Ever since Xander was little, I've done the Christmas Book Advent Calendar that has been circulating Pinterest. The idea is that you wrap 24 (or 25) Christmas books and the child gets to unwrap one every day leading up to Christmas. This year, I decided to upgrade how we do it A) to make it more special, B) to make it more environmentally friendly and C) to make it MUCH easier on myself in the future.
That first year, we didn't have enough Christmas books, so I used several "winter" books or other books I could kind of connect. Over the years, we've collected more than the necessary 24, mostly second hand, so now have to open two on a few of the days. (I use the same books every year).
I used to wrap each book, every year. It took a long time and created a lot of wrapping paper waste. Since most wrapping paper isn't recyclable and I've been trying hard to minimize the disposables we use, I made some simple cloth bags for the books. To be even more environmentally friendly (and economical) I used tablecloths I found really cheap at Salvation Army for the fabric. I even had enough left over for a few bags to use for regular Christmas presents.
Now believe me, I am not professional seamstress. The bags are very basic and took more ironing than sewing. I was worried about bending the thing paperback books when cinching the bags, so I made several of them extra tall, and floppy, as a result. Altogether, though, I think they look very festive.
The best part is, I never have to wrap them again! No cutting, folding or taping! Just throwing them in a bag and tying the ribbon, where I'll store them for next year.
You might also like my other Christmas Resources
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