The nature of the winter holidays tends to encourage a greater amount of waste, whether from wrapping paper, extra packaging for gifts or the replacement of older items with new ones.  In fact, the Use Less Stuff Report states that Americans increase their amount of trash by 25 percent each year between Thanksgiving and New Years Day (http://www.jhsph.edu/Press_Room/Press_Releases/holiday_tips.html).  Despite the seeming inevitability of this increased amount, students can learn how to reduce waste created during the holidays and reuse waste that cannot be eliminated.  Because waste can be reduced and reused in innumerable ways, especially in creative ways, this type of project is perfect for art students or for a holiday classroom project.

Urge your students to brainstorm about what items are often wasted during the holiday season and then about how those wasted materials can be used and reused for different purposes.  What can replace traditional wrapping paper that is less wasteful?  What can be done with all those cardboard boxes and extra bits of cardboard packaging?  For example, real popcorn (the non-buttered or salted kind) can replace Styrofoam packing peanuts, and decorated brown paper bags can replace wrapping paper.  Your students will think of plenty of other ways to reduce and reuse during their brainstorming session.
 
Students can also learn how to make gifts out of used items.  Encourage your students to be creative.  What can they do with bottle caps, mason jars or old computer keyboards?  Almost any found or discarded object can be created anew into a useful and meaningful gift.  Tiffany Tomato Designs, http://www.tiffanytomato.com/, has some very ingenious and hip designs made out of objects that would otherwise be thrown away, such as magnets made out of keys from a broken computer keyboard, a table made out of egg crates and drink coasters made from old floppy disks.  LittleEarth, http://littlearthcom.siteprotect.net/, a Pittsburgh-based accessory design company whose slogan is “recycling the world’s pop culture”, also has some products that might give students ideas for their own gifts. 
 
What is important about this type of project is that students are given the time, space and opportunity to explore the various possibilities for recycled gifts.  They will then be able to realize that creating gifts in this manner is not necessarily cheap, boring or uncool, but can be one of the more meaningful and creative ways to participate in gift-giving while helping to reduce waste in their everyday lives.
 
For other general information on recycling and advocacy, check out the archives of the Use Less Stuff Report  http://use-less-stuff.com/.  The project ended a few years ago, but the past issues are still very helpful and informative.