BlogHer - Could you, would you, skip wrapping paper this year? - Comments

5 Minutes for Going Green

kerri ladish — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:11:05 -0600

I love recycled wrapping! I actually just posted about this last night/early this morning, re: our 5 Minutes for Going Green Holiday How-To, which includes tons of ideas on how to wrap green this year with items from around the house, including but not limited to: maps and atlases, old sheet music, newspaper, magazine pages, fabric pieces, and pages from your favorite (falling apart) book.

I'd forgotten that! Our

MrsWsKitchen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:21:08 -0600

I'd forgotten that! Our Santa gifts were always unwrapped, as well. Only family gifts (and those were opened Xmas eve) were wrapped. That was wonderful--we rushed out to see what was under the tree and everything was there, open and beautifully chaotic!

Amanda
Mrs.W's Kitchen

I reuse gift bags a lot! But also

ExpatChef — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:36:32 -0600

saving the money on all the gift wrap and bows means you can afford the presents. One thing, you could make an attractive reusable shopping bag part of the present (for adults) and use the bag for wrap. I found a cool Reisenthel bag in a floral pattern that folds up into a sunglass case size, very inexpensive, the price of a paper gift bag. Give green!

Other cool ways to wrap are to put items in a useful container like a colander for kitchen goodies. A simple bow around the neck of a bottle of wine. Spare the adults the wrapping and save it for just the kids' gifts is another idea. I am definitely on board with reducing the waste — and the number of gifts this year.

For recipes and food issues and a bit of humor, visit my blog, Expatriate's Kitchen

Maybe I'm weird.......

literary.snob — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:47:52 -0600

.......or maybe my mom was green before green was cool, but growing up we never recieved wrapped presents for Christmas. Maybe mom knew better (we were always shaking and poking at wrapped presents). Instead of wrapping, "Santa" came Christmas Eve and lay out all our presents around the tree in sections for each of us--there were three of us, so mom made sure the divisions between our section were obvious. We loved it (I never remember feeling cheated) and it is something I plan on doing with my own kids.

Stephanie

(The Childish) Literary Snob

http://literarysnob.blogspot.com

good ideas, and a few to add

grannysu — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:26:09 -0600

Granny Sue Stories from the Mountains and Beyond www.grannysu.blogspot.com susannaholstein@yahoo.com

I also save bags, bows, boxes and ribbons for reuse. I like wrapped gifts, like many of the other commenters but it is certainly a wasteful practice. I have purchased and used fabric bags; some are very pretty velvet that anyone would want to keep and use for other purposes. Children love bags that they can reuse--even boys, if the bag is made of camo or other cool fabric. the bags can be used for blocks, marbles and other small toys and treasures.

What about buying canvas laundry bags, decorating with the child's name and tie shut with pretty ribbons? definitely a re-use for that bag!

One idea struck me for the not-so-crafty who like a country/homemade look: what about recycling holiday shirts into packaging? cut the sleeves off, hot-glue the bottoms closed, hot-glue some trim around the top and tie shut with a ribbon or yarn? Quick and easy and probably reusable too, although limited in size to smaller gifts. I

Baskets of course are a pretty way to present a gift, but for children 9and probably most males0 this might not be as welcome as some other approach.

On my blog I'm suggesting using mason jars for some gifts that can be no-cost or lowcost yet unique.

Well, I weaned myself of

Super Jive — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:03:20 -0600

Well, I weaned myself of ribbons and bows long ago, but this year I know I don't have time to make cloth bags, so I will use something that was destined for the recycling bin anyway--my local alt weeklies and newspapers. I can think of a few friends who would be delighted to recieve gifts wrapped in the escort ads.

Blogher Pop Culture Editor | I, Asshole

I will use butcher paper

Giyen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:17:45 -0600

Oh, I am a bag saver too. And a ribbon saver. I just can't see why anyone would throw out those pretty gift bags and not use them again. So insane to me.

I can't break down forgo the use wrapping paper. I can commit to using brown recycled butcher paper instead which at least is less impactful to produce than the glitzy colored kind.

