Green Wrapping Paper Ideas

Hands down, going green in the wrapping paper department is our all-time favorite DIY part of creating a Green Christmas in my family. The United States sees a 25 percent increase in the amount of trash generated every Christmas season.  A huge portion of that, of course, is our wrapping paper.

That’s why my family has stopped buying wrapping paper.

Yep, we never plan on spending a dime on Christmas wrapping paper ever again.  Those of you who have copies of my ebook, A Green Christmas: Reduce*Reuse*Recycle*Rejoice, already know how we repurpose all types of stuff that you and I either have in our houses (like lunch wrappers) or that we can get free in our communities (like old aviation charts or blueprints).

Here are two tutorials for greener wrapping paper that we shared last year on Making This Home:

1.  Make your own fabric gift bags that can be used over and over.

I’ve used one of these fabric bags for my camera ever since, and you might have noticed how St. Nick happened to fill reusable fabric bags with treats in our shoes two weeks ago.  Fabric bags are a breeze to make.  We seem to use them just about everywhere around here.  Check out the tutorial for making your own.

bag-1

2.  Swing by your local construction company for unlimited wrapping paper ready to personalize.

You can wrap gifts with crisp white sheets of old blueprints and finish them with a big, beautiful green bow.  Or you can get the whole family together to decorate the pages.  That’s what we happened to do with these -ahem- Hooters blueprints we got last year in the US.  Check out the tutorial for tips on how to snag a free stash of your own and some decorating ideas.

green wrapping paper

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Wrapping gifts has always been my favorite part of preparing for Christmas.  Now the activity is especially meaningful in our family because we’re doing something for the environment without taking away the traditions we cherish.  I think that’s what a green Christmas should be all about.  And gosh, it’s the funnest challenge!  We’re always comparing ideas and showing off our repurposed creations with one another all year long.

And in fact, we’re still whipping up all sorts of repurposed wrapping materials at our house this year.  Like this:

wrapping paper with old supplies

And this:

recycled wrapping paper

So from our house to yours, happy wrapping!  If you’d like more tutorials and unique ideas for greening up your wrapping scene, I think you’ll love my ebook, A Green Christmas for $10.95.

Do you have a favorite repurposing or green tip for gift wrapping this season?  Have you ever received a gift with repurposed wrapping?  (Chances are… you won’t even know it!)