Eco Christmas Wrapping Paper: 4 Ways to Make Your Own

Looking for eco-friendly ways to make your own wrapping paper this Christmas? DIY wrapping paper is a great way to get creative this festive season and give personalise Christmas presents in ways that are also kind to our planet.

Read our latest blog for four great ways to create your own eco-friendly Christmas wrapping paper, making your Christmas gifts this year feel even more special.

How to Make Wrapping Paper Using Stamps

Beautiful Christmas wrapping paper needn’t be expensive or harmful to the environment!

Here’s a classic way to create your own. All you need is brown paper, sponges, and cookie cutters, or even the humble potato, for stencil shapes.

This is a wonderful child friendly way to prepare for Christmas, and so our video tutorial is demonstrated by a little helper. We hope you’ll appreciate Reuben’s efforts! Simply take some plain brown paper and let children and toddlers have fun with environmentally friendly Christmas pens or paint.

Give them free rein or make stamps out of things you can find around the house. Dipping a cookie cutter in paint works well or you can cut a potato in half and carve out a shape to dip into paint.

It’s helpful to keep the designs simple. Anything too complicated may end up as a giant avant-garde blob. Perfect, if that’s the look you’re going for. If not, a simple star or Christmas tree works well!

How to Make Recyclable Christmas Wrapping Paper 

Christmas gifts wrapped in homemade wrapping paper

You can look beyond the usual printed wrapping paper to share presents with some unique festive cheer. Any paper can be repurposed as eco-friendly gift wrap…

Old maps or atlases could be a great find at charity shops; their generous size can be put to good use as wrapping paper!

Get creative with magazines and newspapers that would otherwise go in the recycling bin too. Tie up with string, biodegradable sticky tape, or colourful washi tape and attach a sprig of greenery to upcycle old paper into something truly special!

There’s an opportunity to make it more personal by choosing pages based on the recipients’ interests. For instance, use the sports section for a football-mad nephew or niece, or a recipe page for your friend who loves to cook.  

You can also reuse paper gift bags or smart shopping bags and give them a facelift by attaching old Christmas cards as repurposed gift tags! 

Decorating for Christmas in Uganda 

Elia is wearing a purple and white striped shirt. He is sitting at a table and is unwrapping his Christmas gift.

If you love making wrapping paper, you’re not alone! Ten-year-old Elia loves making decorations for his home in Uganda. Last year, he was delighted to receive his Christmas gift of new clothes from his Compassion sponsor. 

“We celebrate Christmas by decorating our home and having fun. We decorate using nice flowers, balloons, and we can cut papers to make decorations. On Christmas, we receive gifts from our sponsors.” 

How to Use Brown Paper as Eco Wrapping Paper

Rustic Christmas wrapping paper is simple enough to achieve. Brown paper or tissue paper, some twine, and access to nature will be all you need!

Simply head out to your garden, nearest park or common, and gather an array of suitably small twigs and sprigs of leaves.

Wrap your presents in paper, tie the twine, then use what you’ve gathered as simple yet beautiful embellishments.

In northeast Bangladesh, the holiday season is cold. The Christmas gift of blankets and new clothes not only warms their bodies, but their hearts too! Raha is wearing a red and green dress. She will be practising her Christmas dance soon! 

How to Use Fabric as a Wrapping Paper Alternative

Don’t use wrapping paper at all this Christmas! If you have fabric off cuts, colourful scarves you no longer wear – or even a lovely patterned tea towel! – why not use them as eco-friendly gift wrap?

Fabric wrapping is a Japanese art known as Furoshiki. The word Furoshiki refers to both the fabric and the craft of wrapping the items.

It is one great way to use plastic free wrapping paper. It can be quite beautiful too!

Boy opening a gift and smiling

Furoshiki tips:

Make sure your cloth is square; cut it to size as necessary.

Use a reversible pattern

Feel free to add creative accessories

The fabric must be thick enough to hold the weight of the gift

The reason for decorations in Brazil  

For Marcos, a child sponsored by Compassion, who lives in Brazil, Jesus is the reason for the festive wrapping paper and decorations. 

Silvana, Marcos’ mother, says, “Jesus will always be welcome in our home. Even though we don’t much, I’m happy to decorate our home at Christmas.”

Marcos is putting up decorations around his home.

“I like to see everything coloured for Christmas,” says Marcos.

“I always saw many houses covered in ornaments for Christmas in the city. My parents never had much money to buy ornaments, but I’m so happy to see our house like this. I hope Jesus likes it too.

“I like Christmas because we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Saviour. I really enjoy receiving gifts, but if I receive any I know that it was Him who gave them to me. In the project I learned that Jesus is my greatest gift and that He always keeps the promises He makes.”

You can support our Christmas Appeal and help give children like Marcos and Elia a wonderful Christmas.  

The birth of Jesus is celebrated in the remote Amazon Basin of Ecuador thanks to our local church partner. Dixiana, Rogger, and Kendra (left to right) from the Compassion project, wish all a happy Christmas!