WasteLess Wonderland
24 November to 22 December
About WasteLess Wonderland
Westgate Oxford present WasteLess Wonderland – a Christmas market with a difference
Keeping sustainability in mind, Westgate Oxford is presenting a brand new, alternative Christmas experience this festive season.
In partnership with Charity Super.Mkt, WasteLess Wonderland is a Christmas market with a difference, supporting incredible organisations such as TRAID, Sobell Hospice and many more.
Get ready for an eclectic line-up of attractions, events and experiences! For the musically minded, there will be an opportunity to play your favourite Christmas tunes with The Junk Orchestra’s giant Music Mushrooms.
There will also be plenty of food to keep you fuelled, including tasty relishes made from surplus fruit and veg from the Wonky Food Company, street food dishes from the Climatarian Kitchen, and delicious Middle Eastern food from Damascus Rose, a social enterprise supporting refugee women in Oxford.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s ample opportunity to get hands-on in the lead-up to Christmas.
Friday Lates
Each Friday will see WasteLess Wonderland host ‘Friday Lates’ from 5.00 to 9.00pm.
Guests can look forward to a pop-up bar from Toast, with the company’s award-winning craft beer brewed with surplus fresh bread that would otherwise go to waste – plus, to make that pint even more feel-good, Toast’s profits go to charities working to fix a wasteful food system.
Friday Lates will also include the ‘Recycled DJ Party’ with Charity Shop DJ, using vinyl records sourced solely from charity shops. Guests can pick a record, get behind the turntables and have a go at being a DJ themselves, dedicating their tracks to loved ones.
Free workshops
Star-making workshop by The Wood Shop
25 and 26 November at 12.30pm and 3.00pm
Charlie is transporting his studio to Westgate, Oxford, for this very special two-day Studio-Workshop experience. Participants will have the chance to see how a small-scale design studio works and join in a star-making workshop – adapting, fixing, overlaying and uniting wasted wood to design their own star decorations.
Charlie Boyden is a young British designer, artist and maker working with wood and other playful materials. From his studio workshop in East London, he prototypes and makes objects of strange desires. Charlie Boyden has designed and created the stars entirely made out of wood waste offcuts and surplus samples donated from East London Design and Architect studios.
Sustainable wreath making by Strength and Stem
01 and 08 December from 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Learn how to make your own festive wreath using seasonal foliage and decorative elements such as dried flowers, berries and fruits. You’ll come away with a beautiful personalised Christmas decoration to festive-up your home or to give a loved one as a gift!
Strength & Stem is a social enterprise florist that exists to help modern slavery survivors recover from their trauma, become empowered for the future, and sustain a good quality of life.
Party wardrobe upcycling workshop
02 December – Noon to 1.00pm, 2.30pm to 3.30pm, and 5.00pm to 6.00pm
Christmas is the busiest time of the year when it comes to social engagements, and during this period, you’re often led to think you need to buy something new for that upcoming office party or family gathering. Team up with Chloe Baines in an upcycling workshop and breathe new life into garments you already own.
From shortening an evening gown to turning your pullover into a reversible Christmas jumper, reinvent your most treasured Xmas party outfits with Chloe Baines. Chloe strives to implement positive change through the experimental use of recycled materials within the fashion industry.
Christmas your jumper
03 December from Noon to 1.00pm, 2.30pm to 3.30pm, and 5.00pm to 6.00pm
07 December is Christmas jumper day, but why spend money on something that only gets worn once a year, only to go to the charity shop or landfill. Instead, bring along a loved jumper and adorn it with your very own festive customisation.
Furoshiki wrapping workshop
09 December at 11.00am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 4.00pm and 7.00pm
Jane will share a range of easy applications for this versatile wrapping cloth using simple furoshiki techniques. Discover how to wrap items for carrying, gifting and decorating. Once you have the basics, you’ll discover all sorts of ways to use your beautiful furoshiki.
The workshop is perfect for anyone who hasn’t tried Furoshiki wrapping before or if you are looking for hints and tips to improve your wrapping skills.
Wrappers delight with Lucy Grainge
10 December at 11.00am, 12.30pm and 3.00pm
Come along to ‘Wrappers Delight’, a printing workshop that will say goodbye to plastic wrapping paper. Using a variety of printing techniques, Lucy Grainge’s workshop will transform boring brown parcel paper into sheets of colourful, personalised gift wrapping.
Lucy Grainge is an artist and designer. Her practice explores colour, shape and pattern working across printmaking, graphic design and installations. Lucy is interested in collaborative and community-centred projects and is a co-founder of Wiggle Wonderland, a touring arts pavilion which has been to Brainchild Festival, Honnilands Primary School, London Festival of Architecture, National Memorial Arboretum and most recently, London Design Festival.
Make a Christmas decoration with Alice Veevers
16 December at 12.30pm and 3.30pm
This workshop is an opportunity to build and make your very own Christmas decoration, working with a variety of natural environment-found materials, offcuts and waste materials such as yarn, threads, metals and paper. Not only kind to the planet but also calming, this therapeutic exercise will help you create beautiful decorations for your home this Christmas.
Alice Veevers is a Textile Designer and Art Technician based in London. Her practice is analogue and direct – she cuts, sticks, inverts and imagines her own versions of patterns, texture, colour and shape.
