3 Sustainable Ways To Wrap Holiday Gifts

My family and I have worked hard over the years to make Christmas more sustainable and less excessive. We each draw one name at the beginning of the season, and have a set budget for the gift, that way we aren’t left with a huge pile of gifts that, while thrilling to unwrap and accept, feels a little wasteful since we’re all so content with what we already have. Setting a limit on things and just receiving one gift has absolutely transformed the way we enjoy Christmas. I’m not exaggerating. It’s not nearly as stressful and excessive as it used to be, and it also means less wasted gift wrap!

Speaking of, let’s talk sustainable gift wrap for a second. I’m perfectly fine with the concept of a small Christmas in terms of gifts, but I still love the tradition of wrapping presents. I relish that moment of tearing into a pretty wrapped box (bonus points for a bow!). That said, I do feel a tad guilty when I look around at all of the torn paper and boxes. We recycle, of course, and reuse boxes from year to year, but I knew there had to be a way to make the tradition just a little more sustainable. And that’s how my trio of sustainable gift-wrapping concepts came to be.

Resources: Sustainable kraft wrapping paper, handy holiday wrapping paper cutter

You can view the entire post with all three step-by-step tutorials over on Hunker here, but essentially, I spent time dreaming up three ways to turn regular old shipping boxes into pretty presents for the holidays. First, I dug through our recycle pile to find three decent-looking boxes, and then got crafty with the treatment of the outside so they went from “trash” to “Christmas-tree-worthy.” It’s not hard at all, and I definitely feel so much better about handing these boxes over since they’re getting a cheerful second life. Which one is your favorite?

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