Help The Enviroronment and Yourself With Gift Bags

This Holiday season I was really busier than usual and as a result had less time and energy for my usual gift wrapping extravaganza. I resorted to gift bags, feeling guilty, but not letting that stop me.
The twenty something bags under the tree did not look as pretty as my usual carefully wrapped and bowed packages but time had run out. I did add little ornaments with candy inside them that I picked up for a dollar each at Wal Mart but the dazzle factor was definitely gone.
The other thing I noticed was that I spent a lot more on bags than I would have on wrapping paper. That , however, was worth it to me as I considered it a gift of time and less stress for myself.
So, Christmas came and I was hoping no one would be disappointed or wonder why I had changed my long standing tradition of making each present look fantastic.
No one noticed! No one commented! No one cared!
The presents given and received were enjoyed as usual. The really important things were still there: love, sharing, caring, laughter, and being together.
The next day my youngest son mentioned that it was a lot easier to clean up without all that darn wrapping paper! Duh! I hadn't even thought of or noticed that but he was right. It is a lot of work to gather all those gift boxes and tons of torn up paper,hoping that no small gifts accidentally get thrown out. It does make one heck of a mess. We had always filled two large trash bags with all that Christmas paper, etc.
It dawned on me at last that all of that discarded wrapping paper is not good for the environment! I can't even imagine how many tons of extra garbage we, as a society, generate each holiday season. For me it has always been such an ingrained part of the holidays that the downside of using all that paper was just invisible.
Will I ever again wrap, coordinate colors, make fantastic bows, use colored lace, ribbon, flowers and so on to give a gift? Well, I have finally learned that men don't care a bit about such things though most women do. I will definitely restrict my fancy presents for women only. My new guilt over our stressed environment will keep me from being a major wrapping paper maniac.
Oh, and those gift bags? More paper. I am saving them to use again next year.
So, this effort to help my overwhelmed, stressed out self has expanded to also caring more about the needs of our planet.
I would love to hear about your efforts to lessen your stress and/or ideas that are good for our environment.
Blessings, Gilly