It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
...all around my house!  I can't stop singing it!  I tolerate Halloween, try to give Thanksgiving its due, but oh, I long for, I live for, the most wonderful time of the year...Christmas!

Before you give in to visions of me frantically shoving down old ladies in the mall to get to the good buys (it hasn't happened yet, but I'm just saying...), I want to wrap this up.

Ha! Thought you were done with this nonsense? Not that easy, you don't!  I want to talk about wrapping paper for gifts. Philo and I try to live a life that impacts the planet as little as possible, and upcycling is one way to do that. (If you want to know the difference between upcycling and recycling, check out TerraCycle . You can also learn how to earn money for your school by recycling!)

Wrapping paper is a problem. If it's not made from recycled paper, it kills innocent trees. Trees that might have been decorated for the holidays. It contains inks and dyes, and so on and so forth. It costs money for something we use for a very short time and then throw away, along with the ugly knitted sweater from Great Aunt Gertha.

As Elf Incognito, I have found a solution. I don't spend any money on it. It's beautiful. It's readily available. It's... a calendar. Martha- take note!!

Philoboy's uncle always, every year without fail, gives everyone in the family these calendars with the most gorgeous pictures. The calendars are heavy weight paper, and made of large 15" sheets.

I use last year's calendar as wrapping paper. The pictures of wildlife convey my message about loving the outdoors and the beauty of nature, and each package ends up looking like a little piece of art.

The artist in this particular calendar is Michael Sieve. You can see more of his work here. If the page is not quite big enough to cover the box, I use two or even three! That way, there's a scene no matter which way you turn the box.

An added bonus, as I tear out the pages we talk about the notes we made, and the things we did that year. We laugh and cry over past experiences as we're working on sharing the joy of the present (sorry, I think I have that bad pun disease, witzelsucht).

People actually slow down and look at the pictures covering their gifts, which adds to the appreciation of the gift, and derails some of the hysteria of ripping through a pile of presents.

When it's over, I save any still-intact pictures, or cut them into smaller pieces to use as cards or gift tags. We cycle them as many times as we can before they go to the trash.

Beautiful holiday gift wraps that engender an appreciation for nature, and save a little piece of the planet. Now that's something Mother Nature can howl about!