kolla explained.

She said she often uses Facebook Marketplace, setting alerts for items on a loved one’s wishlist. From rare specific Barbies, hard-to-find books, even vintage Lego sets, if you’re looking for it, there’s likely someone selling it.

From new decor still in its original packaging to vintage gems like this, there’s a wide variety of Christmas magic just waiting to be found in thrift stores around the province. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

The most wasteful season of all

It’s impossible to talk about Christmas without talking about waste. And Kolla knows the numbers by heart.

“Christmas is just the most wasteful season,” she lamented. “Our waste increases by 25% between November to January. Canadians throw out 540,000 tonnes of wrapping paper alone.”

Her tips for reducing waste during the season of giving are straightforward, the kind you can actually use without feeling overwhelmed.

“Just using what you have is the number one sustainability tip you can get,” she said. “You don’t need to buy all this Christmas junk just because it’s Christmas.”

Real plates over paper or plastic ones. Menus scaled to the actual number of guests. A focus on memories, not mountains of stuff.

“The consumption isn’t the magic of Christmas,” she said gently. “The magic is being together. Making those memories, having those experiences.”

Kolla said you can often tell what tree decoration colours were trendy last year based on what is filling thrift store shelves this year. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Wrapping, reimagined

At the back of the store, bins overflow with holiday tins, gift bags and stacks of cards — previously loved, still full of potential.

Kolla shared one of her favorite at-home hacks for giving old holiday cards a second life. “I’ll cut them out into smaller pieces and use them as gift tags, so that you don’t have to buy gift tags or the plastic sticker ones.”

Her family wraps gifts in fabric bags, thrifted linens, any type of covering that can be reused or repurposed.

“My mom usually wraps my gifts in a towel, or a tea towel… which is really pretty,” she said.

Kolla has a tip for anyone with mountains of Christmas cards on their hands at the end of each holiday season: cut them up and use them as next year’s gift tags! (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

And if you’re still using paper, she offered one simple rule: “If you can rip it, you can recycle it.”

Skip the shiny, metallic, glitter-covered rolls.

This year, thanks to SARCAN’s expanded recycling program, even more soft plastics can be diverted from the landfill.

“So really, this Christmas should be less wasteful in Saskatchewan if people are using those services,” she said.

Shelves at thrift stores around the province are overflowing with coffee mugs. Kolla suggested putting a basket together with some unique mugs and coffee from a local business as a great gift to use in an exchange. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

A new kind of Christmas story

By the time Kolla left the thrift store, her basket was full — a wooden puzzle, picture frames, craft supplies, a handful of ornaments that are sure to spark nostalgia in the people receiving them.

But her load is light. Because this kind of Christmas shopping doesn’t drain you. It fills you.

“Buy less, do less, consume less,” Kolla said as she stepped out of the thrift store into the crisp winter air. “And just be present in the moment.”