Wrap gifts sustainably

At Hoofment it is very important to us to pack your orders in a plastic-free and sustainable way! That is why we are constantly on the lookout for innovative packaging materials and put a lot of research and love into our packaging.

Now that Christmas is just around the corner, we have been thinking about how sustainable gift wrapping is possible and would like to share the ideas with you in this blog post. Maybe you'll get some inspiration on how to wrap presents sustainably this year.

Every Christmas, mountains of wrapping paper accumulate in most households, which then end up in the garbage. This is of course a great pity and also unnecessary because there are many cool alternative ideas for how sustainable gift wrapping can be possible.

First of all, we can always ask ourselves the question: Do I have to wrap a gift in such a way that the content is no longer visible? Many gifts, such as items of clothing or cushions, look almost prettier if they are only decorated with a beautiful ribbon and decorations made from natural materials. Ideally, you might even be able to wrap a smaller gift inside another, larger gift - for example, if you're giving away a fleece jacket, you could hide a pair of riding socks in the fleece jacket as a surprise effect. :)

Of course, you often want to create a special moment of surprise for the recipient when unpacking and don't want it to be possible to see which gift is there under the Christmas tree. That's why we've looked at the question of which alternative materials can be used instead of classic wrapping paper to wrap gifts sustainably, and there are a lot of alternatives that not only have the advantage of being more environmentally friendly, but also cheaper:

For example, this year you could wrap your gifts in newspaper - that can look really cool! If you want it to be a little more colorful, you could use magazines instead of newspaper, for example, and if you like, you could even use it to create real collages as packaging material! Depending on the style of the packaging, it can also look very artistic, for example if you use old sheet music, maps, city maps, comics or book pages for sustainable gift packaging when you no longer need them.

Another option is that you use empty jars, Christmas cookie jars or even old shoe boxes as packaging that you decorate nicely or that might already look Christmassy on their own.

And then we have another tip for all of you who like to sew: If you still have leftover fabric at home, you can use it to sew your own packaging bags! The recipient will certainly be happy if you have come up with such a nice alternative and put so much effort into the packaging. Sewing such a bag is actually very quick once you know how. :)

Another great alternative can be to make gift bags yourself and then reuse them for several years. But plain wrapping paper made of natural materials or recycled paper are of course also suitable and can look very pretty if they are decorated correctly! For those of you who are still looking for a last-minute packaging idea, baking paper can also be the savior in an emergency.

Of course, it is most sustainable if you use as few new packaging materials as possible every year, preferring to reuse those from the previous year. So maybe try to open the presents this year very carefully and then keep the packaging materials for next year - opening the presents in a relaxed manner is more fun anyway than just tearing them open quickly and the suspense increases even more.

You can also easily use natural materials when decorating the gifts. So if you find a quiet moment in the Christmas stress, then it's best to go for a walk and look for materials for decoration. Fir branches and cones, for example, are of course great! Alternatively, you can also use stamps and upcycle other materials such as cutting out hearts and letters from magazines.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and lots of fun wrapping! :)