Six Helpful Tips for a Green Holiday Season: Wrapping Paper

The use of Christmas wrapping paper has got to be one of the most wasteful activities on the planet!
The average American household increases their trash output by 25% , for about 5 million extra tons of garbage, between Thanksgiving and New Year's. ¹ No one knows how much of this is just from wrapping paper. ² Carnegie Mellon Green Practices says "If every American family wrapped just three presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields." ¹

1. When I was a kid we had a big straw shopping bag full of well-creased and taped wrapping papers. They were re-used diligently from year to year. My parents did not live through the depression for nothing! I came to love those familiar papers, and gifts that came from outside the immediate family re-stocked the pile each year. It didn't seem "cheap" at all! Try it! Of course, this tip is the one that everyone mentions. Not exactly news. If you decide to re-use papers it makes some sense to buy higher quality ones that will last through a number of foldings and tapings. Buy papers that can be recycled when they have finally reached the end of their useful life. This is pretty much all wrapping papers except foil, or plastic-coated ones.

Corollary to #1- obviously- recycle papers you don't re-use rather than throwing them out.

2. Find other fun things to wrap gifts in. For the past ten years my own family has made a small collection of Christmas fabrics. We have pieces pre-cut for many different sizes of box. They can be taped fairly well around boxes, and then tied with another collection we've made of chunky yarns, cloth ribbons, and stretchy glitter cords. Look for bright ties of durable materials to use and keep instead of ribbons- macrame cords, rope belts or sashes, etc. The boxes are then adorned with any number of chintzy, glittery things that have accumulated over the decades. It's a lot of fun to see who can come up with some creative way to present those familiar baubles.

Corollary to #2- don't buy gift boxes- sometime in the fall (or earlier if you have the space), start making a collection of boxes in appropriate sizes. Cereal boxes, small boxes that come in the mail, and empty tubes (even toilet paper tubes!), make good gift boxes. One of our family's favorite traditions is to try to disguise presents so that no one can guess what's in the box. A good collection of odd boxes helps a lot. And afterwards... see the corollary to #1.

3. Look for other fun things to use as wrappers. There may be things to wrap presents in that are part of the present. Dish towels and scarves come to mind. Package food gifts in tins, or canning jars. Or look for ideas that are just odd- pet food bags are fun- cut slits near the top edge and weave ribbon through them to tie it off. Make origami boxes from used construction paper or posterboard.³ Save greeting cards and use them the next year. Paste or tape them into a collage to cover a box. Fancy boxes that are sturdy enough to save are good too if you have the space.

If you have kids, or like to do this kind of thing yourself, use paper mache to turn an ordinary box into something special that can be saved. Build up the strength of the box with flat layers of paper mache, and a lid (you may have to cut a and tape a second box into the right shape to make a lid that fits without being too tight). You can make ridged designs on the box with pulp mache. When the boxes are dry, paint as you like. ⁴ This is not only creative wrapping, but gives you a family activity leading up to Christmas that can take several days.

Corollary to #3- Getting even one more use out of a paper product cuts the waste in half!

4. Don't wrap the presents at all. Hide the gifts all over the house. Write clues and put them under the tree. Each person can go on their own scavenger hunt. This can be as simple or elaborate as you want. One son thought this was a great game and wanted one clue to lead to another, to lead to another, and so on until he eventually found the gift. Another son thought the whole thing was silly, and would tolerate only one clue (and not too difficult, at that!). Be sensitive to what your family likes. This can be great fun for those who enjoy it, but be careful not to ruin someone's holiday if they find it frustrating rather than a treat.

5. One year we hid some of the presents on the same level of the house as the Christmas tree. But instead of clues, each person had a different color of yarn. They had to follow the yarns from the tree to their presents. But of course the strings were woven through the furniture and each other to make a great web of confusion so that it wasn't too easy to find the end with the gift.

6. Give gifts to those less fortunate and forget about wrapping anything. This always seemed impossibly altruistic when our kids were growing up. Now that we're older, it looks better and better each year. There aren't nearly so many things that we think we ought to have. There are lots of great charities out there who can provide anything from seeds, chickens, clean water, or school supplies, to start-up funds for small business for people who have almost nothing going for them. ⁵

Corollary to #6- for Christian charities, look for the seal of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (EFCA). "ECFA is an accreditation agency dedicated to helping Christian ministries earn the public's trust through adherence to seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship." ⁶

You can start a lifetime practice of living green this Christmas. Go for it!

1 Carnegie Mellon Green Practices

2 Does Holiday Waste Make you Feel Guilty , New York Times

3. Canon Paper Craft

4. Family Crafts

5. Two suggestions are World Vision's gift catalog
and Kiva, where you can make loans to help poor individuals start businesses. There are many other choices as well.

6. Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability