Greening Up Your Christmas (Tip #1: Wrapping Paper)

December is only a day away and Christmas is creeping ever closer! I'm not at all prepared yet, but I figured I would get into the Christmas spirit by sharing some ways to keep your Christmas as Green and Organic as possible.



My family likes to experiment; we're always tweaking what goes on during Christmas, a fact I enjoy because it means that you never know what to expect! The first change we made was how we wrapped the presents. When you have a huge family wrapping presents not only costs a good chunk, but it also wastes a lot of paper.

We originally started with the stockings and wrapped all the little gifts that went into them in newspaper. Sounds odd, but no one really noticed! We explained Santa was becoming more eco-concious and the whole thing went off without a hitch! (When you have 12 or so giant stockings like we did, that is a lot of paper!)

If you're not comfortable using something that lacks that 'pretty' look that everyone expects, then make sure you recycle the paper rather than just tossing it into the garbage bin.

A few of our Christmas presents this year!

 My sister, the clever gal that she is, did something a little different. She used brown recycled craft paper, rather than wrapping paper, and had her kids help her decorate it. Armed with colored pencils, markers, glitter glue and more, they transformed each present into a work of art! (And had fun doing it!) They made cut outs from the previous year's Christmas Cards and used them to decorate the presents as well. What a great family project!

Stay tuned for more tips over the next month! Please don't hesitate to let me know how you green up your Christmas! 

Photo via James Ellsworth.

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