I used to shop the after Christmas sale for rolls of fancy paper, coordinating ribbon and baubles for the next Christmas so all my packages would match and look stunning under the tree. Like the lovely pictures posted here. Nobody ever noticed. Now, I have fun with it. Cereal box for that dress shirt. Dog food bag for that bathrobe. Pringle can for that necklace. Make 'em laugh.

When I used to participate in exchanging gifts, I always enjoyed quirky "wrappings." One sister got a wanted gift card to help her buy a bicycle which I hid inside a deck of old playing cards (the one with the design of a bike) and inside of an old bicyle helmet lined with tissue paper. She almost threw away the deck of cards before her daughter stopped her and made her look closer.

Another sister got her choice of a gift card in a very pretty, almost new little semi-evening bag. My brother who for years had used the Sunday color comics to wrap gifts got his all done that way with no ribbon, just small pieces of tape to hold them together. And there were so many others I can't remember now.

I love those designer looking wraps above, but never learned to do them. Plus, I loathe that wrapping paper ends up in the landfill. So on the very few tiny gifts I gave to best friends I buy genuine silk ribbon and tie a simple but gorgeous floppy tie. It's easy, quick and nothing goes to waste since they use it to tie up other things.

When the kids were small we just let them rip it all and in the trash it went! We should all try to save all our used wrapping paper and exchange with eachother..it would be kinda fun to use the backside throughout the next year for birthdays..mothers day…fathers day…and just use colorful ribbon…. At least it is used twice❣️when we were kids my mom used butcher paper or comics to wrap gifts..even paper grocery bags! how times have changed..I have to say I love wrapping up beautiful packages for under the tree..it gets me in the Holiday Spirit.

I admit to saving and reusing really nice ribbon.☺️

My apologies for the quality of this old photo when I used photobucket for posting pix online. Related to wrapping, these were some hostess gifts I had “packaged.” A tea towel in a little white bucket with a green tree cookie cutter and a tin of shortbread cookies with white star cookie cutter. Partially seen in the background was a gingerbread-shaped cutting board...I ended up keeping!🤭

I have a condition which prevents me from reading descriptions for products when I shop online (self diagnosed obviously) so the three large rolls of a pretty plaid paper I ordered several years ago turned out to be 24 large rolls of pretty plaid paper. I’m not even close to halfway through it, but by now everyone recognizes my gifts even without seeing the tag.

Hilarious! I love beautiful packages but confess, i don’t have the time these days to do but a few special ones. The decorative gift bags are my staple. We save them each year and recycle them. Our family comes in from out of town for our holiday/Houston Half Marathon in Mid January so they all know where the “bin” is of gift bags and every year is different but easy. I replenish decorative tissue paper for fresh looks. I shop “after Christmas sales” for fresh tissue papers for the next year. I keep tags and we reuse when possible. I do create “faux” decorative packages for under my designer trees that compliment the themes and color palettes of the trees but I don’t think I saved photos of those. So that’s my story!

We have used gift bags for years what we do is when we grt a gift we put our name and the date inside the bag and it is fun to see hoew long it takes to get the bag again. We started doing this about 20 yrs ago and now even the great grandson is wondering when he will get his bag back. I love the look of beautiful wrapping but I hate the fact all that is just one more thing in the landfill. I do buy tissue paper so not totally without trash.

Following for inspiration.

AiFL…now thats a good one! I have done the same and still have rolls of paper from passed Christmases….when my kids were still at home they would pick out the wrapping paper they wanted Santa to use…so when they woke up Christmas morning they new exactly what gifts were for them..saved me a bit of time not having to put tags on the gifts…I sure miss those days!

Super cute!

Patricia....wow you have 20 year old Christmas bags! that is amazing.

Flo you save Christmas bags too!

Aluminum foil was by go to wrap as a child and my hair ribbon was my bow 😂

Jennifer Thank you…..just love your story❣️what a great vintage photo..look at the wonderful array of packages.

HIWE, I’d love to know sources for your supplies in that first pic you shared…the green wrap and trimmings. Perfect for my Mom, DIL, granddaughter and more!

Are those real cookies Julie? I think they would be pretty fragile unless they were using some kind of salt and flour dough… in which case it might work. Also very attractive to mice. 🤦‍♀️

Patricia that’s a fabulous idea. I’m going to suggest that to my son and daughter-in-law.

