To boycott wrapping paper this Christmas ?

[MostlyAmbridgeandcoffee]

It’s terrible for the environment and completely pointless ! Who’s with me? Old newspaper or pretty reusable cloth instead? My little one turned 1 this weekend and the cardboard and wrapping paper rubbish at the end of it all made me feel a bit ill! Does anyone do this already and have any tips ?

Yanbu. We use pillowcases or reuse other packaging we have. You can make nice Christmas tree and star stamps from old potatoes to pretty up old newspaper.

I use brown paper which is fully recyclable as we don't have newspaper, and i decorate by hand for each recipient- loads ofnideas on pintrest.

I wasn't even thinking about the environment when I stopped. I can't wrap and took too long that the lazy part of my brain protested.

Now I use cardboard box from shopping with a bow or a bag if I feel fancy.

We use gift bags and reuse them each birthday/xmas

We did last year. Dont think anyone particularly noticed. Got the kids to decorate some brown paper, they looked really nice. Will definately be doing the same this year!

I reuse gift bags too and don’t write on the gift tags so people can do the same.
I like your idea LoisLittsLover

I hate wrapping presents so have used the same gift bags for donkeys years.

Last year I used newspaper it looked remarkably good some had really nice pictures on so I centred them on the top of the parcel, we did get a teeny bit distracted by some articles too 😁

We re-use wrapping paper. Take it off carefully, cut off the edge where the sellotape is. Not as good as no paper, but at least each piece lasts several years.

We use gift bags or fabric. Last year was the first we managed to be totally zero waste on Christmas wrapping then my parents showed up with a sack of presents for DD, all wrapped in foil paper

Compost it if you have a garden! It's a good option for "brown" material if you struggle to get your ratios equal.

I even pack my plant pots with wrapping paper and cardboard to avoid using so much compost.

I used plain brown paper tied up with pretty ribbon and decorative string with home made labels out of card or old christmas cards. Im not particularly good at crafty stuff but i was so pleased - i thought they looked gorgoeus!

I saved all the ribbon and string to reuse this year. We used the brown paper as firelighters. I was really careful wuth the amount of food I ordered too and last year was the 1st year where the recycling and black bins werent bulging at the seams by Boxing day.

We use gift bags for birthdays as at least they're reusable. Last Christmas we decorated brown paper ourselves. The then 4 year old and 2 year old helped so it was very interesting

The other thing i found was brown paper is cheaper than wrapping paper but also much sturdier - i know you can get cheap wrapping paper but its so flimsy and tears so easily.

we're using a combination of paper that we have gathered over the years (this year we should finally be shot of it all if we actually have any presents to wrap) plus reused for decades gift bags.

But we've also cut down on the present giving a lot so probably there will still be wrapping paper left over

I think single-use wrapping paper is a relatively new thing. When I was a child, my grandparents had a drawer full of wrapping paper that was getting a bit delicate after several decades of reuse! (This was in1980s). DM did this too.

If you use fabric, be sure it will genuinely be reused, otherwise you’ll end up with a load of bits of fabric and no will/desire/need/skill to make anything with them! Having said that, Hobbycraft had some really pretty fat quarters last year. Bear in mind too, that polyester is plastic and does not rot easily in landfills.

I’m tasking DD to decorate cardboard boxes and lining paper, and will be trueing gift bags from 10 years ago. Also thinking about using tea towels, because these are genuinely useful.

Ah such good ideas here ! Seems I’m waaaaaay behind the curve already!

I agree. Did you know the metallic/glittery ones are not re-cyclable?

Thank you for the reminder.

We largely use gift bags, this way the can be reused. I know they are because I've had some back that looked very familiar.

I feel the same.

I bought up a load of Christmas fabric in January this year. $2 a meter.

I’ve got loads of thick cord and Velcro and I’m currently making lots of reusable gift bags. Drawstring and Velcro closing.

We only buy gifts for each other and the dc so I know they’ll get reused year after year.

I’ve been boycotting it for years being useless at wrapping.

I tie a ribbon on the presents and reuse the ribbon for gardening.

What you can do is make cut out stars of ordinary reusable paper and tie those for a bit of mystery and drama. Just try not to cut yourself with the scissors when you make them so you bleed all over the sodding things. —bitter experience—

Plain brown paper (sometimes decorated by dc) with ribbon/string (that is stored/reused where possible) here for a number of years. Although I quite like the idea of recycling the deluge of Christmas catalogues/gift guides as an alternative, and have started collecting these up ready :-)

I’ve bought loads of patterned scarves from charity shops as I’ve seen them throughout the year. I’ll cut them to size/sew two together depending on size of present and tie with ribbon.

Any ideas for alternatives to cellophane to wrap a basket hamper? It doesn't have a lid and I would usually wrap it like the attached stock photo. Really don't want to buy a roll of plastic though.

As a general rule, if you can scruch the paper and it stays scrunched it is re-cyclable. I'm sure that's not infallible but it's a good rule. We will be using up old stock this year & moving to brown paper. I wish I hadn't sent last year's card to recycling, but will probably use brown card labels. Next year we will be all about brown paper and regular string.