That's a Wrap

I remember as a child, many years ago, watching my grandmother on Christmas morning. She would carefully gather every scrap of wrapping paper, each ribbon and bow, smooth them out and then pack them away to save for the following year.

After she had passed away, we were cleaning out her house and found the front closet full of carefully ironed and folded wrapping paper, ribbons wound around tubes for storage and boxes with bows stacked neatly inside. I remember sitting on the floor and looking through these items - some of the paper had been reused for several years and it brought to mind gifts that it had enclosed and the thought and care that had gone into wrapping them up carefully to surprise us on Christmas Day. Somehow, a cheaply-made gift bag from the $1 store doesn't quite carry the same meaning.

Many of our grandparents saved, reused and recycled because they had come through the Depression, had little money, and knew that it was thrifty to do so. But they were also reducing their footprint on our planet by doing this. Now we should be carrying on some of these traditions and doing the same.

Here are some alternatives to gift wrap:

• paper bags, which can also be decorated with markers, stamps....add your personal touch


• cardboard tubes can also be decorated and have small goodies tucked inside


• newspaper - my family favourite....then you can light your fire with it afterwards


• save your Happy Meal/Kids meal bags from fast food restaurants - very colourful


• give gifts wrapped in reusable shopping bags - better to pay $1 for those than $1 for a gift bag that will rip and be thrown out


• sew some colourful bags from fabric and save them to use year after year


• wrap a gift within a gift ie. buy a tea towel to wrap a kitchen gadget it, get a tool box to wrap up a new tool, a pencil box to hold a small toy for a child...


• AND, on Christmas Day after all the fun of opening, do what I do and scavenge for anything and everything that can be reused again next year! ( this also saves money )
  

Check out this website for more great ideas.

http://www.eartheasy.com/gift_wrapping.htm

Please add your own earth-friendly wrapping ideas by adding a comment to this entry.