Wrapping paper

[BasiliskStare]

I know a lot of people think this an utter waste & I get that , but once a year I like to see some presents under the tree - we don't go overboard , but I am up at this time because - wrapping presents whilst family asleep.

So a couple of things , I do buy recyclable paper ( this year it was Waitrose 3 for 2 offer ) but good Gideon. It says peel carefully to open . I did . But I have splintered 2 nails trying to get it open and I reckon of the 4m roll about 60cm has holes in it where I tried to open it. Let me not get on to Sellotape where people don't fold the end in when they last use it. My ineptitude I know but ...

It almost makes me nostalgic for the Tesco glittery reindeer thing of some years ago ( & I would not have thought I would ever say that because of finding glitter over the house for months afterwards. )

I once wrapped up my father's presents in pages from the FT many years ago . I might go back to just keeping all nice bags and buying a bit of ribbon to tie them up with .

On the upside I did find the bag where I kept Christmas cards from last year and have cut the fronts off for tags. My Granny used to do this 50 odd years ago and I still do it to this day.

So just a muse - probably sleep deprived 😊

Oh yes, all non-family Christmas cards are re-purposed as gift tags here.

I love the look of FT wrapping paper and have used it myself several times. Only it’s not great if you have to transport presents because it tears.

Brown ‘parcel’ paper is another favourite - wondrously satisfying to wrap with and the packages look so very cool.

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago bemoaning the sad loss of ‘proper’ Paperchase; it’s weird how the top floor artists’ enclave of my local branch became part of my Christmas tradition for about a decade. One year I bought some hessian ‘ribbon’ - it was re-used, passed around the family to wrap countless gifts, for years.

Before Paperchase, living in cities with glorious independent luxury stationers, I bought paper there in person - but that’s currently impractical.

This year - I ordered from one of the places in this photo. (It truly justified the entire year’s FT subscription.)

The rolls will the tape rather than the cellophane wrap are designed to have wastage. The trouble is people want to use the whole thing so try and peel the stickers off instead of accepting there will be some paper they won't be able to use. Defeats the purpose if it's not recycled though and judging by another thread where posters are spending 4+ hours wrapping, there's a heck of a lot of wrapping paper being used out there.

Get a proper heavy sellotape dispenser.... life changing when wrapping presents! Genuinely one of my favourite ever purchases, I feel so smug every time I sit down to wrap presents because of it! 😆

As pp said, the new rolls are designed to cut off the first few inches where the tape was and bin. To account for it they are a few inches longer.

It is very strange … I’ve been buying small Sellotape dispensers forever - and they always worked. This year the latest one is just mangling the tape - which itself is of much worse quality than before.

Had to resort to a large roll of the original yellow tape. And scissors.

(I think I’ve saved a picture of a very elegant and expensive tape dispenser, can’t remember where from. May ask for it as a birthday present.)

Don't mess around with the small ones, invest in one of these bad boys! You won't regret it! 😆😆

Thanks to you I’ve just ordered this baddie for next year.

My husband wraps in this house though so not sure why I’m trying to make his life easier

Before we had dc I used to do things like wrap presents in plain brown paper tied up with colourful cotton ribbons, often without using sellotape. Cheap, pretty, recyclable, reusable.

But with children came strangulation worries about the ribbons, and the number of presents escalated astronomically. Now it's rolls and rolls of cheap paper (bought in January and non-Christmassy so it can be used all year round) and sellotape. Bish bash bosh job done.

As for the bits of tape that sometimes close rolls, if they doesn't peel off don't worry. Just snip the tape and hide it in the folds at an end or in the overlap at the middle. Or stick a tag over it if it shows.

I still love wrapping things, even though it's now a job to complete as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Within the family, we use fabric bags that get returned and put in the decorations box until the next year. It’s also easy to make cloth bags and these can be repurposed; even just a simple bag with ribbon ties

But I want this one, @dastidlydaschel !

Tape dispenser

I'm currently wrapping. Just opened a new roll. The end is closed by a band of positit-type paper wrapped around the roll. Very clever, I thought, until I discovered the walloping great sticker underneath it. Which, of course, pulls off the print no matter how carefully you remove it. I'll use the paper, anyway, but what's the point in the sticker? Three of them on each roll!

It's very beautiful but it's just not practical! Get the ugly one! 😆

I think there's a lot to be said for getting multi-use paper - like stars - so you can use it other than for Christmas (and recipients can save to reuse for birthday presents.

I have found my people

I now buy plain wrapping paper , have red , bronze, & gold and silver ( left over from last year ) for exactly the point it can be used for birthday presents etc. The Christmassy bits come from the tags etc. I do have a pale blue with trees on it from the 3 for two offer.

When presents are opened we have a bin bag ready for Rubbish but cue Basilisk examining all wrapping paper from opened presents seen if any is good enough to be smoothed , folded and stored away for next year . Am sure Granny would be proud of me.

Somewhere I have a sellotape dispenser but can I find it?

Fabric bags I think a lovely idea but not sure I am competent enough to make them . Similarly I thought brown paper and garden string with some ivy tucked in would look smart but unfortunately the Basilisk household is more eclectic rather than Elle interiors .

I am going to save any nice paper carrier bags this year and my plan is - present inside , reused Christmas cards to cover the shop name and some ribbon to tie the handles together . We shall see how that goes or whether I am exactly where I am today but just a year later 😂

I'm not crafty enough to make reusable bags, but did manage to get a few second-hand fabric "Christmas" tablecloths from a charity shop a few years ago for a couple of quid each.

They have served me well for wrapping really huge presents which would otherwise have taken up masses of wrapping paper. I just use the fabric like wrapping paper and secure with ribbon (or sellotape, if it will hold well enough to the fabric).

This is for you, PotatoAloo 😉

Oops, I seem to have cropped the title. It's called Furoshiki.

Wow!!