Eco Friendly Christmas Wrapping Ideas
This post may contain Affiliate Links
This year I’m trying to be a lot more eco-friendly when it comes to my Christmas wrapping. Once I’ve used up what I’ve saved from last year I’m going to try and stick to these much more eco-friendly Christmas wrapping ideas. Join me and Thrifty Blogger Zoe Morrison from Eco Thrifty Living in her #cutthewrap campaign which aims to reduce the amount of wrap thrown away this Christmas.
Eco-Friendly Christmas Wrapping Ideas
Many of us are taking a much more eco-friendly approach to Christmas this year, myself included. Even some big retailers are getting bored – including M&S who have removed glitter from all of their Christmas cards and wrapping paper as it is so difficult to recycle.
Things to Avoid When It Comes To Eco-friendly Wrapping
Glitter
Foil
Tape
Sticky Tags
Foil Bags
Foil Bows
Plastic wrapping for hampers
All of the above are difficult or unable to be recycled.
If you think of the millions of gifts exchanged every Christmas this means a huge amount of wrapping paper and cards going into to landfill.
While it is lovely to have beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree, wrapping is something that is discarded within seconds of being opened.
Changing our approach to wrapping Christmas presents could prevent this needless amount of rubbish from piling up.
Things to use instead – Environmentally friendly wrapping ideas
- Paper & Ink
- Natural products like pinecones and fresh holly
- String
- Beeswax Wraps
- Coloured or patterned Material
- Tea Towels
- Re-useable Sacks and Stockings
- Hessian
- Wicker Hampers
Using brown paper (or even white paper) is a great eco-friendly Christmas wrapping idea as it can easily be personalised with any patterns or prints you like. It’s also a great time to get the kids involved with making it.
Natural products make a great alternative to foil bows and ribbons. Pinecone and holly both work really well but you could also try drying out slices of orange in the oven and using those.
String is great alternative to using cello tape although there are some environmentally alternative options available.
Eco-Friendly Christmas Wrapping Ideas: Ask for items back
As I’ve usually got my thrifty head-on, I do tend to try and reuse as many gift bags as I can and I currently have a huge collection upstairs with my Christmas decorations. I’ve removed the name tags from most and will usually just add a brown kraft tag with the persons’ name if needed. My Mum also gives me hers to reuse as well.
A friend of mine makes a hamper for her brother and his family every year and each year they return the hamper to be refilled rather than buying a new one. There are also lots of cheaper alternatives you could use – a cardboard box covered in wrapping paper is my favourite thrifty way to go. This year I’m making baking hampers with a lovely mixing bowl to hold everything.
If you’ve used the material to wrap presents and don’t think the recipient will use it again there’s absolutely no shame in asking for it back.
I’ve recently made my first batch of beeswax wraps (blog post and tutorial coming soon) as an alternative to using cling film and plastic sandwich bags.
They’re very easy to make – I used beeswax from Amazon and Materials bought from Aldi. These are perfect for wrapping small gift and then they can be reused over and over by the recipient.
I understand that it’s not always possible to make the most eco-friendly choices, especially when posting delicate gifts that may require bubble wrap (although this, of course, can be used over and over again) but I’m a firm believer that we can make difference even by making one or two very small swaps.
It’s nice to see some big retailers getting on board including Fatface and Primark who are providing bags that can double up as wrapping paper.
Turn Your Primark Paper Bag Into Free Christmas Giftwrap
[…] Fiona Hawkes from Savvy in Somerset wrote about it here Eco Friendly Christmas wrapping ideas […]