In generally only use fabric ribbon anyway - with some ribbon that is more than 5 years old. I think fabric ribbon looks better anyway. : )

Ye be brave and wise!

Giyen

www.baconismyenemy.com

Ooooooh....I don't know....

SCanon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:48:41 -0600

I think the look of the cloth is very beautiful. I also love the look of the brown wrapping paper, but I have to be honest, I LOVE the look of gaggles of colorfully wrapped presents under the tree. I try to be eco-conscious, but when it comes to cheap and colorful wrapping paper, I guess I'm a bad person because I really love it. Maybe it's because of the fond childhood memories it evokes.

don't judge a book by its cover

RenaissanceTrophyWife — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:23:31 -0600

If some of your presents come in boxes, try just switching the presents around. "oh, a vacuum for me? you really shouldn't have.... but wait, this vacuum looks suspiciously like a new jewelry armoire." That way you don't have to use wrapping paper, but the gift is still a surprise.

They had neoprene built NY wine bags at Costco a couple years back-- 3 for $10-- and I stocked up like crazy. They're great for keeping whites chilled, and are a little more contemporary than your standard wine bag. Plus it's nice for the recipient to have something reusable as a little extra perk.

I've also used sheets/towels/coats to wrap other gifts, like Corinne... and you can't go wrong with newspaper/brown paper!

Renaissance Trophy Wife: the modern girl's guide to smart lifestyle investments

http://renaissancetrophywife.wordpress.com

But...

MrsWsKitchen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:23:00 -0600

But what would I do with a fabric gift bag, should I receive a gift inside of one? If a person isn't crafty, what would they do with it to repurpose it, other than save it for next year?

Just curious for some ideas about that. My family is not terribly crafty, not the save-for-next-year kinds of people.

Amanda
Mrs.W's Kitchen

kim at btwixt and btween I

kkp — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:10:52 -0600

kim at btwixt and btween

I will still wrap gifts this year. However, I like to think that I reduce gift waste throughout the year by: using gift wrap to line drawers (baby wrap for nursery drawers, kid birthday wrap in Big T's dresser, prettiest wraps in my own drawers, etc.), re-using gift bags and even the prettiest handled bags from stores, using crumpled "used" gift wrap instead of tissue as the camoflage in gift bags, etc. This year, I have lots of half-used gift wrap rolls that will be finished instead of buying another set of new, matching wraps... a nod to the economy as well as the landfill.

we do a mix of fabric bags and the gift bags from the dollar

Crunchy Carpets — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:46:49 -0600

store....they and the tissue get used over and over every year..I only buy a few new one's from 'santa' and that is it....

Look for me at http://crunchycarpets.com or check out the ladies at www.wetcoastwomen.com

Challenge accepted!

Dawn6751 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:35:38 -0600

I've made about 2 dozen fabric gift bags over the last week or so to use instead of wrapping paper. I was able to buy some Christmas fabric for only $2.50 a yard, and I had some old red polka-dot fabric from a sewing project 10 years ago. The bags were very fast and easy to make once I got through the first one. You can see pictures on my blog.

If going without wrapping paper doesn't work for you, this slideshow has lots of other great ideas for an eco-friendly holiday and some amazing statisitcs about the extra waste created over the holidays. If you can use any of these ideas, it would help.

http://onemomentplease6751.blogspot.com/

~Dawn

Sheets, towels, and reusable bags

fragrantfuture — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:04:23 -0600

I haven't used wrapping paper in 3 years or so now. I have a tote box full of holiday bags that I reuse. I also keep all the bags I'm given and reuse them as well. Luckily, with Christmas and birthdays being once a year, even if I give someone the same bag they don't remember...or at least they don't mention if they do!

I have also used new sheets and towels as wrapping and make it part of the gift - it is great when you are giving something like sheet sets, bath sets, pajamas, etc. I find paperless wrapping less hassle too.

One thing I have not tried is re-gifting. I have a freind who does it. I am not sure if she is trying to recycle or trying to off load an unwanted gift.

