Re-usable wrapping paper!

That's a cool idea.  My brother-in-law's birthday is inconveniently on January 1st, and we got him a rather large present.  We didn't want to use all the wrapping paper, so we put a sarong over it instead.

For the most part I use standard wrapping paper, but try to minimize the amount necessary.  Like if something came in a box significantly bigger than the present itself, i'll just wrap the present and recycle the box.  And we always save and reuse things like gift bags.  That's about the extent of it though.  I do like the idea of using cloth for wrapping paper.

Great call Missy - I wish I had thought to use some Baggu bags as wrapping or something. We did use some junk mail mailings for wrapping this year - worked great!

HAHAH that is awesome.  Wish i'd ever thought of something other than paper (recycled or store-bought) with which to wrap gifts.  

on a side note, there are many uses for sarongs (other than just wearing them!)....i've used colorful sarongs over the years to hang on walls for decoration and also to drape over ceiling lights (a yellow sarong gave the icky fluorescents in my college dorm room a warmer glow).  anyway, great idea, dana.

A few years ago, my grandmother actually made a slew of cloth Christmas bags!  They're just really simple drawstring bags but they're so easy to use, store, and reuse. 

Other recycled materials I used this year...I gave some presents wrapped in packing paper, some in newspaper...some small stuff in magazine pages (those were the prettiest since I had some fun photo magazines with great images).  The worst wrapping I gave was in the package the gift was mailed in.  But I figured it was the inside that counted.  :-)