Many people shy away from re-gifting after having heard horror stories of giving a gift back to the original giver. However, with care you don’t have to end up embarrassed. You can also do “partial” re-gifting.
If you or your kids received one of those large popcorn tins with a holiday scene on it, you can re-use it once the popcorn is gone to package another gift. It will work great as packaging for a fragile item, with a little filler inside to help protect the gift. On the other hand, you could use it for one of Mary Ann’s Gift in a Can ideas or fill the can with art supplies as a gift for a child.
One thing that has become a tradition in our home is adding candy canes to the Christmas tree. It started as a cheap way to fill in empty spaces because we hadn’t yet collected enough ornaments, but these days the tree just isn’t done until the candy canes are hung. The best part is that they can be eaten after Christmas, which is a pretty cool way to “re-use” them.
Do you save the tissue paper from gift boxes and bags? Obviously, it can be re-used when wrapping gifts, but you can re-use those wrinkled, crinkled pieces too. Use tissue paper for stuffing the toes of Christmas stockings to make them look fuller. You can also use tissue paper for art projects. One example is using shredded white tissue paper for snow when decorating. Also, use it for filler when packaging gifts as described above.
Another way to decorate with re-used items is to take those old Christmas cards and use the images for decorating. You can recover a wastebasket to give it a holiday look (or use a popcorn tin with a holiday scene as a wastebasket). You can decoupage the cover of a Christmas card onto a piece of wood for a simple holiday wall hanging.
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