Wrap Your Holiday Gifts In The Wave (After You Read It)

This year I wrapped all of my Christmas gifts in newspaper and paper from an old caroling book. Why? Because it’s cheaper than buying five rolls of wrapping paper for $7.99 each. It’s fun, creative, and most importantly… it reduces waste.

Pages from an old book work nicely as wrapping paper for a holiday or birthday present. Here, I used a song sheet from an old Christmas caroling book.

I swear I thought of this brilliant, eco-conscious holiday hack before I saw the Sanitation Foundation’s IG post (@sanitationfoundation). It alerts us to the increased tonnage of waste during the holidays. They suggested wrapping presents in recycled material too! The statistics…geez. The post reads:

“Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, waste increases by 25%. That’s about 1 million extra tons sent to landfills across the country each year.  It’s about progress, not perfection! With gift-giving holidays around the corner, let’s use this time to rethink some of our usual holiday habits.  

Here’s a tip: Get creative with recyclable gift wrap, like newspaper, old maps, brown bags or posters. Even brown paper bags can be festive if decorated with stamps, drawings or colorful ribbons. 

If every family in the U.S. wrapped just three presents with reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. 

The Sanitation Foundation is the official non-profit partner of the DSNY. Their mission is to support the work of DSNY to help clean up the city and reduce waste by engaging communities, schools, elected officials, and corporations to participate in reducing the waste in NYC.”

I know many of you still have a pile of unwrapped presents hidden somewhere in your home. Here are a few tips of my own, for using newspapers as wrapping paper.

If every family in the US wrapped just three presents with reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

Choose colorful pages. Ads work great because they’re seasonally appropriate and you’re promoting local business at the same time. The classified section is a nice uniform look that works well too. Use my column page to explain to your new girlfriend why her gold bracelet is wrapped in newspaper. Adorn with ribbon, twigs from your yard or pinecones. Glue on shapes cut from old book pages. Decorate and personalize with markers.

Be mindful of what pages you choose. Avoid the cover page. Steer clear of the letters to the editor, the obituaries, CB14 recaps, and definitely pass on any articles related to politics. This content will be triggering for some family members and the last thing you want is to unintentionally strike up a politically charged debate over a plate of antipasto.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy holiday filled with lots of food, smiles, and charming recycled wrapping paper!