4 Steps to a Greener Holiday with Wrapping Paper
This post is a part of A Greener Christmas Guide, a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the holidays with a lighter impact on the earth. For more of this series, please visit A Greener Christmas Guide.
Is there anything more enchanting than Christmas morning when your family rushes into the living room to see all of the beautiful presents with their fancy bows and pretty wrapping papers? All the paper starts flying as delighted people begin ripping into the pile of gifts. We forget about all that packaging and focus on the gifts it was hiding.
But what if you didn’t think about the gifts one Christmas morning? What if you thought about all the trash your family just generated in that short time instead? And then you started thinking about how every family in town was generating garbage? Or everyone in the country? Americans generate wrapping paper waste to the tune of 4 million tons every year. (insert panic attack) I wonder how many gallons of milk that is.
I read that there’s going to be a 25% increase in the trash Americans generate during the holidays, and I decided a big change was needed. So this Christmas, my family is fighting to decrease waste. I told you about our greener Christmas cards, and now, it’s on to the wrapping paper.
Our Greener Christmas Challenge:
We’re curbing the flow of paper waste this Christmas by wrapping every single present in products that would have gone straight to the garbage can or recycling bin. That’s everything from wrapping paper to bows. (If you can think of a solution for tape, I’ll do that, too.) The funny thing is that this challenge really isn’t going to be all that hard like I originally thought. I just started thinking about all of the materials destined for our dumpsters, and ideas started popping into my head. Wish I were this good at finding the gifts to go in them.
We’re wrapping all of our gifts by…
1. Reusing Products as Wrapping Paper and Bows
This is the coolest free wrapping of all! Today, blueprints are just stacks of enormous sheets of white paper printed on one side. They’re perfect for stamping and painting as unique wrapping paper if you find unused ones… which isn’t hard. I called up the general contractor in my hometown in the US, and they’re putting together a pile of prints for me that were never used. Contractors throw away heaps of untouched blueprints because they get so many revisions for a project. I called a general contractor in my hometown, and they’re putting together a pile of prints for me. Read about how we used blueprints here.
So there’s the old standby of the funnies page. But how about some German newsprint? I think that would be cool in the US. And Martha Stewart’s got some cool ads that could become bows. We’ll teach you next week.
I’m thinking country Christmas here – cute fabric ribbons that otherwise land in the trash, fun scrap pompoms…
Do you still have maps from your summer vacation or sheet music no one would want to read? We stick to digital maps as much as possible, but there’s always the occasional map floating around, I bet.
When you use foil, does it get dirty? Or do you just toss it? Stay tuned for some aluminum ribbon ideas.
2. Simple Reusable Items
Homemade bags that could be used by the recipient later on – how easy and cool. Check out this easy tutorial to make bags of your own in a few minutes.
My mom always makes pillowcases at Christmas, then she pops a present or two in them. So easy. So useful.
One of our readers, Emily, suggested this idea. She says, “This christmas we are giving reusable shopping bags ($1.99- same price as some gift bags) to family and friends and packing the gift into the bag.” Isn’t that an awesome idea? Go Emily!
3. Tree-free and recycled wrapping paper for sale
If these ideas sound too rustic and the Martha Stewart look is a must, try shopping for greener wrapping products that meet these requirements:
Like with your Christmas cards, I’m not sure WalMart’s caught on to this environmental importance. You might want to shop these places. Their choices are to die for. Except, you know, they’re not toxic, so you won’t actually die, and neither will any trees:
4. You ready to spill your brilliance?
This is where you step in with a few ideas for all of us. Pretty please, won’t you share? Send pictures of your wrapped gifts for us to all ooh and awe at. You’d be my BFF if you flashed us a little green thinking, you know. And let us know about other green wrapping ideas you’ve got tucked away. We’d love to hear ‘em.
(First image from Martha Stewart; all others from Flickr)
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Wow, what creative ways to wrap presents. Yes, I will take part in the challenge to “green” my wrapping paper. I am very excited to read your future blogs that teach us how to make bows out of old aluminum foil…. Thanks for the great read Katie!
