Wrap it Up, Send it Out

Wrap it Up, Send It Out Wrap presents in old calendars, maps, posters, sheet music, wallpaper scraps, kids’ drawings or the Sunday color comics section of the newspaper.

• To ship presents, just cut up old brown paper grocery bags instead of buying shipping paper.
• Save and reuse all your old decorative gift bags, your best boxes and nice ribbons and bows.
• Wrap presents in old calendars, maps, posters, sheet music, wallpaper scraps, kids’ drawings or the Sunday color comics section of the newspaper.
• Try reusable containers such as Christmas stockings, baskets, tins or cake pans.
• Wrap a kitchen gift in a kitchen towel to make the packaging part of the present.
• Local thrift stores (external) often have great selections of inexpensive surplus wrapping paper.
• Avoid foil and plastic-coated wrapping papers, since they are not recyclable.
• Decorate packages with reusable items such as hair bows, ornaments, shoe laces, neckties, toys, scrap fabrics, buttons and dried flowers.
• Consider making your own holiday cards, but start early to avoid getting stressed out. This is a great project to do with your kids. Use all the scrap materials described above for wrapping paper, and you can also use pieces of old store-bought greeting cards.
• If you do buy paper cards, look for ones made from recycled paper. If they’re recycled, it should state this on the back. “Post-consumer” recycled paper is best because that comes from residential or business recycling collection programs. “One-hundred-percent post-consumer recycled paper” is the gold standard.
• Use pieces of old holiday cards for gift tags.
• Take polystyrene foam packing peanuts to a store that accepts them, or save them for sending your own packages.

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