Shipping Gifts with Ahimsa

You might be asking "What does Ahimsa have to do with shipping gifts?"  Recall that ahimsa means non-violence. As a yogi, I care about doing things in as "green" a manner as possible to avoid undue harm to the Earth. I also want to protect my loved ones' gifts from harm during transit. This can be taken all the way to protecting my friend from the disappointment of receiving a box of broken junk. It's all about taking great care. Get creative and the packing & shipping of gifts doesn't have to be a drag that creates lots of meaningless trash.

Note: Tomorrow is the last day most places can guarantee Christmas delivery with standard shipping.
Baked Goods:
When shipping baked goods things like moist/dry, freshness, and how well it can handle being drop-kicked need to be taken into consideration.

• Pack like cookies together. Cookie bars packed with ginger snaps will soften up your ginger cookies making them lose their snap. I've also had the issue with gingerbread making everything in the package taste like gingerbread. Ugh. 
• Stack and seal small piles of cookies. Flat cookies work well with plastic wrap, round cookies work better with things like jars and tiny loaf pans with lids. Use your imagination - egg cartons, muffin tins, oatmeal containers - all of these can make a fine container for your edible gifts. Just pack it tightly. 
• Fill your container with cookies - now shake it. You should hear nothing. If it actually shakes - things will break. Soft cookies don't care, but brittle or fragile cookies will not make it in one piece if you can hear/feel them move. I like to fill in the spaces between my cookies with tissue paper because it's festive and cushy.

 Cookies & Other Gifts:

• Place your gifts in the smallest box possible. This equals less expensive shipping and less space to fill with packing materials. Again - if you can feel/hear it shake - it's not packed enough. If it seems slightly over-full it's about right. 

• Remember the 3Rs when packing a box. Reduce (see above), Reuse, Recycle. If you have packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and/or a bunch of used paper lying around - use it. I hate packing peanuts and yet they keep showing up, so I try to reuse them to ship gifts. Paper can be shredded and used as packing material. Fabric scraps could work too if you have a ton of them lying about. 
• My Favorite Packing Material - Popcorn. Air popped popcorn is a lightweight, edible, biodegradable, faintly scented, cheap package filler. I use it all the time. Some people love it, some people find it annoying because they don't tend to expect it to come flying out of the box when they open it. *shrug* Sure beats packing peanuts. 
• Pad their gift in something they can wear or use - scarves, towels, gloves, tea towels, small blankets, burp cloths, pajama pants, etc. If your recipient likes to make pillows or small stuffed things you could even use that fluff you can buy in bulk or pull from an old (washed and dried) pillow.