Happy Xmas all; some blessings for this season and tips

[benny05]

This past week, my spouse and I received two sets of floral arrangements. In both arrangements, they had really cute little ornaments that that were tied together by wire.

This year, we bought a small tree that fit into a pot plant (it's a fake tree that one would use at a small business) and while it already had some trim (holly), I couldn't figure out how to decorate it without going out to buy more ornaments. Well, whaddaya know; the floral arrangements' ornaments turned out to be great. I also had some ribbons hanging around (again with wire to tied them on). Lastly, my oldest friend had seen some tiny decorations (unbeknown to her that I could really put them to use on a small tree). I paid one dollar for some beading at the Dollar Store yesterday, and one dollar for hooks (that I can use in the next few years). We ended up having a really nice little tree.

One other tip for the season that we all know to do for packages. The same friend who sent me the holiday ornaments had used really nice brown mailing wrap to send the gift. I had carefully unwrapped it. We used that same box and wrapping (turning over the wrap, thus no one noticed it wasn't new) to mail my mom's Xmas presents (fit almost perfectly). One of the gifts was a frame for one of her pictures; I had a holiday bag from a store that I put that in, plus I was able to cover the contents with a Xmas card--just big enough.

I also used a paper bag for mailing wrapping for sending my sister and her family members their gifts, using an another Amazon box we had around the house. I didn't have any gift tags, so know what I did? I found some stationery, folded them and cut the pieces in half. I did have some holiday seals (for Xmas cards) to decorate the tags, wrote their respective names for the respective gifts (that were wrapped in holiday wrapping I've had for 4 years). Then to ensure they were packed well, I used paper already shredded from our shredder.

Anyway, those are my first contributions to the frugal thread.

Happy Xmas to all...benny

[LiberalEsto]

1. Save some of this year's gift wrap and shred it

for packing next year's presents.

One of my co-workers used shredded Christmas wrapping paper to pack two lovely ornaments she made for me. It looked very nice and it's a good way to recycle.

[benny05]

2. We also use pretty cloth gift bags yearly

For ourselves; easy to wrap, no paper, very recycleable.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Can you post a picture?

That sounds like a great idea!

[benny05]

4. Of the gift bags or the tree or both?

In both cases, I would have to take a pic. If spouse can locate our camera (it's always floatin' around here), I'd be glad to do so.

[LiberalEsto]

5. the bags!

but the tree would be nice too...

[politicat]

6. We wrap in plain paper with a wallpaper border ribbon.

Plain paper (aka butcher's paper) is cheap, and available at Costco. Every year I buy a few rolls of Wallpaper border paper when Lowes clearances them (I usually get them for 25 cents or so.) We wrap in the plain paper, then add the wallpaper border paper with tape. Elegant and quick.

[benny05]

7. Interesting idea

The cloth bags are homemade. My spouse's first spouse (who has been with God for about 9 years) made the bags I believe. In addition to your other venture you are considering for your business, I think this is another idea to make cloth gift bags for sale.

[NMDemDist2]

8. get holiday fabric dirt cheap this time of year to make bags with

it's a great idea and you use them year after year....