For really big gifts (too huge for a bag), though, we did go the comics route ; ). Sorry, David!

Good article. But I especially love the video on fabric wrapping. That is awesome! It is a very classy, elegant way to go green and reduce wrapping costs, especially if you are able to use fabric you already have.

I also use small candy canes and dollar store decorations (like mini ornaments 20/$1) to make a package more fancy and festive (will be blogging about this sort of thing shortly, as soon as I take some pics).

My sisters live in the same city about 1700 miles away, so when we mail-order something for one of them, we just have it delivered to the other and she’s in charge of wrapping it. We don’t consider that “being cheap” – it’s simply not being stupid with our money.

I also remember one Christmas when I was a teenager. At the last minute, I purchased 3 large chocolate bars for my brother. I didn’t have any gift wrap so I used white drawing paper and painted a tree with the 12 days of Christmas on it. A VERY time consuming project for a very minor gift! LOL

I also re-use gift bags… even accidently gave one back to the persn who gave it to me in the first place once!

Cut out photos of flowers from the mail order catalog and glue to paper to wrap a gift of that very flower’s bulbs. Give tulips = wrap in tulip decorated paper.

Large orders from a well known seed and plant vendor come with the merchandise lightly padded with large sheets of misprint (mostly a color missing or ink too light) gift wrap. I saved it for future use. Free!

When I was about twelve years old I was given a very large amount of chewing gum, each piece of which was wrapped in silver foil. I gingerly separated each piece of foil from its paper backing. They were waxed together. Each piece could then be burnished onto a large sheet of paper. I just used school loose leaf paper. After a while the whole sheet was covered with overlapping silvers squares. I used it to wrap a little box with two bangle bracelets for my grandmother. I thought it looked really special, but who knows?

I have put away a few washed mylar potato chip bags. I’m considering using them, silver side out, to warp the right present for the right person. Fortunately I have many friends who would approve.

Also in the line of mylar–how about those mylar birthday balloons? What ever happens to them? I understand some communities are considering banning them for ecological reasons. But if you have one wilting away, perhaps it could be discreetly punctured and slit open somehow to make the kind of wrap that is gathered at the top with a bow around a bottle, jar, or small basket for a birthday.

There is, of course the idea of painting your own paper, should you come across some that is large enough. We did that sort of thing when we were kids. We would even given new, brighter life to newspaper by painting bold designs on it.

In magazines in the last few years I have seen a lot of very nice packages done in brown paper bags. The bows or other attachments were what really gave it dazzle. A small twig of fir or cedar from your tree, garland or wreath looks great tied to a brown package.

I have had a lot of tiny Christmas ornaments for years. I started attaching little ones to wrapped gifts and they add a lot of charm to ho-hum or not Christmassy paper. That might be just the thing to add to my inside-out potato chip bag wrapping. Similarly I have attached the applesauce & cinnamon dough gingerbread men I made with my kid some 15 years ago. They are easy to attach because we had made them to hang on a tree, so they have little holes in their hands or heads. I just string a than ribbon to it and can add it to that ho-hum make-do paper, dangling out of a bow, preferably.

Once as a kid, I decorated a plain department store shirt box with button, and scraps of fabric to look like a men’s shirt. Inside, was the shirt my sibs and I were giving to Dad.

I love to wrap presents, whether I have classy, expensive material or not!

BUT, mostly we use newspaper to wrap gifts. I don’t see the point of wasting all that paper. More of a conserving kind of thing than a financial one, for us.

However, gift bags can also be costly if you’re just buying them – so kudos to one of my local grocery store chains who are selling their holiday-themed “green” bags for a buck. They are encouraging people to use those for wrapping gifts – then the recipents will use those bags to shop with and help the environment!