With the winter holidays come extensive amounts of gifts exchanged between loved ones. The wrapping that coats something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read tend to add up, leaving homes littered with trash bags full of colorful paper as they clean up their Christmas morning festivities.
According to ecocenter.org, 4.6 million pounds of Christmas wrapping paper are used each holiday season. This excludes other wrapping supplies such as boxes, tissue paper, ribbon, gift bows and gift bags.
This level of waste is unnecessarily astronomical both financially and materialistically. One roll of wrapping paper can cost anywhere between $1.00 to $9.00 depending on where it is purchased, and everyone knows you can’t use the same paper pattern for everyone. That would be embarrassing. Plus, you’ll still need to pick up tape, some gift tags and probably a peanut butter Christmas tree at least once or twice. Dozens of your dollars are spent on these things without evening thinking about them.
We’re missing out on one practice that could change the entire way the holiday season looks and feels, not to mention how it could cut our gift-adorning costs significantly.
Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese combination of gift wrapping and art in which gifters wrap their presents in fabric. What started as a simple tool to carry supplies and import relics in a gentle wrapping quickly began an elegant way to present a gift to a person you love. The purpose of this practice is to save money and resources on wrapping supplies to prevent a pointless abundance of waste.
The fabrics used to wrap these presents are often reused to wrap gifts for other people later. This means the same bundles of fabric may be passed around a family several times before it wears out too much to continue being used, in which case it can be recycled as a kitchen rag.
Sometimes, the fabric can be kept by the recipient to be used in other activities as well, such as sewing projects. Think about it – how cute would it be to make a quilt from the wrapping of every gift you’ve ever received?
Aside from the sustainability of Furoshiki, its style makes for a very aesthetically pleasing arrangement of gifts under any Christmas tree. We’ve seen enough of the typical box wrapped in paper with tape on both ends. Instead, we need more intricate ties and knots in different textures and patterns of fabric. It could be done to fit any theme: satin for a luxurious look, different plaids if you’re the country type, or linen for the almond mom in your life.
The best part is that you can buy fabric anywhere. You could thrift a fancy sheet and wrap box upon box with it, or you could buy a pack of scrap fabric from a craft store to tie bows on top of your gifts.
With the endless possibilities of what can be created and recreated through the use of Furoshiki, it makes one wonder why it isn’t a common practice for holidays in the United States. It is likely that the reason for this is simply because it is not a well-known concept and has not yet “trended” on a social media platform. Had this blown up as a popular trend, we would likely be out shopping for Christmas at our nearest craft store rather than the same old dollar stores we frequent.
Should this practice be more common amongst young people today to save our pockets and make Christmas prettier than ever? Give it a try this year, and encourage your family to do the same.