Kazari - I love the idea of using Newspaper. I think that would be a really great and funky wrapping. I will have to try that this year.

Wishing you a Wonderful Day,
Corinne Brueckner
corinne@fragrantfuture.com
Gourmet Candle Store : www.corinnescandles.com

wrap presents in presents!

kazari — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:52:57 -0600

One year I wrapped all my presents in tea towels and scarves that I'd bought in Vietnam.

And there's a lovely japanese gift shop near my house where they wrap gifts in cloths. The parcels are so beautiful!

But if you still have small, crafty kids at home - use the newspaper! Just make a couple of Christmassy potato stamps, and decorate it (before or AFTER you wrap).

Oh, and my very glamorous Aunt ALWAYS wraps her Christmas presents in brown paper. She just uses very classy ribbon to make them look amazing.

Could you, would you, skip wrapping paper this year?

Mir Kamin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:50:05 -0600

It started, for me, with Amy's No Plastic Holiday Challenge. I'm just not ready to give up all plastic, not entirely, anyway. But it did get me thinking. And as I'm now actively looking for little steps towards growing greener, I did find something I thought I could do: Skip the wrapping paper, this year.

Oh, if my kids only knew I'd said that. They'd gasp in horror. But I'm not talking about just handing things to people with no element of surprise or anything -- after all, half the fun of Christmas morning at our house is lifting each gift, shaking it, and declaring, "I'm pretty sure this one is a puppy!" -- I'm talking about eliminating the wastefulness of paper wrapping.

I sat down to consider my options. Well, we have a stash of holiday-themed paper gift bags we've always used for larger and hard-to-wrap presents, already. Items are inserted, topped with a bit of camouflaging tissue paper, and placed under the tree. After the gift is removed by the recipient, the bag is neatly folded (along with the tissue paper!) and stored for use the next year. I also have a stack of cardboard shirt and sweater boxes decorated with holiday prints, used in the same way. (Those are the best for guessing the gift is a puppy, by the way. Because puppies often come in shirt boxes.)

Between the recyclable gift bags and boxes, I would estimate that I usually end up wrapping about half the gifts we give out. Of those, maybe 25% stay here amongst the family, with 75% going out as teacher and other gifts. (That is, to people to whom I cannot say, "Hey, just hand me that bag back and I'll put it away. Thanks!")

I went online to start looking for ideas about how to avoid gift wrap without just handing out naked presents. There were the usual suspects, such as wrapping the gifts in the comics (something I used to do as a kid) or tinfoil (shiny! but still wasteful). There were also lots of crafty suggestions about how to dress up plain paper bags or repurpose plastic ones. The only problem there (well, other than the obvious one, which is that you're still ultimately creating trash) is that I've finally been successful in moving the family to bringing our own bags everywhere. So... we don't have any paper or plastic bags to use!

As much as I like the idea of wrapping, say, video games for the kids in new shirts (thus presenting both gifts, but turning one into wrap), this rather limits the whole "wow I wonder what those presents under the tree are" days of anticipation, leading up to the big day.

I thought I remembered reading a post about someone making reusable fabric gift bags. I had! It was a while ago, but Lady M blogged about her fabric gift bags, and I remembered thinking that was a great idea. Of course, I'm not terribly handy with a sewing machine, myself, and that doesn't solve the issue of giving to someone outside of the family, either.

A bit of poking around turned up Joell Jacob's reusable giftwrap, which is not only reusable, but uses a clever slit-and-ribbon system to create smooth, paper-like coverage when used. Hmmmm. Definitely a possibility for in-family gifts.

I felt like both About.com's Green Living Guide and this piece at PostStar.com for some great suggestions on ways to cut down waste this holiday season, including wrapping paper alternatives.

I'm just going to make it official: I will not purchase or use any wrapping paper this year. I will both utilize the recyclable options I already own and try to find new ways to skirt the issue of wasting paper. It may not save the planet, but it will significantly soothe my conscience.

Who's with me?

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.