How specially made gift bags can make the holidays in the Lowcountry shine brighter

The arrival of fall on the calendar means that with a “twitch” of the nose, Christmas will be here before you know it.

The coming of Christmas means we need to make our list and check it twice when buying gifts for family and friends. When we purchase those gifts and stow them away in our “wrapping room’s Christmas closet,” that gives us time to stock up on wrapping paper, ribbon, tissue paper, and gift boxes.

In recent years, many gift givers use colorful paper gift bags to drop the gift in and top it with spikes of tissue paper peeping from the top. For the folks who just ran out of Scotch tape and hate to wrap anyway, the bags have it — the easy way out.

For years, I have picked up cloth bags from various grocery stores and stuffed them full of gifts, nick-knacks and snacks for family members so they can use them later for trips to the grocery store. With the arrival of Beaufort County’s ban on single-use bags on Nov. 1, this puts these cloth reusable grocery bags on the high-priority list.

There are some exceptions to the ban rule that allow dry cleaning bags, grocery store produce bags, bulk items food bags, newspaper bags, and bags provided by pharmacies or veterinarians. But in Beaufort County, grocery stores will be forbidden to provide single-use plastic bags to customers. Those found in violation of the ordinance will be cited.

The law aims to better protect the environment, waterways and marine life. Under the new ordinance, businesses are encouraged to make reusable bags available for sale or offer recyclable paper carry-out bags. In our neighboring state of Georgia, some businesses are campaigning to support a plastic bag ban on Tybee Island. Tim Brrown, Kroger’s Atlanta Division president, announced that his company’s stores will phase out plastic grocery bags by 2025.

Statistics show Americans use and dispose of 100 billion plastic shopping bags each year, and at least 1 million barrels of oil are used per year in the manufacture of those bags. These bags can take up to 1,000 years to break down when introduced to the environment.

Cloth reusable bags purchased from grocery stores or other businesses can be thrown in the washer and dryer for cleaning.

However, some ladies with nimble fingers can take the initiative to purchase colorful fabric and design and make their personal wash-and-dry bags. Making bags like these would add a special touch to their gift-giving.

The late Mrs. Alma Hudson, who lived at Buckingham Landing, was something of a pioneer in the making of cloth reusable bags long before a ban on plastic bags was thought of. She never threw a scrap of material away that was large enough to make a lined bag, regardless of the size.

Thirty years ago when granddaughter Cheryl and I would drop in on her, we would always leave with a few of her special handmade bags given to us. We still treasure them.

Ladies now’s your time to be industrious. Make some cloth bags for gift giving this holiday season.