8 Eco-Friendly Ideas for Your Holiday Gift Wrapping

Christmas time is upon us! Holiday season is my favorite season of the year, but with it comes an abundance of waste. One way to reduce waste is to rethink how we give gifts around the holidays. There are tons of eco-friendly wrapping ideas!

Over the past few years I’ve come up with some crafty ways to wrap gifts that don’t include single use wrapping. This post will cover 5 different eco-friendly gift wrap ideas, followed by 3 ways you can spice your gifts up and make them look even more incredible. And what’s even better is that every idea utilizes “reuse,” “reduce,” or both.

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5 Eco-Friendly Gift Wrapping Ideas

Newspaper

If you receive a newspaper everyday, then now is the perfect time to start saving it up for gift giving! It’s so easy to collect a ton of newspaper and it’s recyclable.

If you don’t receive the paper yourself, it won’t be hard to find someone in your life that does. Lot’s of businesses toss them out after a few days. All you have to do is ask them if you can have their old papers. It’s unlikely you’ll be empty handed at the end of the day.

I also consider this a pretty versatile solution because of a newspaper’s color. You might have to be a little strategic with the wrapping but you can wrap your gifts without showing any (or very little) color on the part you see. That means this is an amazing swap for almost any color palette. Your newspaper wrapping will match your green, red, gold, blue, silver, or any other colored decorations.

Brown Paper (old packaging or bags)

Brown paper might be a little easier to get a hold of than newspaper and there are two different kinds of paper you could use here. The first is brown paper bags and the second is just brown paper in general.

Bags

You might get brown paper bags when you order take out or pick up groceries from the store. But you don’t just have to think big brown paper bags either, small paper bags can work great too. You might get small bags at the liquor store or when buying something fragile at any store.

The larger bags will be great for medium to large gifts like pots and pans, toys, and even clothes. Smaller bags can help you wrap stocking stuffers or smaller items like jewelry and cups.

Other Brown Paper

Aside from bags you could also use brown paper from packaging as eco-friendly wrapping. If you order from sustainable brands then many times they ship with brown paper as stuffing rather than plastic bubbles. That paper packaging can easily be reused and repurposed for gift wrapping! I have a whole post on this here. Check it out for some additional zero waste holiday hacks.

Just like the newspaper, both of these brown paper options are a neutral color so they’re likely to match any color theming you’ve got going on around the tree. And it’s easily recyclable or compostable, adding to the eco-friendly nature of this wrapping.

If you don’t have any brown paper coming into your home, then you could always just buy some generic brown paper on a roll. That kind of defeats the reduce and reuse purpose here but it would still be recyclable or compostable, whereas traditional wrapping paper isn’t always recyclable. I recommend checking with friends, family, and even neighbors for their paper bags and old paper before buying new materials though.

Reusable Grocery Bags

This swap is one of my favorites. Rather than using wrapping or gift bags at all, you could purchase reusable grocery bags and put your gifts in them. Then, the bag doubles as a gift itself.

You’ll want to be careful with this one though, because if the person receiving the gift won’t use the bag often or even at all then it’s a waste. You’ll want to make sure you’re giving this kind of wrapping alternative to someone that uses or would like to start using reusable grocery bags.

As long as you do that, then this is a great eco-friendly gift wrapping option. I also love seeing my friends and family using their gifts and it’s so rewarding when I see someone use a bag I gave them to reduce their waste!

Pro-tip, I would lean toward more neutral designs and generic colors. If you give someone a reindeer or Santa themed bag, they might only use the bag a few times a year when it’s in season. Stick with solid colors and non-seasonal bags if you can.

To purchase these, you could find some generic bags at your local grocer or you could order poplar brand name bags like Chico. To the right is a 4-pack with plain but gorgeous vibrant colors! And these bags are collapsible, which can really help make them easier to transport. If you or your friend has trouble remembering your bags then check out these tips and tricks I have to help you always remember them.

Fabric or Cloth

There are a bunch of different kinds of fabric or cloth you could use here. I have seen some people recommend reusing old sweaters, shirts, scarves, and things like that. That’s a very crafty idea!

I really like the idea of using dish towels as wrapping. Dish towels are a classic gift! They’re great as gifts for hosts when you’re at a party, visiting relatives, visiting the in-laws, and so on. As a sustainable swap you can use them to wrap small gifts.

What’s even better is that you can purchase dish towels (or cloths) in almost infinite colors, designs, patterns, and even sizes. And you can find them pretty much anywhere.

You could even search for them at a thrift store for a more sustainable purchase too. And if you do choose to use cute scarves or sweaters as wrapping, then those can be found at thrift shops as well.

Reusable Gift Bags

If you don’t like any of the other options I’ve listed here, then as a last resort you could buy reusable gift bags. These are bags specifically for giving gifts. The downside to these is that you’re not reducing or reusing something you already own. You would instead be purchasing something with the intention of reusing it in the future. But as long as you use them plenty of times then they could still be a sustainable swap.

In order to maximize uses, I would recommend using a neutral bag so that they can be used no matter the season or celebration. The set I have showing to the right come in a variety pack with different designs:

If you use a holiday themed bag then they’re really only great for the holidays. Just make sure you’re using them plenty in order to actually achieve sustainability. Here’s a look at some holiday themed bags:

3 Ways to Make Your Eco-Friendly Wrapping Stand Out Even More

Your eco-friendly wrapping is already going to stand out above all the rest. It might even be contagious in your gatherings, I wouldn’t be surprised if others took up the idea for next year. But, if you’re not a fan of just delivering a gift only wrapped in newspaper or brown paper then here are some great ideas to really spice things up.

Tree Trimmings

If you opt in for a real Christmas tree then using left over tree trimmings could be a great way to provide some color on your gifts. Against the neutral tones of brown paper and newspaper, green trimmings will really pop and add a natural outdoorsy element to the wrapping. I think this is a gorgeous idea!

(I have a whole post talking about whether a real or fake tree is more sustainable, you can read about that here.)

Twine

Twine can be used to secure the tree trimmings I just mentioned, to secure the wrapping in place, or even just as an ornamental piece on your eco-friendly gift wrapping. What’s great about twine is that it’s easy to find. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to find some and save it up throughout the year. If not, then you can easily buy it at almost any store.

You’ll want to make sure you use twine from natural fibers. After you’ve reused the twine as much as you can, it can be easily composted as long as you chose natural fibers. That adds to the eco-friendly nature of your gift wrapping!

Hand Drawn Decorations (Great for Kids)

Last but not least, hand drawn decorations are a wonderful way to get kids involved in the sustainable gift wrapping process. If you’re reusing paper bags or plain brown paper then you’ve got a blank slate ripe for creations from their imagination. The person receiving your gift will love it even more knowing sustainability and heart went into every part of the gift! I know I would.

That wraps up 8 total ideas for eco-friendly wrapping you can implement this holiday season! I’d love to see the things you create so make sure to share them with me on social media. Happy wrapping!

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In case you didn’t catch my post about whether real or fake trees are more sustainable, you can check it out here.