Bag It Up
Fact
Paper gift bags with handles were introduced commercially in 1987, and according to Hallmark research and sales history, they have been the top-selling way consumers wrap gifts since 2002. Ninety eight percent of consumers say they wrap gifts during the holidays.
Get Started
- Reuse your gift bags as much as you can. Buy generic patterns and colors that can work for a number of occasions.
- Buy sturdier bags made from recycled, organic and/or sustainable materials to make your gifts as green as possible.
- You can also sew your own fabric bags, giving you the option to design the look of your bags and choose earth-friendly materials. You can also try making your own bags out of magazines.
Become a Pro
- Start a game with your friends and family by reusing the same bag multiple times. Write on the bottom of the bag the date and occasion for the gift, and see how long you can keep it going.
- Give gifts to your friends in reusable shopping bags. That way you are guaranteed that your bag will continue to get reused, even after your special occasion is over.
- Collect old bags from your friends to reuse in creative ways, such as scrapbooking pages and decor, book jackets, envelope and box liners and creative matting for picture frames. You can even give some of these back as gifts!
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments.
The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Christina Judge
posted on June 3rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I bought a lot of various sized sewn fabric bags last fall from a lady at an arts and crafts fair. Almost every gift we gave during the Holiday season was in one of those fabric bags, and they were an instant HIT! They were each different and unique and everyone enjoyed getting them and were much talked about…so glad I did that! The only thing I worried about was with certain gifts that were somewhat fragile-you need to really wrap them well in bubble wrap or tissue first.
I also bought hand-made cards at that same crafts fair (that were so unique!) for giving Gift Cards and mailing. Some of the cards were made from the crafty person’s own recycled paper products.
ds in east Texas
posted on June 4th, 2009 at 8:41 am
another idea, donate your extra bags to a local thrift store so they can reuse for customer’s purchases; they don’t care what the design or holiday is on the bag. These can be reused many ways without going to the dump or recyclng
Faye in Canada
posted on July 16th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
For the past year I have boycotted gift wrap whatsoever and substituted it with new & attractive dish towels or even bath towels, 70s & 80s used (but ‘cool’) bags, vintage posters, fabric and whatever is free or very affordable and reusable. Also, I purchased reusable and lined wicker baskets for $.88 each and simply insert a variety of unwrapped yet eye-appealing gifts. All that is required for wrapping gifts is imagination.