I mentioned furoshiki last year: traditional Japanese wrapping cloths that bundle, decorate and make parcels portable. Since a lot of us have square table cloths (or even large napkins) and packages to wrap, this might be an attractive alternative to using a lot of paper and whatnot. Furoshiki can be used to carry about anything — I’m partial to the nihon bin tsutsumi wrap which decorates and makes portable two tall bottles — and the Japanese environment ministry is encouraging their use in place of newer but disposable shopping bags.
Alas, the links I gave last year are dead. But a new site furoshiki.com has popped up to answer your questions. There are a bunch of technique videos on YouTube, too.
Cool!
Neato. I hate having giant bags of crumpled up paper after the holidays (my heart beats to the drum of my Great Depression-marked relatives who would iron wrapping paper and use it again), so I buy clearance holiday fabric after Christmas and sew up all sizes of bags. Basically, pillowcases. I’m not crafty. But what a thrill — drop the present in the bag, tie on a bow, and done! And even better … the nicely folded pile of bags at the end of the day that go back in the attic til next year.