Christmas cards and gift wrap - how choosy are you?

[Whohashiddenthebiscuits]

Not sure this really belongs in this section but..

It’s a bit early to be buying (well, I won’t be yet!) Christmas cards and wrapping paper but I’ve just been browsing through some Christmas cards from an email promo link. I didn’t like any of them and typically do spend ages choosing cards and wrapping paper (I like recycled paper, great design and something that looks like thought has gone into it). I might buy rolls for kids presents (& I’m still picky over that) but the rest tends to be sheets.

DH thinks it’s an absolute waste of money & that people really pay no attention whatsoever! I think he’s probably absolutely right.. but I care and after he bought a box of black sparkly cards with a purple bow on them, banned him buying any of this stuff!

Anyone else really annal about this too? I always sort out the cards into piles too before writing them, family we don’t really like & old friends we never see any more getting the smaller and not quite as nice ones!

I stopped sending cards a year ago except to DM and IL. Wrapping has to be just so. Rich jewelled colours with hollu/cinnamon sticks etc. I don't refuse and I don't bother if its recycled.or can be tbh. One day not a lot of parcels.

I try to buy nice ish wrapping paper, preferably recycled, definitely no foil, and for the first time this year we have agreed to no Christmas cards because they always end up in the bin anyway.

Christmas cards - I spend ages looking around for lovely individual cards for family and close friends and we always choose boxes of charity cards for others (this year's are Macmillan - charity and recyclable!)

For adults gifts I use brown parcel paper with twine and real holly sprigs. But for children I use brightly coloured Santa overload paper (still using up reserves from my DM's epic stash)

Instagram them! 😀. Do people actually do that?! I’m 51 and just don’t really get the ‘look at this wonderful artisan bread I’ve made, aren’t I wonderful?’ culture. Baileys is one Christmas tradition we don’t do - ever since I was really sick after drinking nearly a whole bottle of it age circa 17, the sight of it makes me feel ill!

While I like the idea of wrapping in fabrics I do have a ? about waste. No one I know wears silk scarves- I imagine they’d just end up back in Charity shops and then potentially on to some textile waste mountain in West Africa. The Japanese stuff is pretty (and I agree expensive).. I’m just not sure I’d actually use it for anything. At least with paper it’s recycled.

With the cards we send, a lot feel like ‘duty’ cards particularly on the extended family side. As I’ve already said, I do like receiving them, it’s just part of staying in touch and keeping bonds. I hang them up with twine so they form part of the house Christmas decorations.

On the less cards being sent these days front, a couple of old friends more recently have done the ‘this year we’re giving the money we’d have spent on cards to Charity’ announcements on Facebook. Fair enough & up to them! It does tend to be (IME) the same people who post the pictures of their flipping artisan breads though and who could certainly afford to do both a large Charity donation and buy a pack of cards.

I actually haven’t bought wrapping paper in quite a few years - I have quite a sizeable stash that I’m slowly using up (I used to do what pp said - buy a lovely selection in the January sales for almost nothing); once it’s gone I’ll buy Christmas fabrics and ribbons which will be reused every year.

If i buy cards I’ll buy charity cards for a specific condition that’s meaningful to our family, plus a small number of individual cards here and there if I see some I really love. This year I’m creating my own designs with carved stamps, and in previous years I’ve made my own with paper embellishments too.

Surely the silk scarves can get reused to wrap other presents?

Yes, and they’d be a very sustainable choice if you bought them on eBay/from charity shops, kept them and reused them every year.

Tbh we hardly give any gifts at all nowadays - a few gifts for my daughters and one for each of the children in our extended family either side.

But you wouldn’t ask for them back so therefore wouldn’t re use them? And the recipient may not be into using a silk scarf as wrapping and want to do this themselves? Sorry if it sounds like I’m throwing up objections! I do think it’s a nice idea. I just think it’s reliant on a) a recipient liking silk scarves or b) using them themselves after receipt as wrapping. I think it’s likely with my friends and family they’d end up back at Charity shops. And potentially from there up in landfill. Charity shops do send a lot of unsold textiles out to Africa, some of which are sold in markets, others ending up in landfill.

I have the same conversation with DH most years! Some people do comment on them, most probably don't notice. But at the end of the day I enjoy giving a beautifully wrapped present and sending nice cards. So I do it for me.

I usually get my paper from IKEA. They do some nice matt paper and bags etc. but you have to be quick as they sell out of the nice ones very quickly.

I choose charity cards and fully recyclable wrap but I’m still very choosy

I used to “theme” wrap and cards and so on and spend a lot of time on them. I do it a lot less these days now I don’t have as much time with job, DD etc. I’m also still using up a stash of wrap and cards that I’ve bought cheaply, but when these are used up I may change to reusable fabric or recycled brown paper bags that DD can decorate with Christmas motifs. I’ve also been hoarding old cards and some pinking shears for the last few years so that I can make gift tags from them

I used to send around 80-90 cards just a few years recently. Now down to less than 40, and plannng to cut further this year as I feel they’re increasingly environmentally destructive. I used to love getting loads of cards; now I don’t care so much.

An easy way of pruning card recipients - delegate all DP’s family cards to him, and then he just doesn’t do them! In past years I could literally address and stamp the envelopes and pass them to him and he’s refuse to do them because he didn’t feel like it just then, so I don’t feel like babying him about it any more. It’s not my job to service his extended family with Christmas cards if he won’t do it. Ditto presents, especially for his mum.

@Whohashiddenthebiscuits

But you wouldn’t ask for them back so therefore wouldn’t re use them? And the recipient may not be into using a silk scarf as wrapping and want to do this themselves? Sorry if it sounds like I’m throwing up objections! I do think it’s a nice idea. I just think it’s reliant on a) a recipient liking silk scarves or b) using them themselves after receipt as wrapping. I think it’s likely with my friends and family they’d end up back at Charity shops. And potentially from there up in landfill. Charity shops do send a lot of unsold textiles out to Africa, some of which are sold in markets, others ending up in landfill.

