Amidst the excitement of the holiday season, it is easy to fall into a festive flurry of gift-giving and decoration. With the global gift retailing market set to grow $13.5MM by 2027, consumers seem to be enjoying the spirit of giving now more than ever. But with more gifts comes more materials discarded, leading to an ongoing issue with waste during this time. Between wrapping paper, cards, and decorations, over 688,000 tons of waste is produced yearly during the Thanksgiving and Christmas periods in the UK. As the average American alone produces 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, several brands are calling for consumers to be more conscious when making their gift-giving choices this year.

For many, the aesthetic elements of Christmas are always a meaningful touch, with several going to the extent of themed decorations and wrapping. In the UK alone, 227,000 miles of wrapping paper is used each year—enough to wrap the British Isle of Guernsey. While this may look pretty, any gift wrap containing sequins, glitter, foil, or plastic cannot be recycled, meaning around 3 million tons of wrapping paper ends up in landfills, polluting the environment.

But it's not all doom and gloom, and of course, there are alternatives to be able to enjoy the visual value of the holiday season in a more ethical way. Take dissolvable body wash brand Plus for example, using their science-led packaging to bring double the fun to the festive season. The Dissolvable Gift Wrap by Plus is dubbed as "wrapping paper that won't dull the sparkle of the gifting season" and is planet-friendly, completely disappearing when run under water. The product is an excellent alternative to the usual wrapping paper used, allowing consumers to continue to immerse themselves in the tradition of gift wrapping with the added benefit of a clear conscience.

Alternatively, other beauty brands are campaigning for complete discard of gift wrapping in an effort to protect the environment. Future-first activist beauty brand Pacifica has teamed up with sexual wellness brand LOLA to pioneer the message that "condoms are the only wrappers you need this season." The duo's "It's a Wrap" campaign encourages shoppers to avoid wrapping paper and only stick to the necessary wrappers for their holiday enjoyment.

According to Pacifica and LOLA, if every American skipped the wrapping of just three presents, there would be enough paper saved to cover over 45,000 football fields. In support of the campaign, Pacifica and LOLA have created limited-edition holiday gift sets featuring LOLA's Ultra Thin Latex Condoms and Pacifica's eco-friendly Reusable Eye & Brow Masks. Both products are packaged in a festive-themed tin, fun and jolly enough to defy the need for wrapping.

"It's a Wrap is a way for us to reinforce that message and galvanize our community through a thumb-stopping, tongue-in-cheek campaign. We believe that if you're living on this planet, you can be an activist, and this is one small way to do that. When considering partners, we knew immediately that LOLA would be a perfect fit because of our shared values around sustainability and reproductive rights. We hope to inspire and empower our communities to make this season a little more sustainable by taking the effortless step to skip wrapping paper and stick to just the necessary wrappers,” Brook Harvey Taylor, founder and CEO of Pacifica, tells BeautyMatter.

Taking the packaging campaigns one step further, sustainable deodorant brand Fussy has released a Christmas charity single featuring "The Fussy Pits," a group of carol singers who perform a comical rendition of “Deck the Halls” using nothing but their armpits as instruments. The single features Dragon's Den entrepreneur Deborah Meaden, who is well-known for her commitment to sustainability, such as her business initiative The Carbon Trust, which notifies consumers of a company's efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. "The amount of single-use plastic we throw away yearly is just silly. So why not a silly song to help provide a solution! Now more than ever is the time to be Fussy [sic] about the brands and products we choose to support," Meaden comments.

The campaign has been created in partnership with Plastic Bank. This charity purchases plastic waste from those collecting it, stopping plastic waste and providing an income for those most in need at an expensive time of year. For every download of the single, 1 kilogram of ocean-bound plastic will be saved.

At a time when the gift of giving is so important, consumers need to prioritize giving back to the earth in sustainable ways. In theory, the idea of cutting down on holiday wrapping makes gift-giving beautifully effortless, saving consumers time and cutting down on masses of waste. As brands begin to think of innovative and exciting ways to become more eco-friendly across the holiday season, it becomes the shopper's duty to think beyond the wrapping paper, making more thoughtful and practical decisions.