to unilaterally decide to abolish the whole idea of gift wrapping

[Nimbostratus100]

I just decided not to do it this year. I am recovering from surgery and don't really have the strength or the mobility. I've just put the gifts for each family member in a separate carrier bag. Mostly I got it ready before my last surgery. I was perfectly satisfied with that. Having a teeny tiny wobble right now though. It seems a bit soulless somehow. Tell me I'm doing the right thing, resting my arms and cutting down on waste! and I dont need to get out of bed and look for cellotape!

you are definitely not being unreasonable. I have flu and have just slapdashed wrapped the presents, looks like my toddler did it 😁 so I definitely wouldn’t be doing it if I’d had surgery and I wouldn’t be judging you either!!

Hope you recover well!

If you're physically unable then of course it's fine. If it's for young children then I probably would've roped in a friend, neighbour or relative to assist.

I have covid. This is day 3. I feel like death warmed up. I'm starting to wrap now. It's 1030pm. I regret not just using bags. Bah humbug.

I like your idea better... Debating not wrapping everything now thanks to you. You have saved me feeling shite

My grandad used to do this and even as a child I was just as happy with those presents as the ones that were wrapped. Don't worry about it. Hope you feel better soon.

I haven’t wrapped in years. Swaddle in tissue paper, put it in gift bag, label bag! No sellotape in sight!

We are in the lucky position of having received gifts in those pull tie ribbon Amazon gift bags for several birthdays so a lot have gone in those and some in gift bags. Only nice easy rectangular gifts have been wrapped and I've got no excuse. I'm impressed you've been organized enough sort before surgery. Was on a mad dash for something for my brother this afternoon.

great! Thank you all! I will resume enjoying my cosy bed and early night xx

Everything in our house this year is in a gift bag (reused from previous years) and doesn’t even have a tag on unless it comes from a non-resident. It’s not a massive pile so we’re hoping we all remember which ones we bagged and who they were for… I’ve gone with a different colour scheme for each recipient 😂

Gift bags next year for friends. They won’t mind.

These have changed my life

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272591788891?hash=item3f77bc9b5b:g:7KMAAOSwPD9hu29t

I'm working up to rethinking wrapping too. I do like wrapping, but can't stand the waste of it.

This year I've used some of my neighbour's packing paper they were chucking out; nice thick brown and grey paper which is quite wide and long, and even if slightly crumpled from being scrunched up inside an Amazon box still looks OK when tied up with string.

It might sound nuts, but I think I'm going to sit down sometime soon and repurpose some old fabrics (shirts, bedding etc) into re-usable textile wraps of various sizes and just keep using those for family birthdays and Christmas in the future. I think wrapping gifts in silk scarves is a thing in Japan, and I love the idea of wrapping being reusable.

I love wrapping and go completely over the top. It’s an outlet for my artistic side.

But I couldn’t care less if others don’t share my gift wrapping obsession.

Oh and good for the environment
Can add a nice reusable bauble etc for added effect

ah, bless you - look after your self and save your strength for tomorrow x

We haven’t actually bought any new paper for years, still using up surplus from previous years.

DId mine in newspaper this year but it is an effort to make it look nice - made gift tags last year from the Christmas crackers rather than binning them when they were pulled and a friend gave me a load of ribbon that was surplus from her business so everything is uniform but I'm loving those brown paper bags....

I’ve used brown parcel paper in the past and drawn little pictures on with metallic or felt pens - Holly, snowflakes, Christmas trees etc

We don't have many now DD is grown up, I've just re-used gift bags and a small stocking for her.

Amazon reusable drawstring bags for the win

It’s fine. No one will mind.

If you’re in the same situation next year I’d get a bag of plain paper bags and stick a reusable decoration or tag on them.

Yeah - this type of thing

I made my own re-usable fabric bags last year. This year me thanked myself greatly.

some of the fabric I bought specially for it, but I’ve found the legs of old pyjamas make excellent bottle bags!

These are some of the fabric bags I have made. Some are nearly 20 years old. Df has his own collection now as do DB’s x 2. Once we all get together, it looks really good.

And its so easy each year.

To those who say it’s too hard, the first ones I made with fabric, needle and thread. They are not pretty on the inside but they do the job faithfully all these years.