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Compostable christmas wrapping and decorating!

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By Practical Frog
I have struggled with the waste for years at Christmas time and especially with the wrapping part. Now don't get me wrong - I absolutely love a well wrapped present. I have an Aunty who wraps presents wonderfully, so much so that I didn't want to open our wedding present but to just go on savouring the elegant bows and spray of orchid on the outside! It was truly a work of art!

Its more the amount of wrap that you can spend a fortune on that usually gets ripped and crushed beyond use in the rush to see whats inside. The wrap that I can save, I do save. This year I decided to try another option. Its free, environmentally friendly, upcycles a common waste problem and kinda funky to boot...

Here's what I did...

I wrapped my family presents in Newspaper!


I actually struggled with this as I wrapped the first one and then unwrapped it and got out the commercial stuff I have got for the people who may not appreciate my view on wrapping paper. Then I decided that of all people, my husband would be able to handle it and in hindsight, appreciate the thought of newspaper wrap - so I unwrapped it again and re wrapped it back in its newspaper.



I made a strip from the commercial paper and turned it into a bow. Attached a very quickly slapped together tag (with cotton string) and popped it under the tree. It doesn't look so bad you know!


I'm sure it will be a talking piece for visitors over the festive season and that works for me too!

On Christmas morning I can scoop the whole lot up and instruct a nearby body to sizz it all through the shredder and; Voila! Christmas flavoured paper for the compost and the worms! (making that the third use for that particular paper!)

Linked into Sustrainable Suburbia and their seasonal celebrations post! Have a look at what others doing.
http://sustainablesuburbia.net/simple-seasonal-goodness-celebrating-advent-with-a-difference/

Score card:
Green-ness: 5/5 for reusing a product in its waste phase!
Frugal-ness: 5/5 for making one $3 roll of paper co-ordinate all my pressies!
Time cost: The usual - less if you count not having to go back to the shops to get more paper - this paper gets delivered free of charge!!!
Skill level: More guts than skill I think (I mean what WILL the neighbours think?)
Fun -ness: It'll be fun to see the reactions I get!
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Comments

Kathryn Ray said…
When I was a kid, our presents were always wrapped in newspaper.

I would probably still wrap in newspaper, but we stopped receiving it about 2 years ago. Sometimes I miss having packing and wrapping at the ready.

I have been thinking a bit about vermicomposting... especially since we miss having the local paper.

Merry Christmas and who cares what the neighbors think. ;-)
13 December 2012 at 01:26
africanaussie said…
congratulations.... we do a Kris kringle so only have one present to wrap, plus of course one present for each of the grandkids. I don't see why the regular Christmas wrapping paper cant be composted? I might try that this year.
13 December 2012 at 09:54
Barbara Good said…
I too have struggled with the idea of all that waste. For a few years I wrapped my presents in tea towels fastening them with ribbon and pins if needed, but that got a little expensive. Now I use some of the mountains of artwork that makes its way home from childcare. They're always colourful in an abstract sort of way and are jazzed up nicely with a ribbon and bow. The family love getting these.
13 December 2012 at 20:40
Anonymous said…
I used to use newspaper, when we got a paper, and let my boys decorate them for each person. My family didn't appreciate the newspaper and complained loudly. I hope your family appreciates your efforts. Adding the extra touches with the holiday paper makes it look very festive.
14 December 2012 at 04:30
KirstenM said…
I love it! I used to use the comics pages of the paper often (more colourful), but these days I mostly upcycle my kids paintings.

I love the idea of the strip of coloured paper coordinating them all though. That gives that extra sense of class that my pressies often don't have!

This would be a great post for my Simple Seasonal Goodness linky list over at SustainableSuburbia.net http://sustainablesuburbia.net/simple-seasonal-goodness-celebrating-advent-with-a-difference/ - I'd love you to pop over and add it :)
16 December 2012 at 12:15
Practical Frog said…
Now that Christmas is over I can say that it didn't make much difference to the day. Not one single person commented. I dont know why - maybe they expect this sort of thing from me and its so ordinary that there is no need to comment - maybe they didnt notice or it wasnt important to them to have presents in Christmas paper... Either way - the wrapping of Christmas presents in newspaper went TOTALLY unremarked! It all got shredded today (even the real Christmas paper)and went into the compost and to the worms. It saved me a few $ in wrapping paper and a bit of time buying it. It was easily available and so no problems to grab but other than making an environmental statement it made no difference to the day at all... I'll probably do it again next year! - K xx
26 December 2012 at 14:00
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