Creative Christmas Wrapping Ideas

Creative and environmentally friendly ways to wrap your presents and gifts this holiday season

I LOVE wrapping presents. My husband and I make a good team because he does the shopping, and I do the wrapping. I very much dislike shopping, but wrapping is a fun art form to me. Whereas his wrapping leaves... a bit to be desired! This year, I thought it'd be fun to try something different. I've been on a small crusade to make my home more eco-friendly, and it's always struck me how wasteful wrapping paper is. Especially if you're a last minute shopper, then the wrapping is only on the present for a small time before it's ripped up and thrown in the trash! The print on it makes it not even appropriate for your fireplace. So this year, I've come up with some creative Christmas wrap ideas that are eco-friendly, easy to do and honestly, cost effective too.

As I was researching this post, I was sitting at a lunch bar that I frequent and was talking to some other regulars as I worked. We all chat about what we do regularly, and we all have very different jobs: hairstylist, insurance agent, small business owner, clothier and so on. But there was one consistent response as I unofficially polled my regular lunch companions - nobody has time for super fancy wrapping! With that in mind, I wanted to keep my "creative" ideas as simple and as easy to implement as possible, while keeping it classy and good looking. So I came up with a few variations for you:

I reused brown paper bags from Whole Foods, cutting them open and using the inside which has no printing on it. Then I used twine I had leftover from goodness knows what, and attached a few jingle bells I had leftover from photographing this DIY peppermint foot scrub (which is a great gift to wrap in this, I should add!). I also had some snowflakes that I used regular white glue to adhere to the front of the package. Instead of using a gift tag, I used a metallic Sharpie to write the gift recipients name on the package and boom. Done. It took all of 4-5 minutes, too.

Wrapping tips for:

Reusing grocery bags for wrapping
- cut the bottom out of the bag
- remove the handles, if there are any
- turn inside out

Making clean edges when wrapping
- after taping the wrapping around the package lengthwise, use your thumbs to press the short edges inward
- crease with your fingers
- cut the top (where you taped the lengthwise seam) of the wrapping short enough to just cover the sides of your package
- pull the bottom piece up and around and secure with tape

To decorate the paper bag wrapping, I got creative with holiday decorations I already had on hand. Twine keeps the look farmhouse rustic; jingle bells add flair and color; the snowflakes are easy to attach with a glue stick; and the candy canes I had on hand as a former photo prop from this DIY ornament (hint hint, another great gift you could wrap with these creative Christmas wrapping ideas!) and were super easy to incorporate into the packaging.

The thing that I like about the paper bag is that it's so versatile - what do you have? Maybe you have a rubber stamp collection - get some gold or silver ink and go to town! Or perhaps you've got an amazing ribbon collection. The brown paper works with just about any ribbon, from glittery and fancy to twine, like you see me use. Have fun colored Sharpie markers? Yup, those work too! Glitter paint or pens? Those are perfect. This method really works with whatever you already have, or all you need is a few cheap additions (those snowflakes were $1.99 for three colors, and the jingle bells weren't much more!)

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I wasn't kidding when I said each package took 2-5 minutes, depending on what I did. Which is about standard for wrapping any present and tying a ribbon on it with a gift tag. So not only is this method eco-friendly because you're reusing paper bags and potentially other materials too, but it's also more cost effective than traditional wrapping. Not to mention, nobody else's presents will look like yours, so when you bring them to your family's Christmas, they'll stand out with your creativity!