Organic, Earth-Friendly Christmas Gift Wrapping Materials

Organic, Earth-Friendly Christmas Gift Wrapping Materials - Our world population is increasing at an astonishing rate and this causes more and more of our Earth's resources to be consumed, some of which are not renewable. This has caused concern about the use of our Earth's resources and has started many people to think of ways to reduce their use of our Earth's resources and thereby lessening their own footprint upon the Earth. Whenever you hear about Earth-Friendly, organic or green materials, this just means that the items being used are either renewable or sustainable meaning we can grow more of the materials needed to create that item. One great way to make something green, organic or Earth-Friendly is to re-use it, recycle it or use a different type of material altogether to produce the same end result. This basic premise applies to nearly everything in and on our planet to reduce waste. In particular, I refer to the use our Earth's resources at Christmastime. Christmas is the one major time of year where we give numerous presents to our families, friends and co-workers which are mostly gift-wrapped in paper products. And giving gifts is great fun; believe me I am not saying anything against it but there is certainly a lot of waste produced that ends up in our landfills at Christmastime. In this article I have put together a list of seventeen of the best and most Earth-Friendly ideas to wrap your Christmas gifts attractively and still lessen your footprint upon the Earth.

One of the most basic of all ideas to wrap your Christmas gifts in an Earth-Friendly manner is to use organic envelopes and give gift certificates. There are several websites online that sell organic envelopes but the envelopes (with cards) that I found to be the most charming are available at Exclusively Green Market where you can purchase blank lilac note cards with envelopes. The cards are not just pretty but are made from re-cycled cotton scraps and the paper is actually handmade and filled with alyssum and baby's breath seeds. The Exclusively Green Market website says the paper dissolves into the soil as the flowers grow. A set of five cards with envelopes sells for $20.00.

The Exclusively Green Market also sells gift certificates for a great green gift idea to tuck into your organic envelope! Their website carries merchandise in nearly all Earth-Friendly categories such as Clothes and Accessories; Earth Friendly Children with products such as Lead Free Toys, Bibs and Blankets, Clothes, Diapers, Toiletries, and Footwear; Earth Friendly Kitchen; Earth Friendly Pets with Dog & Cat Toys & Accessories, Pet Cleaning Products; Earth Friendly Bedroom; Earth Friendly Living Room; Earth Friendly Bags of all types; Earth Friendly Bathroom; Home Office and School; Natural and Organic Skin Care; and Natural Green Cleaning supplies.

Newspaper comics are an Earth-Friendly idea for wrapping your Christmas gifts. If you are already receiving the newspaper because you enjoy reading the news, then you can save the color comics on Sundays plus you can save the black and white comics from weekdays. Have the kids take their crayons and color the B&W comics for wrapping gifts for parents and grandparents. You can buy crayons made from soybean oil at Stubby Pencil Studio. Soy crayons are available in different colors, are non-toxic and are Earth-Friendly. Once you open your gifts on Christmas, the newspaper can be recycled. If you don't get the newspaper because you read your news online or watch the television news, then I do NOT suggest subscribing to the newspaper for the comics!

Junk mail has long been a huge waste of trees via the paper used to produce it. Why not turn your junk mail into Earth-Friendly gift wrap? I have received junk mail of course, as have we all, and many of the advertisements are on paper that fold out into a fairly large piece of paper, complete with color pictures. This piece of paper could be put to good use as Christmas gift wrap. Larger gifts could be wrapped using several pieces of colorful re-cycled junk mail. Of course to be truly Earth-Friendly, it would be a good idea to stop the junk mail from even coming to your home mailbox. Websites such as GreenDimes.com guarantee to help you stop 90% of junk mail from even coming to your home.

Magazines can be turned into attractive Christmas gift wrap. You can find old magazines at your local library or thrift store for very little money and use the pictures you want to create a type of collage-effect gift wrap. The pictures and pages can be glued together or glued to a piece of scrap newspaper (with just words, no comics on it) and be turned into a beautiful work of art. This is also a great family craft activity for the kids because they love cutting paper and gluing pictures together. This magazine idea also works for making your own handmade Christmas cards to give out. A variation of this idea is to recycle and use pictures from old calendars.

Old and new maps as well as old and new posters make for a different Earth-Friendly Christmas gift wrapping idea. They are generally rather large in size so you can wrap bigger Christmas gifts with them. If you wrap the gift carefully with no cutting or folding of the map or poster, your gift recipient can even hang the map or poster on their wall or put it in a frame for decorative purposes. A local map wrapped around a gift can also be a good way to welcome someone new to the neighborhood or town. Maps in old issues of National Geographic magazine make for interesting gift wrap as well.

Pieces of leftover wallpaper can be used to wrap your Christmas gifts. Some of these have very pretty patterns and with a raffia bow tied around the gift; it will be a very attractive present that anyone would love to receive.

One of the sweetest and most personalized of all Earth-Friendly gift wrapping ideas is to use your children's drawings. If you have children, then you no doubt have a huge collection of drawings and paintings done by each child. It's hard to throw them away but it's also hard to keep each one especially when you have more than one child. So why not use their drawings to wrap gifts? I know that grandparents would be especially pleased to receive gifts that are wrapped in special one-of-a-kind grandchildren artwork gift wrap. Small drawings are good for smaller gifts or you can tape several drawings together for larger gifts.

Brown paper grocery bags make perfect Earth-Friendly gift wrapping. You can use it just the way it comes from the grocery store or you can add pictures from magazines, stamp pictures on it, color it, or paint it. You can wrap raffia around your brown bag gift and attach a pine cone you've found at the park for a natural touch.

