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My 10-year-old daughter is very eco-conscious and doesn’t want her gifts wrapped in anything that isn’t “compostable, recycled, or reusable.” I love the look of brightly wrapped gifts beneath the tree — preferably in coordinating patterns (thank you, Martha Stewart). Ideas?
–Evelyn
Dear Evelyn,
In my early 20s, Dot spent a Christmas morning with my then-boyfriend’s family, watching them tear open their gifts like savages. In the corner grew a pile of the now useless wrapping paper, which was later tossed into the fireplace. I was aghast. I had been trained to carefully open my gifts without so much as a tear in the paper, which Mother Dot would carefully fold up and tuck away until the next year, when it would be used to wrap another gift that would again be carefully unwrapped. Consequently, gifts we were opening in the ‘80s came wrapped in paper that dated back to the advent of the women’s liberation movement, which never has freed women from the emotional and time-consuming labor of gift-purchasing and wrapping. But I digress.
I laud your daughter’s desire to wrap mindfully.
While some wrapping paper is recyclable (if you can tear it or it stays scrunched up when you crumple it, it’s likely recyclable), plenty isn’t, including anything that’s foil, glittery, metallic, or contains rope or ribbons (like gift bags).
Luckily for your daughter — and you with your Martha Stewart ethos — wrapping options can be not only sustainable, but also stylish. What are they? Read on.
