Whanganui workshop teaches alternative wrapping and gift buying skills

Finding gifts for people you care about can be a meditation and a beautiful process from the get-go, Deirdra McMenamin says.

She organised the Stress Free Holiday Season workshop last week, and said the first requirement was to plan ahead.

"Have a list, which gives you time to think," she said.

With a list of ideas people could be ready to pounce on the right gifts when they spot them, she said.

Secondly, she recommends buying local, "because Whanganui has such a lot of creative and original artists and artefacts, and such beautiful food, that there are lots of choices".

She's envisaging the kind of holiday that will come about when Mother Earth and Father Christmas get together. Planning ahead can avoid last minute purchases of shoddy plastic products, she said.

Wrappings can also be planned ahead, by collecting fabric scraps from the Re Use Academy at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre, or finding suitable objects.

Her workshop demonstrated the Japanese wrap, using a scarf as part of the gift, with stamps to further decorate the fabric.