Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Reduce, Reuse and Recycle › Anyone doing a wrapping paper free holiday?
New Posts  All Forums:
 

Anyone doing a wrapping paper free holiday?

post #1 of 53
12/14/08 at 2:54am
Thread Starter 
It is my first attempt at this: It is pretty fun! I picked up a bunch of wrapsacks on ebay, and some locally... I found some big felt bags with holiday themes at Michaels craft store for $2.99 each.. I have wrapped SOME things in some Christmasy scarves I had floating around the house.. I picked up some bags at a thrift store that may have at one time been a toaster cover and a makeup kit.. and something from a liquor bottle?

Having fun so far, though!

You may also like:

Sitting or Squatting: What's Really Best in the Bathroom?
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
post #2 of 53
12/14/08 at 5:58am
I really like the art of wrapping presents but hate the waste of wrapping paper. Between DH and I, we mostly re-use gift bags that were given to us. Last year I sewed some simple drawstring bags out of Christmas fabric in the hopes that the recipients would re-use them.

The scarves are a fun idea!
post #3 of 53
12/14/08 at 10:28am
I'm making bags with drawstrings or to where I can tie them up with strips of fabric.
They are turning out really pretty! I had most of the material all ready but I did buy a few yards of some satin.
post #4 of 53
12/14/08 at 3:20pm
I'm not going wrapping paper free, but I also made fabric bags for about 10 of the presents on my list. Besides that I have a close friend who started a tradition with me of finding an ironically funny newspaper article or flyer to wrap my stuff with that would have been put in the recycling anyway, so his two gifts are wrapped in "funny" flyers that probably only the two of us would get.

Take care,
El
post #5 of 53
12/14/08 at 3:26pm
These are the bags I make:

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...speed/bags.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...eed/lining.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...eed/redbag.jpg
post #6 of 53
12/14/08 at 4:33pm
usually we cut up paper bags and decorate them and use that as wrapping paper or we decorate newspaper but this year i am also making a few cloth bags which we will use all year long for toy storage. and any paper we use i will decorate in a way that i can still compost the paper after so at least it won't take up space in a landfill
post #7 of 53
12/14/08 at 5:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by moonfroggy View Post
and any paper we use i will decorate in a way that i can still compost the paper after so at least it won't take up space in a landfill
I was in a MALL yesterday (rarely go to places like that esp THIS time of year), but there was a big sign by the escalators that said, if you turn in your boxes and wrapping paper at the mall (for recycling) between like Dec 26- Jan 7 or something, that you get free tickets to a Hockey game. I thought that was a pretty cool idea..

1) people are back in the mall supporting the economy
2) paper and boxes get recycled
3) people get to see a hockey game..

I thought it was pretty neat.

Anyone see anything like that around your neighborhoods?
post #8 of 53
12/15/08 at 4:39pm
I like to use blankets or towels to wrap gifts in. I also like to give gifts in the green shopping bags our local grocery store sells to be used instead of plastic bags.
post #9 of 53
12/15/08 at 4:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by alaskanteach View Post
I was in a MALL yesterday (rarely go to places like that esp THIS time of year), but there was a big sign by the escalators that said, if you turn in your boxes and wrapping paper at the mall (for recycling) between like Dec 26- Jan 7 or something, that you get free tickets to a Hockey game.
COOL! Which mall? We're not going paper free.
post #10 of 53
12/18/08 at 12:34am
we are doing 12 days before solstice with a small gift each day. i just set it out in the morning before he wakes up.

for everyone else i just give them the jars of trail mix unwrapped, no one has complained so far

for dh bday i reused our birthday bag with a playsilk on top, always a winner!
post #11 of 53
12/18/08 at 4:27am
I'm wrapping all the gifts in my kids' paintings. The colors are so vibrant; I love it. And, for all our relatives who live far away, it's a great way to stay connected.
post #12 of 53
12/18/08 at 5:47am
I wrap with paper bags. I started my wrapping the other night and took pics of each step so I could hypothetically (if I get around to it) do a tutorial-- IE for tips how to make it easy and get creative with it. Mainly for those that wouldn't have otherwise considered alternatives to wrapping paper. Anyway, my dd had a good time decorating the paper on her daddy's gift tonight. I think I will also use spare cheap-o yarn and crochet the "ribbon" to tie around the outside. In the past I've also used the scraps --paper bag handles-- to make a "bow".
post #13 of 53
12/18/08 at 6:04am
I don't know if this technically counts as wrapping paper free, but we are going to wrap DD's presents in the comics, and regular newspaper after the comics run out. It's kind of a family tradition thing, really, at least the comics. Every year as far back as I can remember, my parents wrapped our presents in the comics. I think it was a ploy to keep us from opening them before we were supposed to, as we would come down to open them, get carried away reading them, and wake them up being loud. DH agreed to doing the comics thing, but since we haven't been buying the paper a lot, we are going to have to use some of the regular "boring" paper as well.
post #14 of 53
12/18/08 at 5:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by akwifeandmomma View Post
COOL! Which mall? We're not going paper free.
5th avenue mall- and it was an Aces game I think.
post #15 of 53
12/19/08 at 2:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdube View Post
I'm wrapping all the gifts in my kids' paintings. The colors are so vibrant; I love it. And, for all our relatives who live far away, it's a great way to stay connected.
We're sort of doing this. Dh is in construction so he brought home a ton of old blueprints and the kids decorated the other side with paint, glitter, stamps, stickers, etc. Some turned out better than others, but hey, it's original.
post #16 of 53
12/19/08 at 2:42am
We have picked up so many reusable shopping bags lately (we forget to take them in the store, then buy more...) that we're wrapping gifts for our immediately family in the extra bags. We're just going to tie on some name tags with recycled paper.

We're hoping that the family members who aren't using their own shopping bags might start using them - or at least use the one we give them, from time to time.

If we have more gifts than shopping bags...we usually just use gift bags other people have given us, and sometimes use the comic pages from the newspaper.
post #17 of 53
12/20/08 at 1:38am
We are using our current supply of gift wrap and have not purchased anymore. We reuse gift bags and decorative gift boxes as much as possible, so I am not sure when our rolls will run out. I plan to slowly add to our reusable stash as I phase out the paper altogether.
post #18 of 53
12/20/08 at 8:51pm
Us. I've been making cloth bags that I tie with a fabric ribbon for a few years now. The best part is that some of my family members are reusing the cloth bags now so the effect is spreading!
post #19 of 53
12/21/08 at 12:41pm
I am just starting this year. We don't have a lot of gifts to buy, so it's not too difficult fortunately. At the end of the holidays last year I bought a ton of holiday fabric. I had other plans for it, but have decided to use it for gift wrapping. Some bags I've sewn together, some I have just folded up around the gift and tied. I will buy more fabric on sale at the end of this holiday too so I can keep doing this every year. I am going to start looking into all kinds of sale fabrics to do this for all other birthdays and holidays as well!:
post #20 of 53
12/21/08 at 12:45pm
Awesome thread!

I am glad there are others out there!

I rarely use wrapping paper (I think it's such an incredible waste...)

Sometimes I wrap, but usually I don't. This year will be wrap free!
New Posts  All Forums:
 
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

You may also like:

Sitting or Squatting: What's Really Best in the Bathroom?
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Reduce, Reuse and Recycle › Anyone doing a wrapping paper free holiday?