Yule Natural & Upcycled DIY Gift Wrap Ideas

Avoid unnecessary waste by using some of these creative natural and upcycled gift wrap ideas for Yule!

An earth-centered spiritual practice encourages us to find ways to reduce waste, find natural alternatives and use what we already have. 

In our consumer culture, at a time of the year when we all feel pressured to spend, spend, spend, these are tough goals to meet.  With a little ingenuity, upcycled gift wrap can be gorgeous, fun to make, inexpensive, and earth-friendly!

I tried and photographed all these options myself, and I only included the ones I found useful, beautiful and easy.

Seashell Gift Wrap

Arrange seashells on your gift instead of a bow. You can also incorporate bits of nautical rope, sea stars, and fishing net.

Perfect for ocean-related gifts, like plane tickets to a beach destination, or homemade sea salt body scrub.

It’s especially charming if you use sea shells collected during a family vacation!

Evergreen Details

If practice hedge witchery, keep a winter herb garden or don’t mind swiping a few twigs from the holly bush, evergreens make beautiful touches on Yule packages.

Rosemary, sage and bundles of pine needs all work well.

Arrange the leaves into miniture leaves and add burlap lace.  Gorgeous!

Upcycled Old Christmas Ornaments and Broken Jewelry

Don’t throw away old Christmas ornaments!  Upcycle them by adorning packages with complimentary paper.

Got a jewelry box?  Look for broken pieces to add a chic sophistication.  The gold leaf at on the top right of this accent is a broken dangle earring.  It looks awesome with the ornaments and gold star paper.

Use Shredded Paper as Packing Material.

If you have a paper shredder at home or work, use the shredded paper as packing material.

This approach comes with many benefits, including reusing paper that otherwise goes straight to the landfill.  It’s also infinitely better for the environment that Styrofoam packing peanuts.

Plus, store bought packing material is ridiculously expensive when you consider free alternatives like this one!

Toilet Paper Roll Gift Box DIY

I love this idea!  It’s so clever and simple to customize.  And, it’s super easy.  Even if you’re not crafty, trust me. you can do this!

This is the tutorial I used to make the gift box below.  It came out perfectly!

Use Old Paper Bags as Wrapping Paper.

To get classic, natural look of brown wrapping paper, use old brown paper shopping bags turned inside out.

Adorn with scrap seasonal silk florals.  Gorgeous!

Jam and Jelly Jar Bath Gifts

Did you know that glass is expensive to recycle?  The amount of energy required is not cost effective.  So reusing it is the best option for conservation.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to do this!

Fill old jam and sauce jars with homemade body products, like body lotions, sugar scrubs, and bath bombs.

Shallow jars work best for salts and lotions, deeper jars are better for things like bath fizzies.

(For some witchy ideas on what to make, check out Natural Beauty for the Natural Witch:  A Guide to Making Homemade Beauty Magical).

Side note:  I love peppermint essential oil for bath crafts this time of year!