Paper hats…

Paper’s brilliant isn’t it? It gives us something to read, a quick way to scribble down a list or a reminder, patterns on our walls, containers to keep our food in; it’s everywhere, almost unnoticed and ever present.

I’m amazed by the amount of paper we put in our blue bin each week and at Christmas we seem to generate a paper mountain. I wonder what Christmas would be like without it? What would we wrap the presents in and how would we make paper chains? What about those Christmas cards and the envelopes they arrive in? What about the stamps? How would we give a bottle without a paper gift bag and what would we use for gift tags? Christmas without crackers, no paper crowns or cheesy jokes – I don’t think so. Paper serviettes with robins, paper Christmas tablecloths, don’t worry I draw the line at paper plates despite not having to do any washing up. Christmas is a real paperfest, I’m not even going down the delivery box route, but I wonder how many boxes Amazon send out at this time of year?

Here’s to paper, probably the most important invention of all time. Without it how would we have passed on ideas, recorded important events, what would we be using for money?

Of course technology is changing everything, letters, books, financial transactions and I’m pretty sure that electronic wallpaper will be along at some point. But I can’t see Christmas and gift giving going away, so paper is with us to stay even if it just in the form of paper hats.