Do you use Christmas wrapping paper you still have from last year?

[lottieandmia]

Year after year I buy nice stuff from paper chase or wherever. I still have some left over from last year. I've never reused it before - should / do you always buy new stuff?

Brie - where did you get shopkins wrapping paper? I need at least 2 types. One for santa one for us and they love shopkins.

I buy shedloads in the Jan sales and use it till it's gone. I usually order a lot as you never know what will go out of stock before it's delivered but one year they all arrived and that did all the presents for about 3 years.
I have never really understood why people wouldn't buy cards/wrap/crackers in the sales each year.
Very excited about the paper for this year, one of my DC is going to love it and I've been looking forward to using it all year!

Yes, I have a special long bag to keep it in which goes in the loft with the other Christmas stuff. No colour schemes or similar here. I also keep leftover cards and bulk buy Christmas stamps so there are often some of those left from the previous year too. I cut up old cards for tags too, thry go in a small gift bag inside the bigger one I keep the leftover cards in.

I don't get why you wouldn't use it, what a waste both financially and environmentally!

Of course! I can believe that's even a question! What did you used to do? Bin it?

And yes to using last years Christmas cards as gift tags/craft projects for kids

I've always reused - and as well as getting a Christmas roll or few, always get 'multiskilled' paper (suitable for both Christmas and birthdays, like star patterns).

My parents did this too, and I can remember a girl sneering at me at school about not having new (back in the 1970s), but I would really hope that the Reduce Reuse Recycle message was sufficiently ingrained that nothing like that would ever happen again.

It was nearly a minor Xmas tradition - spotting the paper that had been reused year after year. Because we reused any that was in decent condition as well as keeping unused for future use. And I still do that too.

I always do this - I even packed the left overs and put them in the shipping container when we relocated continents. DH though I was insane - until we discovered it's almost impossible to buy big rolls of wrap here!

Of course you do. If it was unlucky to use Christmas supplies from last year, you'd have to buy new baubles and lights and god knows what, every single year. Imagine the waste and the cost.
Get to the end of a roll of wrapping paper, start on the next one. Anything else is madness. Buy it in January for 50p a roll instead of £3.

I get a mega-humungous roll of non-specific wrapping paper from Costco, and use it for everything all year round until it runs out.

(So why the heck do I also have about 6 different conventional rolls of wrapping paper? Could it be that I'm just a sucker for a nice bit of wrapping paper?)

Left over wrapping paper gets used in subsequent years until it runs out. It's never occurred to me to chuck any unused paper simply for the sake of having new Christmas wrapping paper every year.

I also try to buy wrapping paper that's not too obviously Christmassy so that I can use the leftover wrapping paper for birthday presents throughout the year too.

Blimey, of course!

The presents from father Christmas are colour specific. DS1 has blue based paper and Ds2 had red based paper. Those go up into the loft with the decorations each year so that it can't be discovered by accident. It is then used the following year and topped up (generally in the sales after Christmas) with more paper of the right colour. We store all the paper in a zip up suit carrier so that it doesn't get damp.

Presents from family are wrapped in gold or silver based paper.

Card from the previous year go into a card box and are put into the loft with the decorations. They are then brought out when we put up the tree and the DC spend a happy hour with pinking shears, cheap christmas ribbon and a hole puncher cutting out the tags.

They are then brought out when we put up the tree and the DC spend a happy hour with pinking shears
Sorry but I winced when I read this! Pinking shears on card...my kids have been warned on pain of death not to use my fabric scissors on paper! 😄

Ah don't worry, they are special cheap ones from Dunelm bought for the sole purpose of craft activities.

I usually try to buy at least one roll that is just a plainish gold or silver - not overtly christmassy. Then it gets used for birthdays.

When was a kid Dad used to wrap Mums gifts late on xmas eve and the wrapping paper was usually all gone by then so he used newspaper! It became a bit of a family tradition!

I reuse gift bags if I can. I was just taking the tag off one I had for my birthday and realised mil had left the tag on from when it had been given to her!!

Yes but then I only ever buy 'generic' wrapping paper these days - gold, silver, red etc use for all occasions.

Too many times ive gone to wrap something & can only find pink flowery or something when its completely inappropriate!

I buy it in the January sales.

I also cut up last years xmas cards to make this years labels.

And I reuse gift bags.

I'm cheap thrifty.

I find it really useful to have a few rolls stashed in the loft (we have a really useful box to store them in). I send parcels all over the world and I prefer to send them land mail. But that means being organised enough to send them at the end of Sept! And at that point there isn't Christmas paper on sale yet (and may there never be...) so out comes last year's stash.

I use what I bought in February when it was 75% off from the previous Christmas.

We reuse labels.

Make a separate pile of them when unwrapping, then give them back to the giver to be reused the next year. All adds to the fun, saves having to write labels, and helps when we buy presents from Uncle Joe to our DCs as we keep the label and stick it on to whatever we buy.

I bought three industrial size rolls of wrapping paper years ago, these things are so big they are hard to carry, one gold paper with pale metallic gold insets, one black with gold squiggles, one red with metallic red insets and I use them every Xmas and birthday,,,I doubt anyone cares, and it's saved a fortune, and a ton of time, I can't remember where I got them from.

Seriously, if uou can find any, I'd recommend it. 😃

As ever with MN I am amazed by the lengths some people go to.

Separate paper for each member of the family? Where's the fun in that? Half the fun is looking at the labels, & the DSs are postmen.

Not using last year's paper? Eh? What a waste.

I reuse even used gift wrap, if it's not damaged, and keep all gift bags to reuse. Not doing this is, I think, environmentally very irresponsible.

Oh yes, I keep all of last year's Xmas cards to make my labels too. Recycling!

Yes, use it up till its gone. Also reuse gift bags as long as possible. The boys know to open the bags carefully and give them to me for folding and saving for next year.

Thora. Some people do buy new tree decorations etc every year . I bought two sets from BHS for our first Christmas over 20 years ago and we’re still using the same ones and they’re absolutely fine.

It's all about themes and fashions and having more money than sense. I can’t believe the amount that some shops sell the stuff for too. It’s about £3 a roll in WH Smith and not a huge amount different to the 99 p rolls in Aldi that are twice as long.

I lucked out last year and found a load of reduced M&S wrapping paper for NINE PENCE per roll in the very end of the sale. I bought about 10 rolls and gave a few away to DM and DSis but, as I only buy for immediate family, I can confidently say that I have about 5 years worth of wrapping paper to use up, which I will. I also reuse gift bags and make tags out of old cards. Wrapping paper is so wasteful anyway, and not reusing gift bags is absolute madness. We have several that have been going round the family for years.

OP, in the nicest possible way, your DM sounds like a loon and just when I thought there were no more ways that ‘the shops’ could get people to spend money unnecessarily another one comes along.