To think wrapping paper is a waste of money?

[Soubriquet]

Every year I wrap all the presents and I think “this is just going straight in the bin. May as well chuck the money in the bin”

Yet, every year I still stupidly spend hours wrapping gifts.

I make fabric gift bags. People either keep the bag or give it back to me to use again. I don't mind either way.

Gift bags circulate through our friends and family until the get scruffy.

I think I might wrap my gifts in Take A Break. Super festive.

I agree! A kid down the road made money one year sewing together fabric Christmas themed drawstring bags of varying sizes one year. I bought quite a few. Presents go in them now.

How many presents are you wrapping that it takes hours😳

My fave paper from last year. We had a giggle. We are immature

I bought a huge roll of brown paper. I’ve wrapped hundreds of presents in it over the years. It’s so big I can barely carry it 😂. I can’t see it running out a time in the next 10 years. I’m lazy, at Christmas I just wrap and with a marker put the initial on of who it’s for.

If its my family, then they get whatever random paper is to hand....newspapers, magazines, etc.

If it's my daughter's school friends then I buy that gift wrap. Some social conventions may be completely daft and a total waste, but must still be complied with!

I agree there is so much waste for most people and hate all the foiled and glitter paper but i love wrapping with a christmas film on. I use brown and patterned craft paper so it can be recycled. I have a collection of ribbon from the past 10 years which I reuse. My inlaws save all their used ribbon for me. I have gift bags and boxes to put under the tree as decoration but also for awkward presents I don't want to wrap. Part of the problem is people following trends and buying new each year when they don't need to.

well I will still be wrapping ours, can’t imagine Christmas without wrapping the presents, it’s part of the fun!

Open presents carefully and reuse the giftwrap. We have giftwrap that has been reused for years within the family. Or use the brown paper that comes in parcels. Get DCs to decorate it for a personal touch.

We also have a piece of cardboard covered in wrapping paper that fits round the bucket the Christmas tree goes in every year.

I dont care if it is. But I'm dead common me. 😂

I like to tear everything apart at dawn so whatever it’s wrapped in it won’t survive for reuse.

Mixture of pretty scarves and plain brown paper for us, all wrapped up with gardener's twine. I love it - would happily use recyclable wrapping paper but the cost of the nice stuff these days feels a bit mad.

Shiny gift bags would go in my room 101. Husband's family love them. Half our cupboards are stuffed with them, driving me slowly mad by getting creased by rummaging children and progressively more un-reusable and still unrecyclable so they haunt us forevermore.

I think it is a waste for environmental reasons especially the fancy stuff that cannot be recycled.

If people want a grand gift reveal I can ask them to put a bag on my head and pull it off to reveal the present. Reusable and cheaper. Ps I know I am miserable.

I just cut up old sheets, fold presents up and tie ribbon around or if I have time, make ribbons from same fabric and just reuse everything. Wrapping paper is a really gross example of how we think we’re much more important than the future of the planet. It’s so unnecessary.

This is totally the kind of attitude that needs to change.

We can have a common club.
I even have Christmas themed toilet paper

We use recyclable brown paper & i reuse whatever I can the following year.

Long term i'd like to buy bolts of christmas fabrics and have pieces all hemmed etc for family, to reuse each year.

You must be so proud. That is proof you have done a wonderful job raising lovely, thoughtful children. x

Hobbycraft sell fat quarters, I think 5 are £7, it makes lovely wraps and can be reused forever.

This add a pretty ribbon. 100% recyclable

I have a wicker hamper full of fabric bags i made out of Christmas fabric and ribbons. Re-used every year. I use brown paper if it's someone that I wouldn't exoect to give the bag back.

It's like cop27 isnt happening though when you see the piles of wrapping in the shops 😢

Whether paper can be recycled isn't the point, it's the carbon footprint of the manufacture and transport of all the mountains of paper every year, not what happens to it after imo.

I spend hours wrapping gifts. Nothing else compares to a wrapped present.