If throwing mounds of wrapping paper in the trash after your Christmas festivities make you sad, you’ll love today’s post. Today, we’ll wrap up our Year of monthly waste reduction goals challenge with some ideas on how you can eliminate wrapping paper and switch to green gift wrap options.
This post was originally published in December 2020 and updated in January 2023.
December waste reduction goal – eliminate wrapping paper
We all love to see brightly-wrapped gifts under the tree on Christmas morning. But, wrapping gifts is time-consuming, and that festive wrapping paper creates so much waste.
At one time, I would carefully flatten and fold the wrapping paper from our gifts and put it out for recycling. Then, I’d be disappointed when it was left behind by the garbage crew. So, even though it’s wrapping “paper”, it turns out it’s not recyclable like other paper products.
Wrapping is definitely my least favourite task of the Christmas season. I used to spend hours wrapping gifts only to see them ripped open in minutes. My first step toward reusable wrapping options came more from wanting to save time than any desire to reduce waste.
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Green gift wrap options
Gift bags and tissue paper were a godsend for me! But, even after I started using gift bags for a lot of our gifts, I was still using wrapping paper for the kids’ gifts. Some people get around this by telling their kids that Santa doesn’t have time to wrap gifts. I wish I had been smart enough to do that. Kids have great memories so once you start something, you kind of have to keep it up!
Last year, I challenged myself to get creative and find alternatives to wrapping paper. I found out there are lots of options available so this wasn’t a difficult swap to make. Check out my post Green your holidays with 10 low-waste gift wrap ideas for some of the things I found.
Sometimes I think my family isn’t on board with my efforts to reduce waste. On Christmas morning a couple of years ago, I was excited to see this.
It looks like they are paying attention after all.
How have you reduced waste in your gift wrapping? Tell us your ideas for green gift wrap options below.
Oh, this is lovely. Your family did so well! This year we use brown paper and old book pages.
Old book pages. That’s a great idea I hadn’t thought of.
They actually look very cool, especially for me who appreciate literature things.
I like the idea of blogmas and look forward to seeing more.
Thank you!
Hmmm I hadn’t ever thought about the waste part of it. The newspaper wrapped gifts took me back to my childhood days when we would run out of gift wrap and just use the paper 😂 maybe coloured paper would work for the kids gifts? Still recyclable but pretty
Coloured paper is definitely a good option.
Santa doesn’t wrap presents at our house so that is super helpful! 😁 I use gift bags that I save and reuse. If something doesn’t fit in a bag, I have been using newspaper, magazine pages, or construction paper with my kids drawings.
All excellent ideas. I wish I had known Santa doesn’t wrap presents when my kids were small. It would have been a life saver!
We go for the reusable bags route for adults. But the boys get (recyclable) paper. Maybe this year I’ll box everything up and post it, family will know not to open until xmas day.
That would be fun!
Some of my friends use colorful scarves and fun pieces of cloth to ‘wrap’ their gifts. You still get the fun of opening something but without the wrapping paper and tape. 🙂
That is such a great idea! The wrapping can be part of the gift. Scarves and tea towels are an excellent idea.
Love love love – all the ideas suggested by yourself. They are aligned with our own way of thinking. We would reuse wrapping paper (tried to save as much of it as we could). Bags too. Also …we have been known to just trie a ribbon around the gift heheh! No waste whatsoever. Xx
I remember when I was young, I used to think my Mum was cheap because she saved and reused things like wrapping paper. Now I know better. 💜
I’m so excited to read all of your posts this month! I’m doing Blogmas for the first time too and I’m loving the sense of community to keep me motivated. I don’t use wrapping paper anymore and was also pretty shocked to find out it wasn’t recyclable, but I think coming up with alternatives is a lot more fun anyway.
You’re right. There are so many fun alternatives. I always smile when you use a reusable gift wrap option and then you see it making the rounds year after year.
Can’t wait to read your Blogmas posts! 🙂
Loved this post! Something we often forget to think about!
Can’t wait to read more of your Blogmas post🤗
Olivia | https://olivialucieblake.com
Thank you Olivia! I look forward to reading yours too!