Let's face it. This is an expensive month for most people. Hopefully you don't feel pressured to give beyond your means, but if you're feeling financial strain at all there are some small ways you can save cash--not to mention help Mother Nature. I'm talking about how we wrap the gifts we give. I wrote an article on "green" gift wrap for the paper about a year ago. Here are some of my favorite tips from that story: •Wrap music-related gifts in old sheet music, travel-themed presents in maps and home décor-related gifts in wallpaper. •Make meaningful wrapping paper from an old dictionary by tearing out a page with a meaningful word on it, such as "love" or "Christmas," center the word on the present you're wrapping, circle the word with a red pen, wrap, then tie the package up in red ribbon. •Wrap a cooking-related gift with new kitchen towels, and tie it up in ribbon or string. Red-and-white bakery twine would further enforce the kitchen theme. I plan to do this using flour sack towels next week after baking 13 loaves of cranberry-orange bread for my husbands' colleagues. •Gifts also could look festive wrapped in colorful bandanas, a winter scarf or baby blanket. •Antique stores sell all sorts of charming containers, including metal breadboxes, hatboxes and cake tins. Several years ago I received a wedding gift in an old tin breadbox and today I use that breadbox to hold supplies next to my daughter's changing table. •Opt for gift bags over wrapping paper since they're easier to re-use. •And here's a new idea from one of the dads at my daughter's preschool: use children's artwork as wrapping paper. We have plenty at our house to go around! Most of us will probably use or receive some conventional wrapping paper. Do your best to preserve it and use it again down the road. And, by all means, please don't throw it in the fireplace on Christmas morning. There are toxins in those papers you don't want floating around your home or in the environment. You can save money by not buying gift tags, too. Just cut up the extras from last year's holiday cards or make your own. I just posted a tutorial on my craft blog that explains how to make antique-looking ones (see photo above) from scrap paper and tea.

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