This family wraps Christmas gifts with fabric, not paper

Rina Albala, a mother of three girls, is determined to reduce the amount of paper waste her family generates over the holidays.

"We've always had a giant recycling bag stuffed with wrapping paper and bags that have been ripped," she said.

"It just breaks my heart."

This Christmas, for the first time, her family will wrap all their gifts with fabric. They usea technique inspired by furoshiki, a type of Japanese wrapping cloth.

"It's just knots, there's no paper cuts, no scissors ... it's easy, it's safe," Albala, a resident of Saint-Lambert on Montreal's South Shore,said.

Her three daughters Ella, 3, Zara, 7, and Saila, 10 have been practising and say they find it easy.

"It's harder with paper," Saila said.

"You cannot make knots so you have to use tape. That's a sticky mess and it's also not good for the environment."

Albala says this technique also allows the kids to get creative and they enjoy seeing all the different fabrics.

They always have a variety of fabrics in the house because Albala loves to sew.

Some gifts are being wrapped in material she originally bought with the intention of making pyjamas.Others are being wrapped in material from an old Halloween costume.

As a child, she was surrounded by fabrics because her mother sewed Halloween costumes and wrote sewing books.

Any fabric works

But there's no sewing involved in this wrapping technique and no special fabric is necessary.

"You could use an old table cloth, an old curtain, a tea towel, any type of fabric," Albala said.

If you want to buy something to use, she suggests checking out the remnant section at a fabric store.

"They have these fabrics that are really, really cool that cost practically nothing," she said.

Albala hopes people receiving gifts from her family will reuse the fabrics. That's the plan at her house.

"We can just fold it up and put it away and use it again next Christmas or next time there's a birthday."

Need more ideas for an environmentally friendly holiday? Listen to Shari's full feature from Daybreak:

• Tips to make your holiday season more low-key and planet-friendly