I love the act of buying (mostly online) gifts for people but really DONT love the crazy amount of packaging and waste that comes from that process. And then the whole wrapping piece – even more waste!!! Also, I love wrapping so this has always been a tension to manage for me during the holiday.

A few years ago I decided to do something about this – saving up my huge calendar pages and using them as wrapping was just what I needed to start feeling better about this process and making it slightly more sustainable than it was before.

Way back when I worked at a local scrapbook store, one of my regular series classes was on using recycle bits to create beautiful mini-books full of thoughts and memories. This was my favorite class to teach and even though I don’t scrapbook anymore, creating mini books out of our Christmas cards each year still gets me excited to use scraps from our recycle bin in the process.

Pictured above is last years book full of cards and photos from our loved ones. We know have 6 books and wow I love watching families grow and change!!

What do you do to inspire and encourage sustainable habits during the holidays????