Green Your Gift-Wrapping

Get creative with your gift wrapping this year to help save money and the planet. If you already save gift boxes and bags to reuse, that's great. Someday I'll be that organized. So, for the rest of us, here are some alternatives to buying more wrapping paper.

• Newspaper - Grab one (or more) Sunday newspapers and start wrapping. Try matching different sections to either the present or the person


• Any old boxes, and I mean any. Empty cereal boxes, checkbook boxes, juice pack boxes (like Capri Sun, Hawaiian Punch), baking soda, computer part boxes (sound/video cards, etc), whatever you have on hand


• T-shirts - especially cute for the inevitable socks and underwear gifts

Or anything else that occurs to you. Depending on how creative your wrapping gets, the packaging may end up being talked about more that the gift itself. But since the whole idea behind Christmas is exchanging gifts and spending time with loved ones, that's all right.