I love wrapping presents. There’s something about wrapping packages tidily – the uniformity of it that I find soothing. I’ve always volunteered for gift wrapping activities. I’ve wrapped for friends and families but this year I feel differently. This year I feel guilty using wrapping paper and plastic tape and plastic ribbon. I just see it sitting in some dump somewhere and what’s the point? Sure, it looks pretty but is something that looks pretty for a matter of hours really worth the environmental impact?

So I’m working this year on some alternate methods of wrapping. I’ve gone all over the place online and I’ve found plenty of suggestions, but I have three favorites – and here are some examples!

Recycled Wrapping Paper

The easiest way to go greener with wrapping is to simply seek out recycled wrapping paper, like the example you see over to the right from Fish Lips Paper Designs. Plenty of places sell it and you won’t have to give up the pretty festive look beneath your tree. Of course, after the presents have been torn into on Christmas morning, you’ll want to separate the paper out and recycle it again.

Note: if you use tape to secure your packages then make sure you remove the tape from all the paper since it can’t be recycled!

Also, try to use raffia or look for recycled ribbon or ribbon made of organic materials.

Alternate Wrapping Paper

I have a four year old who loves to do artwork. I also get plenty of newspapers and we sometimes get paper bags from the grocery store if we’ve forgotten our reusable bags. That means I have plenty of raw material for wrapping gifts in my house. No, they won’t look as high end, but if you get some festive ribbon (or use what you have) or if you just push yourself a bit with some sharpies, your gifts can look charming and you can get your kids in on the fun.

First, I took newspaper from my local circular. I then put an abstract pattern of holly leaves and berries and a large pointsetta-like flower in the center.

I wrapped the package with tight seams and did not use any tape and then I tied the package with foil, recycled ribbon.

Another example – I used a brown paper bag and cut it up to flatten it out. Because this paper was a bit thicker, I used tape to make sure it stayed flat.

I had some extra festive ribbon from last year and I decided to use that to spruce up the look. I made my own large bow and then did some fun decorations around the brown paper.

Finally, tin foil can actually be excellent wrapping paper. I used regular tin foil but you can also get colored foil that has been recycled. No tape needed on this one and I used a contrasting recycled foil ribbon.

Re-Usable Gift Bags

If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can have some fun making reusable gift bags! I used some extra material scraps I had lying around. I didn’t have enough to make anything substantial so this way the material doesn’t go to waste! I also had a spare piece of ribbon so I just got my sewing machine out and two seams later, I had a simple, festive bag. I could have gotten fancier with this one but it only took me ten minutes.

I used the sewing machine to secure the ribbon on the bag and poof! I’ve recycled some materials sitting around in my home and the next gift-ee can reuse the bag on down the line!

So think about your gifts before you buy tons of wrapping paper, tape and ribbon. Think of the trees, the landfills and how you can reduce, re-use and recycle while you’re wrapping your packages!

I love Food Network. It’s really one of my default channels on a rainy day. Barefoot Contessa is one of the shows I really enjoy. Her recipes are always delicious and she uses ingredients and creates dishes that really appeal to me. She also loves a theme – whether it’s a summer barbecue or winter comfort foods. One of her holiday shows always runs at this time of year, and she talks about the fact that some of her friends believe that Christmas gifts should always be something that should be used in one sitting.

This means they could be food items like cookies or a pie, a dinner party, a bottle of wine, or tickets to an event. I love this idea because if you look at it the right way, it supports giving and generosity without “stuff” attached to it. Reducing consumption and the shopping insanity around the holidays is very important to me so this concept was right up my alley.
Some great, immediately consumable, holiday gift ideas:

Chex Mix!

Yes, I know you can buy it whenever you like, but did you know you can make chex mix in bulk? You can set up your kitchen over one weekend and make batches of this yummy snack mix.

Store and give in practical Tupperware containers. You’ll be giving a yummy treat in a practical, reusable container!

Some great recipes:

• Original Chex Mix Recipe
• Hot and Spicy Chex Mix
• Sweet Chex Mix
• Dirty Free Snack Mix

Hot Chocolate:

Another great consumable gift is gourmet hot chocolate – without the liquid part. You can find wonderful high end organic ingredients and mix them together in a simple bag.

Tie the bag with a ribbon and attach the recipe with instructions. Give the mix in a nice mug or in a travel coffee cup to encourage reusable containers instead of disposable!

Some great Hot Chocolate Mix Recipes:

• Hot Chocolate from the Barefoot Contessa
• Hot Cocoa Mix from All Recipes
• Vanilla Hot Chocolate Mix from epicurious
• Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix

Dinner in a Bag!

