Merry Christmas! Some Quick (and yes, late) Tips for the Greenest Christmas Wrapping

Yes, I know this is extremely late for a green Christmas posting, but I would like to share what I do to cut down on waste during the holiday season. It has got a great response from family and friends, as well as from my Tweeps in the Twittersphere, so here goes...

I will be honest, I never liked wrapping gifts before; it is tedious and usually a last minute endeavour for me right before the guests begin to arrive on Christmas Eve. Last year (though more in 2009) I began wrapping all my presents in photos ripped from old magazines, and poof! wrapping became an entirely different experience.

What is amazing for me about this method is that beyond the obvious green benefits of repurposing materials, the magazine pictures hold a lot more meaning for the recipients. This year for example, I wrapped my uncle's gift in a picture of Roger Bannister, the first man to ever run a 4-minute mile. In his younger years, said uncle had been a world class 1,500 meter runner, so Sir Roger is a hero of his. My Dad's Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD (it's ok, he doesn't read my blog)is covered by none other than Larry David himself.

So maybe this isn't the greatest thing to hit Christmas since Jesus, but it does make things a little bit more special. Custom wrapping shows that you really care about the recipient, and when it's repurposed, that you care about the Earth too.

On that note, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or whatever your chosen holiday may be) and a Happy New Year. I have included a few more tips to greening your Christmas below as well as pictures of my magazine paper if you are interested. Cheers!

Other Tips:
1. Reuse bags for wrapping
2. Use old shredded paper instead of tissue paper as filler for bags
3. For larger packages, use newspaper- it's not as pretty but it works! You can also write personalized messages on it to make it a little more special.