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’m with your DH, it just gets ripped apart and binned, same with most Christmas cards. Some people, like me, keep cards but most others don’t.

I will pick an odd nice one for someone I know who will appreciate them, usually elderly relatives but the rest of the time it’s the cheapest I can find or in the last few years the ones the DCs have done at school.

Wrapping paper still looks ok but it’s usually whatever I’ve bought on sale in January, or cheapest Aldi pack.

I'm really fussy, too. I like eco paper but I like to get different colours/prints on the brown paper, and then matching ribbons (my favourite is velvet ribbon), eco decorations for the presents and then carefully chosen cards for everyone.

I can't stand the cheap, plastic-y wrapping paper that makes that awful noise when it's moved. And I'm entirely over glitter because of how annoying it is to get off everything.

We don't really do cards. But for the last few years we have made our own wrapping paper using recyclable brown paper and Christmas ink stamps. Then tied up with string rather than sellotape and home made name tags.

Kids love making it and it looks rather nice in my opinion.

I don't buy for a lot of people, so gifts are often wrapped in the same paper as last year! I love JL stuff but refuse to pay the full price, so I usually buy it in the Jan sale and then keep it for the following year - didn't do it this year because of Covid but the year before I got about 30 quids worth of matching paper and tags for a fiver in January! I looked this week actually and I prob have enough for this year too, might need to buy one roll but that'll be it. DH uses whatever I've bought.

My cards are coming from the charity which does research into the cancer DH has, the cancer is rare, aggressive and has a 3% survival rate at 5 years. Even GPs don't recognise the symptoms. The cards aren't the most stylish but I couldn't give a fig, I want to help get the charity's name out there and I want to help raise awareness.

My mum had a colour theme every year, and presents not wrapped in the right colour weren't allowed under the tree, had to be brought down Christmas morning. Not red and green either, we're talking really sodding awkward colour schemes like turquoise and bronze, aubergine and platinum (yes, really).

I'm not THAT bad, but I have been known to position really lairy paper towards the back...

Super picky with cards that I send though, and definitely a bugger for hierarchical display - if I get a card through that I love it's on the mantelpiece in the living room, if it's not so great, it's in the kitchen (family cards are the exception)

I blame my mother ENTIRELY 😂

bronze, aubergine and platinum

Swoon

@SlipperTripper 😀

@FinallyHere you may well swoon now, but you try finding aubergine wrapping paper in small town in the early 2000s 😂

I've just received this years Christmas cards, all bought from the Ashmolean. Last years came from an art gallery in Sussex, but they're always charity cards.

I like to see presents beautifully wrapped and do take lots of time doing it, but now use the brown recyclable papers. And a charity donation, but this year there will be two... one gift to a family whose daughters we are helping to educate (in a country where education is not free) and another to our local breast cancer charity.

I make a lot of my own cards. Origami trees, stamping, cut up last years and this year I am going to make some Lino cut ones. DD has hers in the shop and gallery now.
Please don’t forget young British artists are struggling with all the closures in lockdown and no furlough for most of them. I do support charities too but if you are wanting others you can have an A5 card for £2:50 instead of buying ones from the major stores. If you add a frame the receiver can have a small piece of art.
Why not put a message on the back of the gift tags with suggestions for what the fabric pieces could be used for including ‘return to sender’ I think they are a lovely idea and DD and her friends started doing it years ago. They look for retro patterns and then use them to make cushions. No waste. We sometimes use brown paper and stamp them. I occasionally use birthday paper to line drawers and the bags are in a basket to reuse none of my friends mind a pre loved bag.
I love wrapping parcels and having them look attractive I think people do appreciate them. My BF was ill before Christmas and asked if I would come and help her. We had a great evening and got them nearly all wrapped...the doll’s house for her granddaughter was a bit tricky.
Happy wrapping⭐️