Part of the fun of a gift is that it is a surprise! The wrap is a very important part of the whole gift experience. But there is a lot of waste with gift wrap as usually it is used once and then discarded.

Beautiful gift wrapping was a tradition in my family when I was growing up. My mother loved to wrap beautiful gifts at Christmas and would spend hours in the bedroom with the door closed, occasionally emerging with a fancy package topped with curly ribbons. There was a store we liked that had very imaginative gift boxes every Christmas. We would buy gifts there just to get the boxes! We had a whole collection that my mother would bring out year after year--a good environmental practice, but we did it because we loved the look of the boxes.

Of course, my mother's love of fancy gift wrap extended to every other gift we received throughout the year as well. So strong was this tradition in my family that when I married after my mother's death, my father took my wedding gift-- that he had puchased in Europe--to a local department store for a fancy gift wrap.

There are many creative ways to make a gift look gorgeous and benefit the environment, too. Here are some ideas.

Reusable wraps

Use decorative gift bags and boxes. These can be used over and over again. Gift bags and boxes come in all colors and styles, and are well worth in investment in saved wrapping paper (you can purchase them very inexpensively at closeout stores like Ross Dress for Less and BigLots). Look for bags and boxes made from recycled paper, but even if you purchase reusable bags and boxes from virgin paper, reusing them is better than throwing away wrapping paper after a single use. I save every gift bag I receive and reuse it to give a gift. Also, save small boutique shopping bags with handles and recycle them by pasting a holiday image over the store logo.

"Wrap" gifts in containers that can have their own reusable purpose. Cookie jars, storage jars, baskets, wooden boxes, buckets, jewelry boxes, flower pots, hats, scarves or any other reusable container can be a "gift box". Be creative. See if you can match the wrap with the gift, such as a cooking-oriented gift wrapped in a kitchen towel. Look for inexpensive containers at thrift stores and garage sales.

Use fabric. This can be reused by the receiver or can form part of the present. Consider pillowcases, socks, scarves, bandanas, and handkerchiefs. Look for remnants at local fabric store. They are inexpensive and you'll be giving a good use to material that is too small to be used to make clothing. If you have a sewing machine or can borrow one, make drawstring gift bags that can be used over and over. In fact, an assortment of fabric gift bags in different sizes and colors would make a great gift. Reusable fabric gift bags can also be purchased readymade.

Wrapping paper

Buy recycled paper. Look for wrapping paper that is made from recycled paper, at your local stores and online.

Make your own recycled paper. Decorative paper can be made from recycled paper you make yourself. Check your local craft store for books with ideas and instructions-- they may even have classes.

Reuse interesting papers. Newspaper and magazine pages are the obvious choice, but you could also use old maps or posters or expired calendar pages. Choose pages that are colorful or with interesting pictures. You can also match the paper to the recipient, such as comics for children, cooking pages for cooks, gardening pages for gardeners, etc. In this way, the wrap becomes more personal than generic store bought wrap.

Use aluminum foil. This shiny wrap can be recycled! Use actual kitchen foil, not foil-coated paper, which cannot be recycled.

Make your own decorative wrap from brown paper grocery bags. Use the whole bag turned inside out, or cut down one side, then around all four sides of the bottom to make a sheet of paper. Put designs on the brown side using rubber stamps, stamp with designs cut from a sponge or a potato, or stamp paper with leaves or fruit or vegetable slices dipped in nontoxic paint. Draw freehand with felt-tip markers or paste pictures from magazines or greeting cards.

Reuse wrap from last year. To do this, you'll need to start collecting wrapping paper. Be prepared--before opening your gifts, have bags or boxes ready to collect gift boxes, tissue paper and decorative bows to use again.

Use removable tape that doesn't stick to the paper, so wrap can be easily removed and reused. If you aren't familiar with this tape, the adhesive is like a sticky note, but on a strip of tape. It holds well, and can be removed easily without destroying the paper.

Choose wrap that can be recycled. Don't use plastics, foil paper, mylar ribbons, or any other materials that cannot be recycled.

Stuffing material and tissue paper

Save tissue paper from gifts you recieve, and that is given to you when stores wrap your purchases. I have a whole pile of it in different colors. You can reuse it several times within your own family, and when it gets too crumpled, crumple it up even more and use it for stuffing material.

Instead of using new plastic peanuts, get an inexpensive paper shredder (around $20) and shred your office paper that is ready to be recycled. This works great even for gifts that need protection during shipping. Unbuttered popcorn is another great filling material and looks festive in the box!

Gift tags

The purpose of gift tags is to identify who the gift is for and who it is from. As long as this information is on the package, you can use anything.

The simplest thing is to write directly on the wrapping paper with a black or colored marker.

Here's a way to make gift tags from old greeting cards. Cut off the front of old cards, or just a nice image from the front, with pinking shears. Punch a hole in the corner, and write the "to:" and "from:" and a little note on the back. Slip the end of the package ribbon through the hole and tie it on. You can save old cards from all occasions to make new gift tags.

Last year, after cleaning up from Christmas, I cut the front off cards I had received to use as gift tags. I had read about doing this but thought it was the kind of thing little old ladies did. Anyway, this year when I was wrapping gifts, it was so neat to go thru this stack of beautiful images that could dress up the gift and also be unique. Who knows, maybe the person who sent me the card got it back as a gift tag! Anyway, just one more example of one of the R's "reuse".

J.B., San Rafael CA

If you have a computer and printer, you can make personalized gift tags. Write the names of the recipient and sender in holiday type and decorate with free clip art (searching on google.com gives great results--choose "Images" and type in "Christmas clip art" or other occasion). Print out your tags on the backs of paper being saved for "scratch paper." Glue tags directly to wrap with a glue stick.

For a fancy gift tag that is also a package decoration, make a nice gift tag, then cut a slit on each end of the tag and run a ribbon through the slits and around the back, and tie the ribbon around the package. You can even make a larger tag and hold it in place by cutting slits on all four sides and running ribbons in both directions. You can use this method to attach a gift tag made from old cards (if you can write on the front), handwritten, or made with a computer.

Ribbons, bows, and package decorations

According to the Use Less Stuff Report, if every household reused just two feet of ribbon each year, the resulting 38,000 miles of ribbon could tie a bow around the Earth.

Here are some ideas for ribbons and bows:

• natural raffia (available at craft stores)
• natural fiber yarns
• fabrics cut into strips with pinking shears. Fabric remnants are inexpensive. Cotton holiday fabrics are usually on sale after the holidays, so you can stock up for very little money.

For package decorations, use natural materials such as evergreen twigs, holly sprigs, and pinecones.

"Treasure" hunt

Since part of the fun of the gift is the element of surprise, simply hide the gift--wrapped or unwrapped--and give the recipent a clue as to where to find it. You can make this as simple or complex as you like--from simple instructions to go look in the hall closet, to clues with riddles that lead the recipient from one clue to the next until the gift is found. This adds even more excitement and anticipation!

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