Gifts without paper wrapping are becoming more and more trendy. In Castries, children from the Chat Perché kindergarten tested the “Furoshiki” method. They recommend her to Santa Claus.
Soon Noël at the Chat perché kindergarten in Castries. Before going on vacation, the children of medium and small section made a Santa Claus out of salt dough, “drawn” according to the shape of their hand and to hang in the tree. A nice gift for their parent… who still had to be wrapped.
20,000 tonnes of paper every Christmas
But with what? “I didn’t want to use classic wrapping paper”smiles the mistress, Joanne Martin. “It’s too complicated for children to do it themselves and, above all, it’s not very ecological”. In France, it is estimated that 20,000 tonnes of gift wrap are consumed each year during the Christmas period, i.e. 380,000 trees or 11,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Not nothing, especially since everything generally goes in the trash as soon as the gift is unwrapped, and some of this packaging is not even recyclable.
Joanne Martin, who throughout the year tries to introduce her little pupils to eco-citizen gestures, for example “by favoring snacks without packaging”therefore offered them to learn about an increasingly common Japanese technique when it comes to giving a gift: the Furoshiki. “I asked the parents to bring fabrics and I had great feedback. Everyone played the game”, she rejoices.
Scarves, diapers, towels…
Scarves, kitchen towels, towels, baby nappies… of all materials and all colours, brought from home, will find a second life. “Obviously, the size of the Japanese scarf depends on the object”, begins the mistress in front of the twenty little elves, all very attentive. It can be silk or linen, but cotton is fine too.
The fabric should be about three times larger than the present. For our red salt dough man, the A4 format is more than enough. Everything is there, let’s go for the gift wrapping workshop.
In groups of three, while their comrades try out the new motor skills game brought in advance by Santa Claus to the school, each child discovers the art of Furoshiki. Almost harder said than done.
In a few minutes…
Joanne shows them. “We lay our fabric flat on the table. We place the object in the center, slightly diagonally, then we fold down a first corner to cover our gift”, she explains to Colette, Nino and Anna. First step accomplished. “We then slightly fold the opposite edge, then while gently holding the object so as not to break it, we put this second angle above the gift”.
The different techniques of Furoshiki art.
There remains the final touch that Colette, dressed in her red Christmas sweater, is the fastest to perform. “We take our two remaining angles, and with it, we make a nice knot”, complete Joanne. And here is the decoration for the tree securely packaged. Nino, in turn, buckles his packaging “Super hero”like Anna, who managed to tie the knot that the mistress showed her. “It’s easy to do and it’s very pretty”, proudly shows Nino.
The gifts are ready to be given, well wrapped.
It’s Mathilde, Lesia and Eloan’s turn. Then Emma, Karl and Lesia. Curious, Nelya comes regularly to take a look. Colette, visibly seduced by the Furoshiki method, gives a little help to some of her comrades to tie the knot.
In barely half an hour, our elves’ mission is accomplished. Tonight, when the bell rings, everyone will leave with their gift. “By introducing children to these small gestures, we sometimes also manage to raise awareness among parents”, hopes Joanne. Who knows, maybe Santa Claus will even switch to the Furoshiki method this year.
And also…
On the internet, there is no shortage of sites to do without gift wrap. Here are some solutions to switch to “zero-waste” Christmas packaging.
Are you a Midi Libre reader? Why not just use the pages of your favorite newspaper (after reading it); it also works with old magazines or books that you no longer read and lying around in the library.
Another idea: use recyclable and recycled kraft paper, especially since it is easy to customize it with small stars for example or fir branches delicately placed under a string that surrounds the package. You can still recycle a small bag and tissue paper or a gift bag that you had kept at the bottom of a drawer, or even an old box, even a shoe box, lying around in a closet – provided you give it a new look. little obviously. And why not use a “tote bag” that will be reusable at will. Christmas without wrapping paper is possible.
