This post comes to you from Will Burnett, a frequent blog contributor hailing from Boston Latin School in Massachusetts.

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays! Guess what guys? it’s almost time for Christmas! As I’m sure there are many of you doing some last minute gift purchases and some of you who have all those wonderful gifts, but still need to wrap them, here are some great tips for gift wrapping that can save you money, help you recycle, and help you get creative. When people think about wrapping they often think about hitting up the local CVS (CVS be like hmu guys) for some $3.99 rolls of wrapping paper. What?! $3.99? No way! Why do it for $3.99 when you could do it for free, and have some fun doing it.

There are a few options but one of my personal favorites is using old magazines. You can even have some fun and cut out images from other magazines and stick them wherever you want, this ensures that your wrapped up gift is not only wrapped in recycled material, but your gift looks great and personalized. For those of you who haven’t quite gotten around to getting your reusable grocery store bags (tsk tsk) and you have a bunch of paper grocery bags lying around, then grab those paper bags and get yourself started. You can take your paper bags and use them any which way. You can decorate them, use those flimsy handles as a perfect little bow, or if you can, make some little origami pieces to stick on there.

Next is fabric wrapping. Do you have a t-shirt or scarf lying around that you never use? Well go get it and use it for wrapping (or even re-gifting but don’t tell them that shhh) a festive patterned scarf or tye-dye tshirt can make the perfect wrapping paper with a little cute bow at the top tied from the fabric. Next is an idea that I’m sure a few of you have done before: Uuse that pile of big’ol never read newspapers in the corner! If you still have newspapers lying around in your house, or you can find some at your local train station then go get ‘em. Depending on the gift or the receiver, you can cut out a certain section of the newspaper. Cut out the comics section for those little kids in your life who are getting all psyched up for Christmas day. And if you have that sarcasm filled teenager cut out that horoscopes section and wrap their present up (they won’t read it but maybe they’ll give you that stare we all know and love where it’s a cross between ‘you’re going to make me laugh, stop’ and ‘I wonder what you’d look like in a blender’).

Lastly, if you have a special person in your life who did more than enough to deserve a beautiful necklace or earrings give them a little hint and turn the page to the shopping section where they’re certain to have some jewelry pics that you can wrap that little jewelry box in. Speaking of jewelry boxes and such, if your gift is already in a little box, or has some nice tissue paper around it, there’s no need to wrap it! Let the gift shine. Those are just a few tips for wrapping during the holidays, hope you enjoyed!