(Warning: trivial issue alert) To ask what's happened to giftwrap?

[KimberleyClark]

You used to be able to buy it in a pack of 2 sheets with matching tags. Which meant minimal waste Now it's all rolls, gift bags and tissue paper. And the choice seems much more limited.

You can still buy individual sheets - John Lewis, Paperchase and Hobby Craft sell them.

I like gift bags. No wrapping required and endlessly reusable.
( Doesn't answer your question though!)

I always thought a roll was more efficient, but I guess not if you buy gift wrap separately for each gift.

We have a box of gift bags now - wrapping is so much quicker, and they get re-used over and over again.

I think you buy it online? I bought a novelty giftwrap for dh from Amazon but it was a few years ago.

We’ve pretty much ditched gift wrap here. Feels really wasteful.

Gift bags are better. The person can regift or use for something else. The wrapping always just gets binned regardless of if in a roll or sheets.
I think gift wrapping in general might be falling out of favour as people often might buy a gift online to be delivered directly to recipient. So it would either be wrapped by retailer or just in normal packing. Which is less wasteful.

Yes to gift bags.

For the last couple of years I have bulk bought rolls of wrapping paper at Christmas that don't have a Christmas design (you can usually get plain gold or silver) and use that throughout the year for birthdays and other gifts.

It seems less wasteful as I can cut off exactly the size that I need. Overall we have cut down on present buying though.

For the life of me I couldn't find any decently priced baby gift wrap....only bags....even in proper card shops

The only decently priced giftwrap is now in supermarkets from what I can tell

I've been really wondering this too. I didn't know gift bags were now the thing. I've ended up printing gift wrap sometimes.

Do those of you who just use gift bags seal the bags? Or just put the gift in and leave it open?

Seal with a bit of washi tape so it comes off easily.

Gift wrap frequently couldn’t be recycled, especially foil or shiny stuff. We’ve moved on as a culture so what we have available has evolved too.

I like a gift bag with a piece of tissue paper in the top to hide the contents. Or plain wrap with really nice (reusable) ribbon and a spray of foliage.

I have an old biscuit tin with lengths of ribbon in for doing parcels. The Christmas stuff has used the same red or green satin ribbons for about 10 years.

There's loads of individual gift wrap where I am. Usually above all the bigger rolls.

Both. Sometimes I seal with easily removable tape (for kids that peek 😂). I usually wrap gifts in tissue paper, then scrunch more tissue paper on top so the bag is open with the tissue paper showing. You can get bags that tie with ribbon to keep them closed. Boxes are even better, we tie them with fabric ribbon. Some of ours have been going since the last century! 😂

I confess to using recyclable gift wrap for Christmas stockings though. There is a joy in excitedly ripping off paper on Christmas Day 😂

I actually dislike gift bags, people say they're reusable but I bet most end up in the bin after a use or two as no one wants to give a gift in a non-pristene one, and then they're worse than paper (being plastic coated in most cases).

Couldn’t agree more. The range of gift wrap is a lot more limited these days.

Those “two sheets with matching tags” packs never came out even for me - I’d always end up with leftover tags, or leftover paper with no tag. Plus they’re plastic wrapped for a small amount of gift wrapping, and places are trying to move away from this. Get a roll and a pack of generic tags if you need them - tbh I find tags annoying anyway, apart from Xmas when there are loads of things that need labelling, and I prefer the stickers ones as the tags are always coming off and getting lost.

haven't bought wrapping paper in a while now apart from artistic ones from a museum shop which I used to decorate furniture.

gift bags or gift boxes. can easily be reused.

Out best local shop for individual bits of gift wrap is actually our cheap "bit of everything" shop. Not quite an ironmongers, but the kind of shop where you can by a plastic box or a picture frame or a pack of 5 felt tips. It's not the best quality, but it's only going to get torn open and thrown away, so that's fine by me!

I still see those packs in most supermarkets, M&S, the Range etc. Where are you looking?

Don’t you mean ‘wrapping paper’? Since when have we called it ‘gift wrap’ in the UK?

It could well be part of plastic reduction schemes in retailers, those two sheet, two tag packs were often plastic wrapped.
Am in 2 minds about gift bags, we rarely chuck them but I’ve never got a suitable one for re use, so they are accumulating alongside the carrier bags for life 🙈

To those who use gift bags, do you leave on that plastic tag that's used to hang up the bag on the shop? It's very difficult to get it off without tearing ithe bag. And presumably you leave the gift tags blank?

We’ve started using cloth bags and pieces of material rolled up Japanese style with recyclable luggage labels and ribbon. All in a box and used many times over. Either returned by recipient for reusing or passed on with another gift to someone else. It can still look lovely and be exciting to undo and can colour theme. We have red gold and green so good for Christmas too.

For really big presents we use duvet covers. pillow cases, cushion covers and cloth or hessian bags from purchases also work well. Much less messy on Christmas daytoo.