Fabric gift bags

LadyM — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:03:30 -0600

I'm with Alison - We re-use gift bags made of holiday fabric, year after year. My grandmother started the tradition when she was living in an country that didn't celebrate Christmas so there was no gift wrap. We've followed in her thrifty ways.

This year I'm making bags for other families to use too.

Lady M blogs at http://www.empress-m.com/

Holiday fabric sale

BookLady Alison — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:14:25 -0600

A few years back I bought 3 or 4 yards of red fabric with gold stars which we use for wrapping our family gifts every year now. Holiday fabric usually goes on sale before Christmas and it can even be pretty affordable compared to paper. No mess of sticky tape - just use ribbon or garden twine. Cut the pieces large and then just wrap lots of layers for small items; it's fun to have a lot of unwrapping anyway! This year I also picked up some little handmade fabric chord-tie bags at a craft fair, which I can use for small items. Maybe I should put the reindeer carrot in one of those so that poor Rudolph can have a "doggy bag" :-)

BookLady Alison

Blogging about life, the universe and everything at Homeschoolers Guide to the Galaxy
Reusable gifts that last at GreatFunBooks.com

Have Yourself An Eco Little Christmas

Her Bad Mother — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:40:51 -0600

If there's a time of the year during which it's hard to be green, this would be it: the holiday season is a season of consumption. There's just no getting around it: regardless of what winter holiday you celebrate, you invariably spend December (and, if we include Thanksgiving, November) (and if you're Canadian, October) eating and drinking and shopping and eating and drinking and eating and did I mention eating? And odds are that you're not sticking to your locavore diet (because, my god: eggnog without rum?), and not restricting your shopping list to locally made goods.

Unless you are, in which case: good for you. You are a better person than I.

I, however, am guilty of falling very badly off of the green wagon during the holidays. I have children who like gaily wrapped presents. I like rum. There are no turkey farms within 100 miles of me (okay, that last claim is probably untrue. I should say, there are no turkey farms within 100 miles of me that I have bothered to find). Also, I really like those sweet little oranges, and I sorta suspect that Santa doesn't purchase carbon offset.

And need I say it? REINDEER FARTS.

So.

How can I redeem myself?

My challenge to myself: to figure one green holiday strategy every week until the tree is down and the last of the eggnog slurped, starting with this week. I'll post my green holiday strategies at BlogHersAct Canada, along with any tips that you submit (in the comments here or there). And together, we can go greener than holly, and maybe do our part to offset the carbon released by all those reindeer farts.

This week's tip/resolution: I will not use store-bought wrapping paper. I will use paper that is already at hand, and I will be creative in doing so. I will use, for example, selections from the vast piles of my preschooler's artwork to wrap smaller gifts (and, not incidentally, thrill grandparents) (these can also be fashioned into holiday cards, I think) thereby reducing our piles of messy but entirely non-disposable (how can I throw my baby's ART in the recycling bin? GAH!) fingerpaint/crayon/glue-and-sprinkles art. (Other at-hand wrapping possibilities - newspaper, especially if I let the child go at it with some red and/or green marker first; fabric remnants.)

What else is around the house that can be substituted for wrapping paper? And, what are some things that you'll do to stay green this holiday season?

Her Bad Mother learned this week that buns are better when they're warmed.

BlogHer - Have Yourself An Eco Little Christmas - Comments

Fabric gift bags

Holiday fabric sale

Have Yourself An Eco Little Christmas