by June Matthies

Created on: November 10, 2008   Last Updated: November 13, 2008

WRAP WITH IMAGINATION AND FLAIR!

Forget the gifts; you need a separate credit card to pay for all the beautiful paper, ribbons, and bows you need to wrap them in. Not to mention the fact that nearly all of it is going is going into the landfill after their brief life is over. This is wrong on so many levels! But, don't go all Scroogey on us yet, because we have some brilliant ideas to save you money and still have beautifully wrapped gifts.

Some people were born to wrap, and others weren't. For some mysterious, karmic reason, I am a wonderful present wrapper. My folds are beautifully symmetrical and my packages are so wonderful that they could be displayed in the snootiest boutiques. Now, there are some folks who can use the least amount of wrapping paper and wrap beautifully. If you know someone like that, make a deal! Bake cookies in exchange for wrapping. You will avoid green-guilt and your mother-in-law will think her gift was wrapped at a very expensive store.

Remember your grandma lunging for the wrapping paper and saying, "Give it to me, it's perfectly good paper", and sure enough, you'd see that paper on your birthday gift. Felt a little second-hand, didn't it? Well, it can be done without spreading gloom. Little presents requiring a little paper can definitely be done. Just pick a box that is smaller than the folded up parts.

These are things we can save all year long to produce at holiday gift time. For instance, every Sunday paper, fifty two weeks a year, contains the color comic pages. That's a lot of wrapping, and kids of all ages will enjoy your efforts.

How much foil do you throw out all year? Any clean piece of foil can do one more job (green, see?) wrapping presents! How many drawings or paintings do your little ones bring home? They won't all fit on the fridge, so save them for wrapping paper! Praise your child and explain that "Grandma loves blue; this will be a beautiful gift wrap for her!" None of your child's precious pictures go unloved, and your family will get the fun of figuring out where to hang them.

How many holiday cards do you get each and every year? It's a shame to throw them out, they're so pretty. Cut the pictures out of the cards, punch a hole in them and put some nice yarn through the hole: tags! Free, green tags! Some cards can yield more than one picture tag depending on how you cut them.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and as long as you need to buy holiday gifts, balance your checkbook, and look after this planet (necessity), you either need to think up how to do it yourself or find your answers in clever articles like these (invention). Go ahead and feel free, though, to say you thought it all up yourself. That's our little Happy Holidays present to you.

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