What to do with your unwanted holiday-related items?

As we approach the end of the festive season, it’s this time of year to get rid of some holiday-related items, and one non-profit organization is encouraging Edmontonians to donate their Christmas trees and decorations for a good cause!

“Anything that’s not broken are highly encouraged to bring it to Goodwill,” said Steven Lancaster, the store manager of Goodwill Industries of Alberta.

Goodwill Alberta hires people who have a self-disclosed disability, language barrier, or things that make it hard for them to find employment.

“We’ve honestly helped over 100 more Albertans with disabilities or barriers to find employment this year than we did in previous years. It becomes that full circle of contribution back to the economy and back to the city,” said Dough Roxburgh, a spokesperson for Goodwill Industries of Alberta.

In tough times like we saw in 2024, Goodwill can also help households save a few dollars during the Christmas season.

“Small ones, $20 to $30. An expensive tree for us is like $150 to $200. Once we get to Christmas time, boxing week then they’re 50 and then 75 per cent off pick up a tree for $10 to $30,” said Lancaster while talking about Christmas trees.

Lancaster says all donated items in Goodwill’s thrift stores end up helping someone.

“What doesn’t sell in the store goes to our outlet where they sell it by the pound so people get a last chance and then most of what’s left over, we can recycle,” said Lancaster.

Roxburgh adding, “If you donate your old Christmas bulbs, we can actually recycle the electronic portion. We can help with the recycling initiatives or the sustainability initiatives to keep the item out of the landfill.”

A spokesperson for Goodwill says this year has seen the most donations of used household items with over 900,000 donations anticipated, compared to used household items across the province which is up 7 per cent in 2023 with 855,000 donations.