I have 16 presents to wrap for my niece and nephew tonight and I'm not a fan of traditional wrapping paper so this is going to be a bit of a challenge. To me wrapping paper takes time, takes money and creates way too much waste.
Facts on Holiday Waste:
- From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons - it all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. (EPA and Use Less Stuff)
- In the U.S., annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons. (Use Less Stuff)
- The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year n the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we'd save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. (Use Less Stuff) Consider sending an electronic card. The following are some examples of what is available on the internet:
- If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet.
I also love using wrapping paper my kids make. They scribble and draw and add stickers to a roll of plain recycled paper. It's an art project and wrapping paper in one - a 2 for 1 deal! Even better is the Colour Me Giftwrap kit - a piece of beautiful unbleached cotton with a coloured border, a couple of kid-safe, non-toxic markers and instructions on how to simply and quickly wrap a present with the wrap. My son spent an hour this evening working on a wrap for a gift for his cousin. I can see the Colour Me Giftwrap becoming a tradition in our family with cousins adding drawings to it each year and passing the wraps back and forth across the country. It is an art activity, beautiful reusable giftwrap and a keepsake all in one!
I also try at all cost to avoid using cards. I think I got that trait from my mother. I can't recall one time when she ever bought a card. She always had a stack from donations she had made or had us make our own. I usually just end up writing to and from on the paper wrap - it helps decorate the gift at the same time and saves me the time of searching for the perfect card.
I love that Lyziwraps come with recycled paper cards to include with gifts. They are resuable and save time and money - what a great idea!
Okay, time to tackle the mound of presents with as little tape and cutting as possible!
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