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Love your blog, and love this post – great ideas and resources!
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:28 pm
These are all such great ideas. I do re-save wrapping paper & gift bags, but I really like the idea of maps and blueprints. How creative!
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:12 am
what a great post katie! i save everything to re use…to a fault i guess. but i can’t throw away any thing….it use to be called ‘cheap’…now what would you know? it’s chic! since it’s all about ‘going green!’ i love that!
one thing i love to do is use old yarn…to tie around cards and boxes :) also i like to place little pretties inside a ball of yarn and present a gift like that. the kids love to unwind the ball and find a little something :)
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
We have used fabric gift bags for several years. They just keep getting passed around each year. The person who receives it, keeps it and uses it the next year if they are giving something that fits in it. I may need to make more this year.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
These are some great ideas! Creative AND good for the environment.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Love the idea of the foreign newspaper, I just saw something wrapped in a Chinese paper and it was so cute but where do you get foreign papers? Barnes and Noble?? I also saw the picture you had of a mouse that looked like it was made from a ball of old tin foil and it’s eyes were from cupcake papers…very cute….How are the Thanksgiving plans coming??
November 24th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I love all these ideas – thank you for making me think so eco-friendly this holiday season!
November 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I was hoping you’d do a post on wrapping presents as part of your series. I try to use the reusable bags as often as I can. I love the foreign newspaper idea and might try that this year. Our family recycles the wrapping paper, but it’s still depressing to think of where it all came from. Thanks for the great ideas!
November 26th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Hi Katie,
great ideas! I just keep re-using the same bags over and over, the only thing you have to buy is the stuffing paper…
November 29th, 2008 at 5:40 am
My parents were both raised during the Depression and grew up in homes where money was tight, so I grew up with all sorts of money saving habits that are actually eco-friendly. For Christmas, Santa gifts are not wrapped, just set up and tagged. Bikes, dollhouses, etc. Large boxed items were wrapped and the paper was saved to be used on a smaller package in the future. It was fun by the time we were in HS to dig through the gift wrap box and see how styles of paper had changed. We also save all stick-on bows until they are squoosed to death For gift tags we use the fronts of old holiday cards, and we save those too. So each year when it’s time to wrap you go to the card shoebox and find the card where you wrote To Daddy, when you were 5! There might be 10 or 20 cards like that, so you find the one that coordinates best with the gift wrap! This is also fun to see the changing card designs & graphics. We also save the clothing boxes, which is especially helpful these days where you have to buy them. We have boxes from dept. stores that have been out of business for 25 years, so that’s another walk down memory lane! The only problem w/ this is storage. I grew up in a home w/ both a full basement and attic, so we had plenty of space to save things like this.
November 30th, 2008 at 6:41 am
What fabulous ideas. :) We are trying to use dyed play silks to wrap most of the kids’ presents this year. It’s like two gifts in one.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Oh my gosh, you are so ahead of me when it comes to green-ing the holidays. Thank you for being environmentally aware and suggesting to the rest of us your great ideas. Happy Holidays! ~Arleen
November 30th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Awesome ideas! I had posted about wrapping in holiday cloth napkins that you can find in a package for cheaper than wrapping paper…now your ideas here are getting my wheels spinning! Thanks so much!
December 4th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I resolved last year to have a green Christmas. These are great tips for me.
December 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I just wrote up a tutorial for a handmade lined fabric gift bag; you can find it here: http://prairiewildrosedesigns.blogspot.com/2008/12/invitation-to-ball-tutorial.html
I have been making fabric gift bags for a few years now, and I can’t believe they are not more popular. Maybe someday…
December 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Sorry! I meant to say, in addition, that I think your Greener Christmas ideas are wonderful! Thanks for the challenge!
December 21st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Combine the two, teen’s love a new bag. Choosing cool fabrics, make a tote, and pop gifts inside! Even little kids like a cool bag too, library, swimming, daycare, etc all have a use for a bag. Can even be used for Trick Or treating too. No extra trash, other than product packaging, but if you shop consignment or thrift, then there’s no new trash!