""Green" Holiday Wrapping

It's estimated that Americans throw away 25 percent more garbage between Thanksgiving and New Year's, including gift-wrap, bows, fruitcake, turkey leftovers, and other holiday items. It's tempting to buy discount rolls of wrapping paper at big box stores, especially when you're shopping in a hurry with young children, but this year consider reducing the amount of holiday garbage - an estimated five million tons - and wrapping gifts in "green."

Tissue paper. Next time your husband brings home flowers, save the brightly-colored tissue paper, and re-use it.

Children's artwork. Take a few of those drawings off the refrigerator and have your children use them to wrap their gifts for family members. Gifts can also be wrapped in paper grocery sacks, decorated by your children with markers, crayons or rubber stamps.

Assorted paper. Use a favorite comic strip as wrapping paper, origami paper for small gifts, or pieces of wallpaper.

Old calendars and magazines. Rip the first few months from your 2005 calendar off the wall, and wrap small gifts like jewelry boxes. Pages from old magazines will also work (and they're recyclable, unlike gift wrap).

For more ideas, and directions for making fabric gift bags: http://eartheasy.com/gift_wrapping.htm