Yes, I am planning to ask for mine back once I start using fabric or scarf wrapping. It’s quite straightforward, really - ‘I’m going to be using the wrapping every year so please save it for me, unless you’d like to keep it and use it yourself next year...thanks!’

@foxgoosefinch it’s never been my job to do DH’s cards. Sometimes I’ll pick one up if I’m out anyway or write one/them if I don’t mind, but generally it’s his job to look after cards and gifts for his side of the family.

Good idea re DPs cards. In our house nothing would be sent his side!

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule, ah ok. That makes sense!

I buy individual cards for family ( I have a large family costs a bloody fortune) I usually get them in the January sales.
As for wrapping paper one year I bought expensive paper, bows, ribbons and followed a YouTube video for wrapping your presents. It was a fucking disaster and I had ripped paper all over the floor😂😂😂.
I like to buy presents that are gift wrapped👍or dh will do it.

Wrapping presents beautifully is one of my favourite things ever. In my family, we tend to know what the present will be so put all our creative energy into wrapping beautifully.

My mother would encourage this, looking back I suspect it meant that she had one less job to do at Christmas.

I keep to an overall gold/white/green colour scheme, with natural touches which vary from year to year, foliage, brown paper, raffia etc. I 'collect' suitable boxes and gift bags throughout the year, salvage as much as I can from the detritus after Christmas. I haven't needed much other than sticky tape and fresh foliage for ages.

We do advent decorations in December, the tree goes up on Christmas Eve and looks a picture with the beautiful presents piled up underneath it. My secret sadness is how over the next few days, I give away almost all the exquisite parcels and receive back a multicoloured jumble. Over the years, I have kept the wrapping of any particularly lovely present, to fill the space under my tree with loveliness, even if the boxes are empty.

DH's family do not notice but continue because I simply love it.

One DiL admired and has picked up the baton. The other told me how much she love the multi colours of Christmas, while we both sat looking directly at my tree, decorated with white lights and a few gold touches, so I'm guessing she isn't such a fan.

I lurch from brown paper tied up with twine to the whole themed, toned, be-ribboned shebang from year to year. It depends how I'm feeling in December.

[quote HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule]@foxgoosefinch it’s never been my job to do DH’s cards. Sometimes I’ll pick one up if I’m out anyway or write one/them if I don’t mind, but generally it’s his job to look after cards and gifts for his side of the family.[/quote]
I used to do it just because I like Christmas and used to enjoy doing cards (plus am a bit of a Christmas control freak). Quickly saw the error of my ways! !

Hahah yes I can relate to that a bit. Thankfully I’ve relaxed a lot...

I don’t believe that Christmas should be stressful. I just want hygge and warmth and family and friends. Aesthetically it does make me very happy when things are right and just so, but I can also appreciate charm and cosiness and often the more random and haphazard things are you tend to get a warmer feel from it.

🎄🎄🎄

I have a mix of fabric drawstring bags and random colourful recyclable paper for my DC, reuse old gift bags for others and then a big roll of brown for anything else. I have also used scarves, tea towels and t-shirts to wrap which can either be used by the recipient or given back for me to use again.

We write names on gifts or cut up cards we are given for gift tags.

Only send cards to elderly relatives.

I genuinely don't care about my own 🤣

I am very choosy about wrapping paper and cards, and all the trimmings. I tend to always buy from John Lewis as the quality is excellent, and it makes the actual wrapping so much easier when the paper is good and thick. I also reuse a lot of Xmas gift bags too.

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule, completely get the comment about it making you happy when things are just so. I love design & coordination, simplicity, elegance and natural decorations. And so all my Christmases were until I met DH 17 years ago. DHs idea of Christmas is something akin to Woolworths circa 1980’s, tat covering every surface, no white lights, new crappy ornaments every year etc etc. He gets so much joy from Christmas & sticking shit up though that I’ve learnt to just shut my mouth and go with a kind of half and half very eclectic decorated house. Christmas after all is about family and celebration so it doesn’t really matter in the big scheme of things. Some of the gear he gets is just wince making though!

I'm not at all fussy with paper. It's just a chore, if I could get away with not wrapping at all, I would. It's just a waste of time and effort. Just stick it in a bag and don't write on the label!

I like to get nice cards for people I'm close to. Otherwise its from the old Woolworths box in the loft.

@Whohashiddenthebiscuits same here, but the tat enthusiast is my DD

Over the years I had “curated” a whole collection of gorgeous, understated, tasteful decorations in a selection of rustic, white and gold, glass, ceramic and Scandi themes. Our trees just looked gorgeous.

DD complained bitterly. Last year she made us go multicolour and bling, and she is extending her campaign this year into more and more foil, tinsel, bows, fibre optic lights and the most garish garlands she can imagine. Because we are BORING, apparently 🤦‍♀️

I get recyclable paper. Sainsbury sold some that is basically brown paper with a matt muted red print on it. I used tiny amounts of sticky tape but last year DD used plain brown paper with some Christmas twine which was red and white strands combined. The gifts from her looked really good. I will try something like this. She was ahead of me by about 2 years with the brown paper but I was using up old rolls of Christmas wrap.

I sent 6 cards in the post last year. The cards have to be recyclable with no foil or glitter. I would like to reduce this further. The cost of postage is pretty high, even second class. You have to be a close or elderly relative or a lifelong friend to receive a posted card from me.

At work we all exchange cards in the workplace when we could just say Merry Christmas. It's so unnecessary and I might try to opt out as it's just annoying ( bah humbug )