When we think of Christmas, fast approaching, our shopping is always at the forefront of our plans. It's always a wonderful feeling, to be finished finding and buying all of the necessary gifts for everyone on our lists. But there's one item that most of us don't think about until we need it, and then, that often means a quick, late-night trip to the store. For the wrapping paper we thought we had at home, but couldn't find.



It's always frustrating, when we forget to buy the wrapping paper, along with our gifts. The outside cover to the presents Santa leaves under the tree is such an integral part of Christmas, the first thing we notice when we see the tree, standing over our gifts on Christmas morning.

But the wrapping paper is always the first part of Christmas to be tossed aside. As children find all the gifts that Santa Claus put under the tree, they tear the paper to shreds as fast as they can, in much less time than it took to wrap those gifts.

And what's left is a huge mess. Someone, usually Mom and Dad, has to clean up all the paper and leave it for the garbage truck, to be carted off and forgotten, to be dumped with all of the other detritus of Christmas somewhere.

All that effort and all that cost are gone in the blink of an eye. Then, when the Christmas bills come in, and we expect to be proud of the way we stuck to our budget, we're always surprised by how much we went over. Part of that extra cost is that darn paper.

It doesn't have to be that way. Why spend so much money and time on gift-wrapping, when the wrapping is turned to trash so quickly? Maybe every single gift doesn't need to be wrapped.

It could be easy to explain to your kids. After all, Santa Claus fills the bag on his sleigh with toys for all the boys and girls in the world, right? How could he possible wrap every gift? And if he did, he'd have a hard time telling who gets what, wouldn't he?

Your children really won't mind if the gifts that Santa brings them on Christmas Eve don't get wrapped. They see the paper as an obstacle, anyway, to reaching their Christmas treasures. And you'll save so much time and money, not having to wrap every single gift.

You can save time and money that way, and maybe a forest, somewhere. That sure wouldn't upset Santa Claus, would it?