creative packaging

This Christmas we've been on quite a strict budget, so we've been really creative in how and what we're doing for Christmas. Although I've never been one to re-gift, I've kept what I call my 'gift' closet.

It's full of things that I've received which are nice gifts but are items I've never been able to use due to various reasons. It may have been a duplicate of something I already had, or maybe just not my taste.

I keep gifts that I buy throughout the year in my gift closet, as well as the items that I would 'someday' re-gift. That someday is now. I've never re-gifted to date, but with little to no money at this point I'm now willing to use my gift closet and it's resources without hesitation.

As I started looking through my closet, I realized I had no paper to wrap them in. So, my son and decided to wrap them all in newspaper and draw red bows on each package. I'm sure it's a little cheesy, but I can rest easy when all the paper is torn off and thrown away...knowing that I'm not letting nice paper go to waste. I recycle most everything...paper gift bags, tissue paper, and bows. But it's so hard to re-use used wrapping paper, which usually gets thrown away each year.

Although these little packages look a little sad under my tree, as they lack the luster of the shiny Christmas paper, they definitely bring a smile to my face. My son and I have spent some sweet quality time picking out the newspaper pages and marking them up with our drawn on red Christmas bows. And I'm sure the recipients of these packages, will take more time to notice what paper they're wrapped in than if I'd used regular holiday wrapping.