Using Earth Friendly Materials As Christmas Gift Wrappers
Have you heard of the fact that the amount of used wrapping paper increases each year and that happens over Christmas alone? Don’t you feel guilty for being one of those who has a part in filling the trash bin with wrapping papers that were used only once? Maybe this coming Christmas, it is time for you to reconsider and start using organic, earth-friendly materials as Christmas gift wrappers.
Christmas is that part of the year when gift giving seems to be the major activity of people from different lifestyles. Gifts are given not just the way they are, but they are usually carefully or creatively wrapped in shiny and colorful Christmas gift wrappers. Gift giving is an exciting part of Christmas but most gift-givers and gift-recipients are barely aware of the waste produced after opening the gifts. Before the Christmas season ends, landfills all over the country are going to overflow with all sorts of discarded Christmas gift wrappers. Sadly, a big chunk of this garbage cannot be recycled because of their metallic content and the plastic adhesives still glued to them.
Earth-Friendly Ideas for the Christmas Season
When that familiar Christmas atmosphere triggers your shopping instinct, you may consider these earth-friendly ideas of how to use some organic or green materials to wrap your Christmas gifts.
Newsprint materials are great materials for wrapping the gifts you intend to give away for Christmas. You may use both the black and white pages of the news portion and the color comics for wrapping gifts for the elders. If the comic portions come in black and white, you can let the kids color them by using non-toxic crayons. Grandparents are sure to have some delightful fun opening their gifts wrapped in artful masterpieces of young artists in the family.
Old magazines are good source of colorful materials than can be made as attractive gift wrappers. If you do not have enough old magazines, you can buy from any thrift bookstore. Cut the pictures and paste them together on a scrap newspaper to create a collage-style gift wrapper. You may also turn this into a fun family activity which the can truly enjoy since children seem to be born to cut and glue papers together. You may also make your own homemade Christmas cards using pictures from old magazine and pasting them on recycled cards.
Other sources of earth-friendly Christmas gift wrapper are old maps and old posters. You may use these materials for wrapping bigger Christmas gifts. If you tried to be careful when wrapping the gift, the recipient may still find the map as a useful reference or make it into an unusual wall décor by putting it in an attractive frame. An ingenious way of welcoming a new neighbor is to wrap your gift with the local map to aid him in finding his way around the community.
Perhaps the most personalized way of wrapping your gift in an earth-friendly way is to use your children’s old drawings. The cruder they are the cuter they can be. It is not easy to give them away but it is better that way than just storing them until they fade and are completely forgotten. Besides, it is difficult to keep them all if there are many children who draw on every piece of paper they can lay their hands on. This kind of wrapping materials are ideal to be used for gifts intended for grandparents who will be pleased to receive not just a Christmas gift but also an artwork from a grandchild.
To complete the Christmas package, you may use organic paper to serve as a gift tag. Use an organic pen product to write the name of the recipient and carefully express in writing your well-meaning wishes for the holiday season.
Christmas can be best celebrated by making your loved ones happy through the gifts you give them. However, the celebration can be more meaningful with your choice to use earth-friendly materials as Christmas gift wrappers. With the combined efforts of people like you, Christmastime is never again the time to be dumping trash to Mother Earth’s bosom.
