Over the past few years, I've relied less and less on packaged wrapping paper for concealing and beautifying gifts under the Christmas tree; it just seems too wasteful to buy paper that's specifically made to be ripped and crumpled and thrown away. No amount of uniformity and prettiness under the Christmas tree is worth that waste to me anymore.
One year, I used baskets purchased for 50 cents at the Salvation Army. (Don't ever pay full price for baskets - there's always a bevy available at thrift stores for $1-2 or less.) Of course, I re-use gift bags given to me and often fall back on tissue paper to wrap things in.
One thing I keep coming back to, though, is newspaper. We always have an abundance of it. The sheets are big and ample for covering small to medium boxes without cutting or adding to. But it isn't always the most attractive - even for me. One year, I painted the newspaper red and green after I'd wrapped the gift - not bad, but a little too much time and work (and mess) for what I'm looking for.
So this year, I Googled "newspaper wrapping paper" and came up with the following helpful links - things that take little time and effort and add just enough to the wrap to make it look like you're not so cheap and maybe even possibly give the gifts just a little bit of "style". Heck, some of these come off looking almost pretty:
Sponge Painting - could easily be used with newspaper instead of butcher paper
Ribbon - just add pretty re-usable ribbonOr just let your three-year-old have at it with a paint brush and some paint and top it off with ribbon left over from the balloons at his birthday party:
(I didn't think of using the stencil until after these gifts were wrapped, unfortunately.)
I chose my newspaper carefully and thoughtfully, selecting for each recipient the section he enjoys the most. My husband got the comics and my son the car section, which he requests and eagerly peruses over breakfast on the weekends.
This afternoon, I wrapped while my husband did his shopping. When he got home, I proudly pointed out my creations. Later, I saw him hovering over the pile of newspapers I'd left in the corner, muttering, "What section does Mama like?" I laughed out loud half an hour later when he emerged from our bedroom with my wrapped gifts:
If you can't tell, it's the grocery ads. He nailed it. But even better than that is the paper airplane topper - hand-crafted by my very own aerospace engineer. No store-bought, mass-produced rolls of predictably colored and designed wrapping paper can compete with this level of personality, creativity, and individuality. Not to mention the fact that my husband not only accepted my unorthodox - and probably decidedly uncool - take on this holiday tradition, but embraced it and made it fully his own. That's a gift in itself.
And it's still a pretty good looking tree.
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