One of my favorite things to do during times of stress for my good friends, especially any one with kids is to deliver a meal in a bag. For me, the holidays end up being pretty stressful so this is another great consumable gift!

I love to do a great Italian casserole like a lasagna or a baked ziti. I usually include a big hunk of crusty bread, some salad in a bag and a small container of salad dressing. Put in a box of holiday cookies and put it all in a paper bag and deliver it to your friend for a thoughtful, delicious and stress free holiday gift!

Some great recipes for the main course:

• The Lady and Sons Lasagna
• Pasta e Fagioli al Forno
• Baked Ziti with Meatballs

So there you go – several great ideas for consumable holiday gifts that aren’t your standard Christmas cookies. Enjoy the memories you can create with these gifts and experience the joy of the season without all the junk!

I love holiday lights. When I was a little girl I called them fairy lights and my Granddad and I would decorate every doorway and turn out the lights to create an entire fairy land. Now that I have my own family I still love the sense of wonder and indirect lighting Christmas lights provide, but now I know all about kilowatt hours.

Instead of smiling at outdoor Christmas displays, I now wince when I drive by houses that are all lit up and I hesitate to drape my house with twinkling lights even though I’d love my daughter to experience the tradition.

Now I feel like I can create some of the same feelings in my daughter, without using so much power. How’s that you say? LED Christmas lights, that’s how!

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode which is a high efficiency light created using an electric current conducted through a semiconductor diode. I have to tell you, I don’t worry too much about the technical side of how the lights actually work. I tend to focus more on the incredible energy savings you can secure with LED Christmas lights.

I read an awesome article over on the Huffington Post that actually does the math for you and proves that LED Christmas lights –which are more costly up front – can pay for themselves within two years with the energy savings you reap. Essentially LED Christmas lights are 90% more efficient than the standard incandescent strings and that can add up to a lot of kilowatt hours and a sizable carbon footprint reduction.

Where can you find holiday LED lights?

You can get them almost anywhere! Not only are they readily available at most hardware stores, you can also find them online for much less. In some cases you can find them for less than $10.00.

Some great websites:

Holiday LED’s: This site has all the LED holiday lights you could ever need and in every color of the rainbow. No matter you light taste – if you prefer all white or you want a crazy orange tree, you can get your lights here. They also offer LED strings with traditional bulb shapes as well as some that are not so typical like rounded globes, snowflakes and “wide angle.”

Brookstone.com:  Sites as large as Brookstone are also in on the LED action. I love the lights here because they are super nostalgic – the oversized multi color kind I remember wrapping around the front bush of my childhood home with my dad.

Target.com (or your local Target!): You can get a wide variety of lights from a Target near your home or online at Target.com. They offer LED lights, candles and other lit holiday décor that will let you get the look you want without using tons of energy.

So get yourself some LED lights and ropes and décor! You get all the pleasure and none of the downside!

I always feel an insane amount of pressure to send out Holiday cards. I don’t really know why – I mean, do people even care that much? Sure, they’ll smile and they can see how our little family has changed and grown throughout the year, but am I just creating more paper waste and more stress than I need to?

The answer is probably yes. But still, I love receiving Holiday cards so how can I not send them out? I believe in spreading cheer and good will. I love keeping in touch and I love seeing the cards from our friends accumulate on the door to our family room.

This year I did the same thing I always do. I uploaded my little images to Shutterfly.com, configured a photo card and had them mail them for me. The only moderately environmentally friendly part of this process is that I saved a tiny bit of carbon footprint naughtiness by not mailing to myself and then mailing them out again from my home.

But really, there has to be a more environmentally conscious way to proceed. So when I started this green holiday series for the Planet Blog, I started to do some digging and I came up with some interesting options for years to come.

One easy way to proceed would be to order recycled greeting cards, perhaps like this one from Cards Direct that also reminds people about the importance of being green.

Then I kept digging and I came upon this great site, greenerprinter.com. They do high quality eco-friendly printing on recycled paper and they even do photo cards! Hm. I think I know where I’m going next year.

Then, of course, you have to option of sending e-cards instead of paper copies. Electronic cards might not give you the same exact sensation of opening that envelope but they send out holiday cheer with less of a carbon footprint. A couple of great sites for e cards include BlueMountain.com, 123Greetings.com and Hallmark.com.

If you can’t resist sending out paper cards, another way to do what you like while giving back is to buy your cards from an environmental group like the National Audubon Society. You can purchase holiday cards to support a good cause.

So there you have a few great ideas on making the holidays you send more eco-friendly, or coming up with a creative alternative. Next year, I’ll feel better knowing I sent out my little message to friends and family without being careless about the earth.