By Shari Kaplan
For the environmentally conscious, December is one of the best seasons to showcase creativity in gift-wrapping and gift-giving while reducing, reusing and recycling at the same time.
Dreaming of a "green" Christmas--or Chanukah, Kwanzaa or
winter solstice--need not deplete the green in one's wallet, however. Newspapers, towels, ribbons, food jars, grocery bags and even yard waste can become long-lasting and unique gifts in the right hands--anyone's hands.
"Nowadays people are more anti-waste and much more careful about the environment. Also, people are being more frugal," says Toni Blackstock, chair of the Los Gatos Community Services Commission's recycling subcommittee.
The town is working with the Solid Waste Commission of Santa Clara County in a countywide campaign to remind people to conserve resources during the busy holiday season. Blackstock says the idea behind the whole recycling movement is to "reduce production, reuse what we can, and recycle what we can't."
Her family often creates fun, "dual purpose gifts" by wrapping items in colorful newspaper comics--particularly well-received by youngsters. She says reusing wrapping paper is "economically and ecologically a good idea" because after torn edges are trimmed, the paper can still fit around smaller items. One of her friends even lined dresser drawers with sheets of used wrapping paper, thus preserving memories of the occasions every time she opened a drawer.
For Sandy Spafford Paulson, president of The Tutoring Co. and a part-time interior designer, flea markets and garage sales are treasure troves for gift ideas that require minimal makeovers. She'll take stuffed animals--cute gifts in their own right--and turn them into little gift-givers by tying ribbons around them and wedging knickknacks between the ribbons and the animals' bodies.
Empty cookie tins lined with tissue paper can be filled with toiletries or homemade goodies and may be used later for storage. Wood or straw baskets earn a new lease on life after Paulson winds them with decorative ribbon or uses a glue gun to adorn them with trinkets.
"You can pick up baskets for practically nothing and collect your own seashells and glue them on," she says, naming Davenport and Rio Del Mar as her favorite beach-combing locales.
"When old wreaths go dead, you can stick more stuff in them rather than throw them away ... then you can add on each year," Paulson adds in reference to wreaths whose original vegetation is drying out or fading. Because the framework is still there, new dried flowers, leaves or branches are easily added. While on the topic of flowers, Paulson says that when she prunes or rakes her garden, she saves flowers, leaves and berries for future use.
"You can make your own potpourris. Put everything in a garbage bag with some [potpourri] oil and shake it like a salad," she says, fingering a box filled with a fragrant mélange of homegrown, dried trimmings. For a more sophisticated look, Paulson sprinkles the potpourri into the old bottles and jars she saves and then fills them with canola oil, creating colorful gifts that sparkle in the sun and aromatize the room.
Across the Bridge owner Marie Hochman, whose shop is filled with holiday cheer, is herself filled with ideas for making the most of gifts without going to a lot of trouble or through a lot of resources.
"Just try to think of your gift as a unit. Take an oversized napkin, fill it with napkin rings, close it up and put one napkin ring on top to show what's inside. Fabric lunch bags are also great as gifts," she says, explaining that after recipients eat the treats with which she originally filled the bag, they can reuse the fabric bag instead of wasting a paper lunch bag.
Other "gift units" she recommends for their creativity and their avoidance of wrapping paper include fragrant bath soaps wrapped in hand towels, kitchen notions wrapped in dishtowels or aprons and hardware stashed inside gardening or work gloves.
Hochman suggests building birdhouses out of old wooden crates, signs or barnwood. Even supermarket items can be reused. Mesh onion or potato bags can be lined with greenery or paper and double as gift sacks. Paper grocery bags can be turned inside out and decorated with puffy paints or colored markers to become a thick, durable alternative to standard wrapping paper.
"Nothing is discarded anymore," she says.
For more ideas on reducing waste and celebrating the holidays in a "green" way, call the Solid Waste Commission of Santa Clara County's Recycling Hotline at 1-800-533-8414.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, December 20, 1995.
©1995 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.