Life Less Plastic beat me to the punch when refering to the furoshiki way of wrapping goods (especially gifts). So I have another suggestion, if from an unlikely source.
Today, when you look up the “drugstore wrap” or “pharmacy wrap” it almost always refers to a way to wrapping meat. Or a way illicit drug dealers bundle their goods. But when I was in Italy a few years ago, the pharmacy clerk really did wrap my order — a simple packet of dental floss — this way and the elegant oddity of it stuck with me.
The plastic-free piece? With the drugstore wrap, you can bundle your holiday gifts without tape. Or perhaps with just a bit of string. I think it would work ideally with something medium-sized and shapeless, like a sweater, where the paper gives the contents some form and structure. (If you wrap a loose sweater like you’d wrap a box, it becomes a wadded mess no matter how much tape you use.)
This would also be a handy skill, using newspaper or kraft paper, when trying to gather loose goods for which we might have otherwise used a plastic zipper-top bag, like unshelled nuts or ornament hangers.
Now, the how-to, from the North Dakota State University. I tend to repeat step 6, so the ends are pointier, and if you’re not using string, give the points a little twist.
