Did you know that there is a 25% increase in the amount of garbage we dispose of around the holidays? And most of it is packaging and wrapping paper. According to an article in The Atlantic (12/22/12) we spend €2.6 billion annually on wrapping paper. Wasteful!
Cloth wrapping has been used in traditional cultures for over 1,200 years and is still used today by many wise parents. Furoshiki is the ancient art of cloth wrapping from Japan which is elegant, practical and eco-friendly. In Korea it's called Bojagi and is often silk or hemp patchwork cloth.
Another advantage is that different shaped gifts are easier to wrap with cloth. Here are some ideas:
We love how simple and beautiful cloth wrap is. And your wrapping becomes another gift or can be used year after year.
Playsilks are especially beautiful as wrapping because of how luminescent and shiny the colors are. Plus, after the gifts are open the children can play with them!
Our starter set of silk wrappings is available here.
Leave a comment about your ideas for reusable gift wrapping below and enter to win a Holiday Gift Wrap Set!
Two winners will be chosen 11/14/18.
I just think silk gift wrapping would be a wonderful tradition to begin!
Sara Baker on
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…I think the play silks cover these. Soooo many uses for play silks. Love it!
Erin Lewis on
Giving my grandchildren play silk gifts, or any gifts in play silks, will help teach them an important way to help protect our environment. We can talk about it and they may use their play silks for wrapping family gifts. We will all agree to return the wrappings to them! They may even choose to give a play silk wrapping with a gift to a friend and realize the wrapping will be part of the gift. They may be teaching a friend a this valuable idea. In time, play silks may even be passed back and forth between friends as gift wrappings! The whole family will be involved in an important and beautiful lesson in sharing and conservation.!
carolyn on
We used some play silks last year as wrapping. We loved it, great way to wrap and usable for play afterwards.
Tara on
I have used newspaper comics and decorated grocery bags in the past. My mother-in-law introduced reusable bags as gift wrap several years ago at Christmas and we have all followed suit. Silks would be less useful at the grocery store, but more enjoyable in almost every other way!
Tera on
We have tried to do reusable wrapping for family gift-giving — with a family of 8 it’s pretty important! This is a beautiful alternative to the cloth bags I’ve been using.
Bethany on
I do a lot of sewing and the past two years have saved small scraps of fabric and sewn them together to make gift wraps. Stops textile waste going to landfills, and I’ve put together some really beautiful, colourful wraps!
Julia on
My dad would always make fun of his mom by saying ‘ma wrapped our gifts in the funnies again’ so i started!
Elizabeth Bishop on
I love the idea of eco-friendly wrapping. I have used a variety of things for wrapping, one of my favorites is yarn to tie around the package.
Jenna on
I use my daughter’s old artwork. She paints so many pieces of paper and instead of recycling them I turn it into wrapping or into Christmas cards!
Heather on
Not as pretty as silk, but I’ve used paper bags and newspapers.
Judith F on
We use recycled paper and decorate it for family gifts – but I love the idea of using silks! I’m going to use this idea for wrapping our ‘advent books’ this year. We wrap up 25 books, one to open each night of advent. Some are new and most are old favorites, but wrapping them in silks will be so much better than paper! And prettier too!
Rebecca on