Given’s 2021 agency’s rather unusual Christmas card

Creative Solutions Green Solutions

This year, for its agency Christmas card, Given has given an iconic Christmas tradition – building a gingerbread house – a sustainable twist. Instead of a standard Christmas card, the agency has created a short film for clients, suppliers and the world which features a baker making an eco friendly, vegan gingerbread house. The film will showcase some of the planet saving actions that everyone can take at home, and serve as a Christmas card for clients that reflects Given’s purpose and sustainability values.

Given’s planet friendly gingerbread film sees a baker crafting what looks like a traditional Christmas gingerbread house from scratch in a homely, festive looking kitchen, but adding the most sustainable, modern home innovations with biscuit and icing. As the walls and roof are constructed, gingerbread heat pumps and solar panels are added, explaining the importance of making gas and oil heating a thing of the past. At the back of the house, a water butt preserves rainwater, joining a compost bin for food waste. An EV charging point is iced onto the side of the house and a wild garden added to keep the insect population happy.

The film, with its baking mechanic and gingerbread house protagonist, has all the cinnamon and sugar warmth of a Christmas hug but communicates an important, topical reminder about the need for us all to make our homes and lives more sustainable.

Becks Williams, creative director at Given, said: ‘We wanted to create an actionable agency Christmas card that reflects our brand values but was also festive and fun. Representing serious and important planet saving innovations for the home and how we live there using gingerbread and icing is not only Christmassy, it makes sustainable changes appealing and accessible. This closely reflects the challenges our agency faces every day in our work with brands and business. When it comes to sustainability and purpose work, if we focus on the enormity of the task ahead rather than what’s possible right now, the world may never get started.’

The finished sustainable gingerbread house shown in the film will feature in Given’s ‘The Uncook Book: How to Unbake the Planet,’ as pro baker Kylie Alla’s entry. She is responding to Given’s Open Call for international artists, illustrators and makers of all kinds to decode and communicate science’s most powerful solutions to the climate emergency.