People who don’t wrap Christmas gifts. Reveal yourselves!

[RollyPollyBatFace]

I was chatting to someone at work and she casually revealed that she never wraps any Christmas presents for her kids. Or in fact, anyone.

just pops everything under the tree or in a pile and that’s it. Jobs a good un.

She couldn’t explain why really - just said she’d always done it that way so I’m turning to MN to ask … do you do this? And if so, why?

Just consulted with the 10 year old (this is our first non-believing year so was safe to discuss!) and she said she prefers not wrapped for her main presents as otherwise there’s too much rubbish 😁

We (re) use cotton gift bags. Works fine!

For me unwrapped presents are so anti climactic… like how boring… unwrapping is half the fun. As a kid there was nothing exciting about pulling out a present from a gift bag. All presents get wrapped. Including gift cards ☺️

As a child, my presents were either arranged under the tree, unwrapped, or in a pillow case, unwrapped. I don't wrap for DS (presents will be arranged on/ around wooden chair, with Christmas lights wrapped around.) I have a nice stocking (which my SIL gave me as a present years ago), and his small bits go in there, unwrapped. I don't even wrap for my niece and nephew, but I do use a Christmas gift bag with tissue paper to put the gift/s in, so I do use 'wasteful' products in that way. I usually give presents to friends/ family in gift bags, but I never write on the bag, so they can be re-used by the recipient.

Santa doesn't wrap but I wrap gifts for family friends.

Hmmm - I'm going to have to think about what to do with wrapping paper this year now that my bin is only emptied every 6 weeks.

I didn’t this was a thing. I wished I’d known this was a thing. Too late now - expectations have been set. Why didn’t someone write this thread before I had kids?!

I would like to know how on earth people wrap big awkward things like toy kitchens, electric vehicles etc? Seems like such a hassle! Or are they wrapped in their boxes and set up after?

I'm on year 13 with my fabric drawstring bags, big rectangles of fabric tied up with ribbon - and I've just reused DS' giant yellow Lego wrapping I made out of felt! We went a bit Lego mad one year, and I wanted a fun way to wrap a giant Star Wars box. It looked great by the tree. I'll upload a photo when I can.

But anyway, Christmas Eve I get all the presents out, get the fabric stuff and ribbons, and off I go. Even when DS was small and had lots of little things, it still took no longer than 30 minutes to wrap the entire household. I'd leave stuff out for DH and he'd wrap mine.

The only present that gets 'wrapped' is the dog's treats, and I use the free Aldi magazine for that, no sellotape.

We get stuff given to us in wrapping paper, but we never have more than half a cereal box's load of recycling to do. I feel so smug I could combust!!

Oh, stocking gifts aren't wrapped - the stocking is the wrapping.

We have pillow cases and stockings and don’t wrap things in them - everything is hidden and things are pulled one at a time

yes wrapping looks pretty - but it’s otherwise a waste of time and money and the glossy paper that looks best can’t be recycled

DH would not wrap if I let him. He asked me today if he had to wrap his secret Santa gift for work… not sure if his family wrapped gifts for him growing up (his Mum does wrap stuff for us now). I usually wrap gifts he’s bought for his family at Christmas because I can’t deal with giving them unwrapped e.g. he would do that for his nieces which is crazy to me to give a child an unwrapped gift !!

I think half the fun is the surprise of unwrapping, but I hate the waste of tons of wrapping paper. I've made loads of gift bags out of old wrapping paper and have some nice boxes as a compromise. Really large items just stay in the box they arrived in.

I wrap up for everyone unless I've got gift bags (they are great because reusable).

I have an autistic teenager who does not see the point of either wrapping paper or cards.

He loves having birthday cake and planning etc but cant understand the point of wasting all that paper for something you will throw away. It annoys him.

There are other family members a bit on the spectrum who agree.

So I have kind of given up on wrapping paper in the family, though I recycle gift bags sometimes.

I wrap presents for other people though

My DH told me his parents never wrapped his and his siblings Christmas or birthday presents.
Unwrapping is half the fun! I always wrap everything apart from stocking fillers.

A few years ago I made pup a whole load of fabric bags with inexpensive Christmas fabric and a draw string. A range of different sizes. Used every year. Some go out and have come back, some go out and we never see again and obviously there is a load that just stay in the family.

Lot less waste, minimal hassle and still looks ok. I will probably need to make some more up in a couple of years time to replace the missing ones.

same here, made a load ages ago, and if i ever need a different size, i just run up a new one. You don't even need christmas fabric - i have made load from an old IKEA curtain and appliquéd stars on it. Looks fab.

Unwrapping is so much fun, I literally can't imagine Christmas without wrapping paper and the magic of seeing the presents and trying to guess what each one is. It massively builds up the suspense and dopamine.

I use fabric gift bags. Resizeable and so much easier. I do count it as 'wrapping' though!

You can do the guess each one by feeling the outside of the pillow case and then before you draw a present from the bag - it’s different but does work

Tree presents are wrapped.

Stocking presents aren't. Father Christmas has enough to do.

Gift bags here so not strictly wrapped, DH and I swap same bags back and forth. Don’t even need to rewrite the labels. Did the kids main gifts when small, that’s it.

Here's the Lego wrapping. It's wonky as it's empty.

3 big sheets of felt, classic Lego colour (in hindsight it could have been red/green). Easily sewn together, I hate hot glue on fabric and I'm a giant sewing nerd 🤓

I do not disagree, but at the same time feel like there are certain things I've just adapted to both to reflect environmental choices, finances and time limitations! Like I've not worn contact lenses for years as it's a way to reduce my footprint, and we buy nearly everything second hand rather than taking the kids to a huge toy store in November and letting them choose their gifts like used to happen for me. Absolutely less of a dopamine rush, and sometimes I feel sad that life isn't like it was in the 90's or whatever, but for me personally it's an active choice to make gift giving less impactful. But different people will make different choices and reduce their impacts in different ways. Gotta be one of those 'you do you' moments.

Ours go in gift bags, or if too big, under a blanket.

Years ago, I was on mat leave and spent a whole day wrapping. When I got to the next year, I didn't have a whole day available and had no idea what to do. My PIL also used to get all of their presents sent to us "in case it snows and we can't get there". It never snows. They expected me to wrap them too.

I hate the mess of the paper and the waste. So we moved on to gift bags. I think Santa used to wrap his presents, but that was it and he disappeared a few years ago for us.