Eco Friendly Christmas Gift Wrapping

Make a Difference this Year with Eco Friendly Christmas Gift Wrapping

If you are giving your loved ones eco friendly Christmas gifts, then of course you’ll want to make sure it’s presented in eco friendly Christmas gift wrapping!

Normally, gift wrap is made from virgin paper, printed up with toxic dyes and inks.

• In the UK alone, enough wrapping paper is discarded after Christmas each year to cover 85 square kilometres / 32 square miles!
• In the US, fully half of the paper used each year is for gift wrap!
• And on my little tropical island in the middle of nowhere, people are buying rolls and rolls of normal gift wrap, mostly to wrap kiddies’ presents which will be broken the day after Christmas, and thrown away before the New Year.

BUT, it is estimated that if you swap to eco friendly Christmas gift wrapping for just 3 gifts per year, it could save 50,000 trees, just in the US!

Now that’s something worth aiming for!

Here are my suggestions for fun, creative and unusual green ideas for eco friendly Christmas gift wrapping – and you’ll save money too!

Paper

Consider plain brown wrapping paper for your gifts (recycled of course!).  Sounds boring?  Not when you add a gorgeous brightly-coloured ribbon!

Brown paper is normally cheaper than wrapping paper, and much kinder to the environment.

You can also use newspaper – but newspaper is better on smaller gifts (you don’t want too much ink coming off) and again, make it special with a lovely ribbon – I saw a gorgeous example of a small gift wrapped in newspaper and tied with an elegant black ribbon, with a bright red holly berry in the middle.

As well as newspaper, consider re-using old children’s drawings, holiday or birthday cards you’ve received, and images from magazines.

Wrap a Gift in a Gift

Wrapping a gift in a gift is cool!  For example, if you give someone a lovely scarf plus another gift, simply wrap the scarf around the gift then tie a knot in it – if the scarf is big enough, tie it in a big, floppy bow – and show off the gorgeous colours and design of the scarf!

Use Natural Additions

Nature produces wonderful eco-friendly Christmas gift wrapping every year!

Instead of store-bought ribbons and bows, use holly, mistletoe, pine cones and ivy.  They look so festive, and are readily available at this time of the year.

Use small pieces of driftwood or other beach finds if you’re enjoying Christmas in the sun.

After the gifts have been unwrapped, you can use them to decorate the house!

Re-use

• Old ribbons and bows from previous holidays can be reused, just store them carefully.
• Consider old bits of fabric or even decorative shoelaces for use as ribbons. And raffia is nicely natural.
• You could even curl pieces of old magnetic tape!
• Use cereal boxes as wrapping – the insides are plain and you can jazz them up with bright ribbons.
• Or look in thrift shops or second-hand shops for old tins and baskets, they’re normally available at very reasonable prices.

A gift inside a gift!

Put a giftinside a gift and avoid wasting wrapping altogether! For example:-

• If you’re buying gardening gifts, place them inside a watering can or bucket instead of wrapping them.
• For the cook in your life, place cookery gifts inside a mixing bowl or stock pot.

These are all great ideas for eco friendly Christmas gift wrapping – I hope you’ve found some inspiration here!

If you enjoyed these green gift-wrap ideas, please Share them with your friends (sharing buttons below and right) -thank you!

P.S. Here are some more ideas for eco friendly Christmas gifts:

• Eco friendly Christmas gifts for animal lovers
• Eco friendly Christmas gifts for Him
• Eco friendly Christmas gifts for kids
• Eco friendly Christmas gifts for adults
• Re-kindling the true Spirit of Christmas
• Eco friendly Christmas gifts – books
• Homemade Eco friendly Christmas gifts
• More Eco friendly Christmas gifts ideas
• Eco friendly Christmas gifts without “stuff”
• Fun family Christmas ideas

Warm regards,