@Pipsandseeds
I agree I think it should be part of a larger conversation around waste. Tbh I think wrapping paper is probably the least of it - gas-guzzling cars, long-haul flights, fast fashion, the latest tech - all completely unsustainable. It's a whole culture that has to change and these calendars are one small part of it, but to me they seem to be a sign that we are still going in the wrong direction.
Wrapping paper is definitely a bigger issue than advert calendars. It's used much more widely and lots of people aren't aware how many types are not recyclable. Or that they, and sellotape, contaminate the types that are.
The problem with threads like this is that they draw all the focus of waste and excess, which which all do to some extent at Christmas, on to one practice that is very rarely a serious issue on its own and is usually something relatively affordable, accessible and probably not considered to be in the greatest taste. (Yes, I think there's a massive class snobbery thing going on with these threads.)
Then everyone who doesn't do it can say how superior they are and how they don't need to make any changes to how they do Christmas because they have the balance right already.
Then people who do do it feel judged and attacked (because they are) and come back with all the things they do that offset this non-issue and how they don't need to change either.
Very often, there's an additional insult; they're also vain, shallow, whatever.
Result: everyone's got the perfect or best possible balance already and doesn't need to change, or at least doesn't need to change before anyone else does.
We could ALL change, so there's really no reason to single the people who do X Minor Thing out as the worst consumers and materialists, except for performative superiority. It's pointless, divisive, combative, deflective and self-serving.
And it detracts from much more pressing environmental issues and ways we should be changing.
The planet is not burning because a minority of women buy makeup at Christmas.
What would be better is to look at it all as part of a wider issue, as you say, and try to come up with positive and inclusive suggestions. I think people will generally respond better to "try these alternatives to wrapping paper or lights being on for a month" than "Who agrees with me that anyone who spends £30 or whatever on X once a year is ridiculous and wasteful and vain and a brainless consumerist and deserves to be singled out for destroying the planet???"