Some more wonderful sustainable Christmas news this week! Selfridges have launched their Christmas Shop, and half of all products (including decorations) have sustainable credentials. These credentials vary from sustainable forestry sources (just like our wrapping paper), being plastic-free or made from recycled materials (also like our wrapping paper). 

Throw Away Christmas

Christmas has always felt wasteful, whether it’s packaging and plastic or food waste. A lot goes to landfill during the festive season as it cannot be recycled. For example, did you know:

1. Over 1 billion Christmas cards end up in the bin after December. Many of these Christmas cards aren't paper-based and have plastic elements or glitter, that means they are not recyclable or biodegradable. 

2. It takes roughly 1 tree to make 3,000 Christmas cards, meaning that in Christmas cards alone, we’ll lose 33 million trees.  A single tree removes up to 1.7 kilos of pollutants from the air we breathe every year. By cutting down these trees for Christmas cards, we allow 56.1 kilos of pollutants into our lungs.

3. 125,000 TONNES of plastic packaging will end up in a landfill. 

4. In the UK alone, we’ll eat 25 million Christmas puddings every year (that’s almost one per household) - and most of them are packaged in some form of plastic. 

5. An additional 500 million aluminium drinks cans will be sold - that is on top of their regular sales figures - and not all of them are recycled. Fun fact: recycling just one aluminium saves enough energy to run Christmas tree lights for two hours. 

6. At Christmas, we’ll use around 40 million rolls of non-biodegradable, plastic sticky tape. 

But, with stores like Selfridges taking affirmative action to stock more sustainable items and by making conscious, sustainable purchasing decisions as buyers, maybe this year we can change some things. 

At Curlicue, we’re all about simple swaps. We’ll be giving you lots of simple Christmas swaps in the lead up to the festive season - just like our delicious nut loaf recipe as a simple swap to a meaty main.

To really kick things off, let’s talk about what we know best. Wrapping Paper. 

How it all began 

Curlicue’s origin story is embedded in Christmas. It was after seeing her living room full of bin bags full of non-recyclable wrapping paper that our founder, Hema Chauhan, had a lightbulb moment. 

The idea to create beautiful recycled wrapping paper that is entirely recyclable, vegan and made in the UK began and became the brand we love today.

With the exclusive, gorgeous prints for our eco-friendly gift wrap, you can make a straightforward swap without it costing a fortune or the planet.

So, without further delay, we’d like to introduce you to our Christmas recyclable wrapping paper prints of 2020 to give you some gift wrapping inspiration!

Bauble Noire

Our Bauble Noire print offers a stylish and sophisticated print for the festive season. We love the dark night tones brightened by the baubles, stars and ribbon that give this cool print its festive edge. Perfect for gifts to send to your loved ones so they’ll always be able to tell which lovingly picked gift is from you. 

Bauble Noire is new to the Curlicue Collection for 2020. 

Nutcracker

Our most popular print in 2019 was the Nutcracker. This wrapping paper brings all the images of a traditional Christmas and festive season in a contemporary style. The detail in this print from the natural elements and Christmas decorations is what makes this print so fantastic.

Plus, we want that deep blue background on every wall in our home!

You can purchase our Nutcracker print in our online shop.

Secret Santa

Secret Santa has a vintage feel which makes it so unique to our collection. Using traditional painting styles to create this stunning, and a little cheeky, print, Secret Santa is a beautiful print for your gifts this year.

Full of detail from snowflakes, Christmas stocking and sugar-filled candy canes, this is officially the sweetest Christmas recyclable wrapping paper! And, according to our elves, endorsed by the big man himself.

Secret Santa is new to the Curlicue Collection for 2020. 

Mistletoe and Holly

This print falls as softly under your tree as the first snowfall of winter. Laid on the softest icicle blue colour, the natural pattern of kissable Mistletoe and Holly gives a beautiful yet classical feel for our eco-friendly recycled Christmas wrapping paper. 

With its modern take on the natural aesthetics of Christmas, our Mistletoe and Holly print will give your loved ones all the feels. Warning: They may not want to unwrap your gift they’ll love this gift wrap so much!

You can purchase our Mistletoe and Holly wrapping paper in our online shop.

Pawfect Present

Pawfect Present is our equivalent of the John Lewis advert, it’s super cute and it tugs on your heart-strings. Unlike the John Lewis advert, you can physically hold it in your hands! 

We fell head over heels for this wrapping paper print, and we’re sure you can see why! With the world’s cutest polar bear wrapped up in ribbons and gift boxes in the sweetest snow scene, this print is pawfect for the little bears in your life.  

If you love Polar Bears as much as we do, why not adopt a Polar Bear through the WWF as a Christmas gift this year?

Ideal for kids and adults alike, Pawfect Present is new to the Curlicue Collection for 2020.

Winter Woodland

Continuing with the theme of the cute woodland creatures, our Winter Woodland print was one of our most popular prints last year. The intricate hand-crafted design features a soft snow scene with brown bears, hares, foxes, stags and nut-nibbling squirrels. 

At Curlicue, we’re passionate about the woodland. Our wrapping paper is made from recycled materials, so not a single tree is harmed in the making of your wrapping paper. 

You can purchase our Winter Woodland wrapping paper in our online shop.

Shopping Spree

Whatever your preference, we’ve got an eco-friendly wrapping gift paper that you can swap for the glittery, non-recyclable stuff without having to compromise on style or price. All of our wrapping paper is available to buy from our shop along with matching gift tags. We've even got biodegradable eco craft tape so you can give your gift without hurting the planet. 

If you're looking for some eco-friendly gift ideas, you don't have to search far - browse some of our eco gift ideas on our blog.

Merry swapping!