This past weekend was a Holiday Shop at our middle school. It was an event that I’d organized for our parent-teacher group as a fundraiser to bring together vendors (27 of them) with school and community families who needed to get their holiday shopping done. Many of the vendors had creative displays on their tables for showing off their wares. Others sold items that were designed for one purpose but which I could envision as an eco-friendly wrapping option.

With those inspirations in mind, here are some green-and-frugal wrapping ideas you may want to consider this holiday season:

* Use cinch-sack backpacks to hold gifts
At the Holiday Shop I picked up two of these cinch-sack backpacks–one for each daughter. While the bag is a present itself–my kids use them for bringing clothes to sports practices or packing for sleepovers–I plan to put a smaller present inside each of these bags. They’ll have no trouble knowing which one is for whom once they see them. My daughter Annie has loved purple since she was two. Lately, she’s gotten big into anything with a peace sign on it. So when Annie spies a purple, tie-dyed cinch-sack backpack under the tree, with a peace sign on it, well,I won’t have to say much more. For Jane I got a blue tie-dyed version,with a smiley face on it.

* Stock up on tins for holding just about anything
One display that we did at the check-in table at the Holiday Shop was a tin filled with cookies that I’d made from our parent-teacher cookbook, which we were selling (natch). This tin was from a long-ago Oreo cookie promotion, but that’s now how I got it. This past summer, while doing some of our back-t0-school shopping at Goodwill, I stocked up on cookie tins for about 25 cents each. Currently, I have them as part of my kitchen decorations, but in a pinch they would work as a container for a holiday or hostess gift.

* Get a kick out of using a boot for presents
We all know that part of the Christmas ritual is filling a stocking with goodies. Well, why not take that concept off the fireplace mantle and put it under the tree by filling a boot with small presents? Of course, you could pick up boots at a place like Goodwill or a garage sale (just make sure they’re clean and not stinky), use them for holiday wrapping, then put them aside to use again in the spring for holding plants. I’m thinking that colorful rubber boots, a la Wellies, would work best here.

* Branch out by using greenery to display a gift
One of the Holiday Shop vendors used potted twigs, decorated with colorful leaves and flowers (all fake) to display her jewelry. I’d never seen such a beautiful way of presenting jewelry and wondered if there was a way to adapt it to my own holiday giving. That is, if you were gifting someone with a plant or a home decor piece that had branches on it, wouldn’t it be cool if you could add another kind of gift to it as well–like this vendor did with jewelry? Of course, if your gift has to travel, you risk the jewelry falling off. However, if you’re just putting out a present the morning of, I think this idea would be a lovely alternative for thinking outside the gift box.

Do you have additional ideas for green-and-frugal wrapping this holiday season? If so, I’d love to hear them.