Christmas Wrap? What Christmas Wrap?

This year, as part of an always-growing plot to make my personal individuality an absolutely can't-miss-it point, I decided not to use paper wrapping anymore.

There are other ways to disguise a present until it can be opened by its recipient -- cloth and boxes of plastic, tin or wood.

Cloth can be handkerchiefs, towels, place mats, tea cozies, napkins, pillow cases, table runners, doilies, oven mitts....the list of possibilities is limited only by imagination.

Craft supply houses, dollar stores, and thrift stores are a great source of boxes of various sizes and materials that are intended for reuse. Candy and cookie tins are plentiful. Choose those with clean, unblemished interiors.

I stopped using ribbons, bows, and paper name tags, and scotch tape, as well. Since I'm fairly creative, I use things like shoelaces and bungee cords to fasten packages that need it. Mostly, though, I use my button-sewing skills (one that my mother insisted we all learn how to do, since she refused to do it for us) to put a few stitches of contrasting color into key points of the cloth wrapping. And since letter beads are easily available, everyone's name gets strung on a key-chain ring with colored string. Anyone who is handy with macrame knots can make this part of it as fancy as they want. Bows have morphed into candy canes and other tree decorations.

The outcome is that every gift becomes a multiple gift: The watch is wrapped in a finger towel, which is encased in a small tin pail with a tight lid, and a letter-bead name tag is fastened to the handle of the pail by its keychain ring. Nothing wasted. Nothing thrown away.

Another gift is wrapped in a hanky, then wrapped in a table runner, tacked together with a few stitches, and decorated with tiny candy canes that have strings attached for hanging on the tree (and in this case are sewn on to the wrapping). The only waste is the necessary wrap on the candy. Even the thread for stitching doesn't need to be wasted if you unpick it carefully and hang it on outside branches for the birds to use in their nests. But even cut shreds of thread will go nicely into the compost.

And as creative as I can be, I'm always on the lookout for other ideas. If you've got a suggestion for a special way of presenting a gift, drop it in the comments. Or blog about it at your place and do a linkback.