In lieu of wrapping paper I'm going to use brown paper bags I already had in my cupboard by decorating them as best as my minimal artistic ability allows. I have a few ideas for tags, one is that I might cut up colorful and sturdy retail bags -- like the pink striped ones you get from Victoria's Secret (maybe even incorporating the word 'Secret' into the tag). For an extra flourish, this week I bought a bag of old, small Christmas tree balls for $2 at the Assistance League thrift store on Long Beach's Retro Row. The snowflake design made them look especially decorative and they'll be a fun alternative to bows.
At the Goodwill I bought pine cone potpourri for $1. It didn't have any scent left but that was OK because I used it to fill up a bowl of four huge pine cones I brought back from a trip to Reno this summer. The bowl is always on display but adding the potpourri made it Christmas-y.
At first I figured I wouldn't send Christmas cards this year, but when I brought up my container of holiday decorations from storage, I found enough cards from years past to be able to send cards without having to buy new ones. Hopefully I won't send someone a card they got before. But if I do and you're reading this, it was for a good cause!
Granted, I'll still be buying gifts (with four nephews I can't avoid that) and I'm flying to Dallas to visit my sister and her family, but doing these little things make me feel better because I feel more aware of my consumption. It's easy to get sucked in and mindlessly buy, buy, buy at Christmas. But I feel more in the spirit reusing balls that decorated a family's tree decades ago and brought little kids joy than rushing off to Target and filling my cart with cheaply-made decorations, paper products and stuff shipped from China. Reusing connects us with the past and isn't that what Christmas should really be about -- sharing memories, spending time with loved ones and and appreciating what we have instead of always wanting more.
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