Not READY for Jingle bells

Tomorrow is December 1st. Sunday was the FIRST SUNDAY of Advent. My house is still full of pumpkins and silk fall leaves. I am not ready.

Prep work happens, though, ready or not. Here is something to consider before the fracas of present presentation begins. I wrote some of the following tips for our local Peace and Justice group's (LEPOCO) newsletter in the Young Peacemaker's column.

Get off the gift wrap carousel. 

Many families celebrate winter with gift-giving. Every thing that comes into our houses during the holidays can change the environment. Look at where gifts come from, (travel costs and exhaust), how each gift is made, (chemicals and waste), and how it is packaged,  (plastic and styrofoam). Even if we make all of our gifts (homemade gifts are the BEST!), we can go nuts worrying about the wear that each gift has on our climate. Let’s pick ONE part of all this merriment and see how that effects our climate - gift-wrapping.

In a British study done in 2011, the UK used about 227,000 MILES of wrapping paper over the winter holidays - enough paper to wrap around the world NINE times. In the US, we average 4 million pounds of wrapping paper a year. All that paper, all those bags, all that ribbon goes straight into the landfill, creating greenhouse gases as it decomposes. Here are some ideas on how to reduce that stress on our earth.

Make your own wrappings. 

1. Decorate newspaper with drawings or stamps. Use paper grocery bags for gift bags. If you get a package stuffed with paper, reuse it!
2. Save shiny packaging materials (the foil paper in boxes of teabags, ie. ) to decorate your gifts.
3. Wrap a gift inside another gift. Use a scarf or a bandanna or a cloth napkin as wrapping.
4. Make cloth gift bags that can be used over and over again. This article shows you how. https://www.greenchildmagazine.com/diy-fabric-gift-bags/
    (Hint: Decorate old pillow cases for those bulky gifts!)
5. Decorate packages with nature, -pinecones, dried leaves, pine needles- instead of ribbon. Tie them on with cotton twine or raffia.                                                                                                                           

Reuse what you already have.

1. Save as much gift wrap as you can from presents you receive. You can reuse it next year, even if all you do is save scraps to decorate newspaper or paper bags.                                                                                 2. Save pretty shopping bags and gift bags. If your name is stuck on with super glue, cover it with another name tag.                                                                                                                                                         3. Don't throw away ribbons or bows, or pretty yarn or string.                                                                      4. Cut up holiday cards from last year for gift tags, and for decorating packages.

For more info on how our actions can change the world, check out these books:

31 Ways to Change the World. 2010, Candlewick Press.


Everything Is Connected, Reimagining the World One Postcard at a Time. Keri Smith, 2013.  Penguin Group.


Climate Action: What Happened and What We Can Do. Seymour Simon, 2021. HarperCollins. (PS. I adore Seymour Simon!)

Now, what else can I do with all the pretty cards I save from year to year? I would love to hear YOUR gift wrapping ideas - and your holiday card ideas.