love the Holidays because this time of year is all about gift-giving (and experience sharing) but unfortunately, there is a dark side to holiday giving that many people don’t even think about: the amount of extra waste produced by the gift wrap, bags and ribbon.
Christmas Waste?
Consider this, In the US alone, we use 4 million tons of gift wrap and decorations each year and this just gets added to landfills after the holidays! This is a 25% increase over normal waste volume between Thanksgiving and New Years.
Over two billion cards are sent and enough ribbon is used to tie a bow around the Earth… and this all ends up in landfills. (1)
A Better Way to Gift Wrap
The good news is that we can still enjoy the holidays and the wonderful time with our families without the need for the additional waste. There are many ways to package and wrap gifts in an eco-friendly way and to give the recipient an additional gift with reusable packaging.
In fact, the old “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra is a great reminder when it comes to gift wrapping.
Reduce the Number of Gifts
An incredibly simple way to reduce the amount of waste each year is to reduce the number of gifts given and focus on a couple high-quality gifts rather than many gifts for each person.
I’m also a big fan of giving experiences instead of material gifts whenever possible and baseball tickets, zoo or museum memberships, or trips to rock climb or go to the movies don’t take much wrapping material and also promote family bonding and life-long memories.
We follow the “4-Gift Rule”: Something they want, Something they need, Something to wear, Something to read.
Our kids typically get:
- The “Want”: One Material Gift– despite my preference for experiences, we do get one gift for each child that is strictly something they want. Often these end up being experience gifts as well like craft supplies or a sewing machine or the gorilla gym that has been a favorite in our house for years. Sometimes they are also educational gifts like a Roominate set, a Perplexus puzzle or bulk legos.
- The “Need”: Experience Gifts– Each child gets at least one experience gift per year, and often we get them several more experience based gifts as well. Since family experiences are so important for us, we consider these gifts a need so we prioritize and budget for them.
- The “Wear”: Clothes– I’ve been working on creating capsule wardrobes for my kids (post on that coming soon) and for holidays they often get one clothing item they need like a new coat or hiking boots. This may also be something fun, like dress up clothes, if they don’t need any new clothing.
- The “Read”: Memory Books– We try to take the kids to the library often since they get to choose so many new books without them taking up room on the shelves, so our kids get a different kind of book as a gift. Each year, I keep a folder on my computer for each child and throughout the year add pictures from field trips, birthdays, daily hikes, camping trips and other fun memories. At the end of the year, I compile each child’s photos into a hardcover book that I print through a photo service (like Shutterfly). This is my favorite gift to give them each year since it helps them relive and remember everything we did as a family that year, and it is a gift that they can take and show their own families one day. These books end up being the favorite gift every year (and bonus, the photo service saves them so I can reprint if one ever gets ruined!).
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