Gift bags can be recycled for several years to wraps gifts. They come in a huge assortment of colors, patterns etc. and while they are not necessarily Earth-Friendly for just ONE use; if you use them for several years, they can be considered Earth-Friendly.

The same Christmas wrapping paper can be used from year to year if you have a place to store it throughout the year. If you decide to re-use your Christmas wrapping paper, avoid the metallic papers because they aren't so Earth-Friendly since they don't break down as quickly in the landfills.

You can purchase giant rolls of white paper from warehouse stores such as Smart and Final or Price Costco that can be used plain to wrap Christmas gifts or can be decorated with stamps, pens, or paint for personalized gift wrap.

Fabric can be used to make re-useable gift wrap. You can use Earth-Friendly organic fabrics such as bamboo, hemp and organically grown cotton. If you can sew, it's fun to sew Christmas stockings in the size you need for gifts and then fill it with Christmas presents. As the recipient of a Christmas stocking full of gifts, I can say that it was a fun and exciting way to receive my gifts! Christmas stockings do NOT need to be red; they can be made in any color you want. The fabric can be used without sewing as well.

You can also re-use by re-purposing your attractive old clothes into Earth-Friendly gift wrap. Take an item of clothing such as a shirt or dress and cut off the arms and hems and use the raw fabric to wrap your gifts in. You can even cut the fabric into strips and use it to tie around your gifts. This fabric gift wrap can be used for several years. Or after Christmas, if you are so inclined, you can use the strips of fabric to create your own rag rug. Or if you know someone who makes quilts, you can give them the fabric "gift wrap" to make quilts. Scarves can make beautiful gift wrap as well.

Cotton fabric bags can be used as easy and Earth-Friendly gift wrapping. The cotton bags can also BE part of the present if you buy the cotton grocery bags that are made specifically heavy duty to carry groceries in. Exclusively Green Market has a selection of different cotton grocery bag totes that come in different colors and different prices. They also have a low priced plain cotton produce bag that sells for only $3.99.

Wash clothes, towels, pillow cases, and sheets make Earth-Friendly and extremely useful Christmas gift wrapping ideas especially when they are made from organic fabrics. They can either be wrapped around a gift or they can BE the gift with some raffia tied around them with perhaps some cookie cutters hanging from a raffia bow.

Baskets make Earth-Friendly Christmas "gift wrap" especially when you put gifts in the basket that revolve around a theme. For example you can put together an Italian dinner theme gift basket with a package of pasta, jar of sauce, colander, loaf of French bread, small jar of olive oil, and a bottle of wine. If you choose a basket with a handle, you can tuck a decorative table cloth around the food and tie a corkscrew to the handle with raffia. Baskets are great because you can re-use them for different purposes for years.

Boxes made from all different types of materials can be turned into Earth-Friendly gift wrapping. Boxes may be used for small gifts or gift certificates or can even be part of the gift if the box is a Tupperware container for example. Organic green two piece woven favor boxes that are used for wedding favors can be used for small items at Christmastime. They are not only Earth-Friendly because they are made from organic materials; they are also a green color and would make a lovely statement for small Christmas gifts. You can find them at DaisyDays.com for around $8.00 for a set of six.

Metal tins make Earth-Friendly "gift wrap" as well because they come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. You can find used tins for low prices at thrift stores. Metal tins would make good gift wrapping for small items or for home-baked items such as cookies, brownies, fudge, etc.

Flower pots can be used as Earth-Friendly gift wrap especially the inexpensive clay pots that you can pick up for a couple of dollars at your local Wal-Mart or Target store. The clay pots can be used as is or you can paint them any way you want. One Christmas gift flower pot idea would be to tuck in a few small gardening tools, gardening gloves and several seed packets then wrap a raffia bow around the top of the pot.

The last idea for Earth-Friendly Christmas gift wrapping is glass jars. You can use glass jars to put small gifts in or you can create a "gift in a jar." A "gift in a jar" involves using basic cookie ingredients and placing them in a jar along with the recipe. Christmas cookie recipes for "gifts in a jar" are available at ChristmasCookies.com

For Earth-Friendly gift name tags, you can write the name of your gift recipient on an organic paper gift tag (cut out of organic paper by you). Then you can write their name by using an organic pen product made from cornstarch or recycled cardboard such as those available at the Green Earth Office Supply.

Raffia, a natural straw product made from the Raffia tree is turned into twine and can be used to tie around your Earth-Friendly gift wrapping to hold it closed and for decorative purposes. You can add small trinkets, toys, cookie cutters, pine cones, greenery (anything small) to the raffia and make a bow that you can tie around your Christmas gifts. Raffia can be purchased at your local craft supply store.

With this list of Earth-Friendly gift wrapping ideas, you can celebrate the Christmas season knowing that you are doing your part to lessen your families' impact on the Earth. And when your children see your efforts, it will raise their own awareness of living a more Earth-Friendly lifestyle which will have an impact not only on their own future but that of their children as well.

Resources:
BellaOnline. Christmas Recycling - Make Earth Friendly Gift Wrap.
Bluehouse, Online Shopping for the Eco-Friendly Lifestyle.
Eartheasy.com. How to Have a Green Christmas.
SignsOnSanDiego.com. The San Diego Union-Tribune. "Dreaming of a Green, Earth-Friendly Christmas" by Jura Koncius and Brenna Maloney. December 9, 2007.