Like Flo, I save gift bags. They can still look brand new!

dsimber…this is what I ordered Amazon online to copy it..such a beautiful combination! I have some silk flowers in my crafts I save that I am going to use with a sprig of christmas greens.

Liasch…that is a photo is from pintrest…I am thinking they are made from gingerbread you use to make gingerbread houses. so cute!

I very rarely use gift bags…..but a great idea!

My favorite gift bag!

ShadyWillowFarm…that is so cute! a wine parka!

Jennifer thanks for sharing that story…❤️

Ahh…gingerbread house dough might do it… I think the salt and flour dough idea could work really well though; and then the “cookie“ could become an ornament on the tree eventually. Salt and flour dough is super easy to make. Here’s some examples of salt and flour cookie ornaments… then used on packages.

Not many 20 yr old bags but some pretty close .

Liasch..yep that would work!

I have to say my favorite was when I was young. We were pretty broke. Mom would wrap our gifts in the sunday comics with some nice ribbon or a braided string. The gifts from Santa would be in pretty paper with a bow so we knew it was special. Mom always saved any wrap we got from presents from others and would use that the following year for Santa's gifts - we never remembered the wrap. She saved the bags as well when those became popular. I do the same. She was very crafty, so there was always a little handmade decoration or ornament attached to the present.

Those gifts presented in that way were priceless.

My mother used to save wrapping paper as well. I had totally forgotten about that.

Patricia I applaud you for admitting your recyling of bags. My offspring--all adults now are so sick of the bags I just reuse year after year they find it tacky and embarrassing! Mine all get left behind so I spend most of my time searching for the bag with the right person's name on it to bag up this years' gift. Back before kids and the insane amount of wrapping it takes I spend hours wrapping my gifts. I love to be creative from using cut up grocery bags that I stamped to finding creative ways to make a gift look like a lolli-pop etc. It's all about the time and energy one has. Keep up the beautiful work!! What did Martha used to say about a well wrapped gift is a compliment to the receiver.

No pic right now but some of my favorites have been brown bags(when they were free at grocery store) and our family plaid ribbons. brown lunch bags turned into reindeer. a few years in the 90's with all packages in same ribbon and paper, gold and white. lots of sparkly pipecleaners, recycled bags and wrapping.

Hubby is truly the master wrapper. As a young architecture student he perfectly centered the motif on the tiny box of earrings he gave me. I

wore them on our wedding day. Years later he used blueprints to wrap our first microwave. He even sculpted a bow from plans. That was when they still did hand drawn plans printed in blue.

I always save paper (if it’s big enough to be usable) and ribbons. I like the gifts to look pretty under the tree.

Here are some I like The colorful striped ribbon was around when I was a kid. It must be close to 50 years old!! 😳🤪

Furoshiki is something I want to try my hand at. Japanese method of gift wrapping. Interesting and earth friendly. You just use a scarf or something. They sell special Furoshiki squares, but I don’t see why that would be neccesary.

My grown daughters would get annoyed at my ribbon collection :)

All the short pieces. Only that striped one is a single piece. (I won’t cut that one, it’s too pretty and I’m overly sentimental perhaps) Both of the others are a mix of shorter pieces

Michelle, I love that the striped ribbon is about 50 years old. You'd never know it by looking at it. And that cat! Yes, cats and Christmas trees should be a requirement everywhere.

Love old collected ribbons!

Found this idea..so cute..love the button accent!

Michele, what a lovely idea, to save nice ribbon! Do you iron it? And your bows are so nicely done!

@liasch, FWIW, I do usually iron mine on low to make it ”new” again.

Lia, I think I ironed a few of them once. As long as they’re unknotted when I put them away they look fine

Days later, but I finally remembered an ornament recipe a family member used for gingerbread men. Took a screenshot of a recipe i found online.

Would be cute to place the holes as in Julie's inspo pic. Julie, would the wrapping paper you used look good with brown packaging paper?

Does anyone know where to find that cute ribbon? or what to call it so I have search term? I know I've had that in the past.

Dsimber I think brown paper wrapping with the cute ribbon holding a cookie would be so cute! thanks for sharing the recipe🤗 here is ribbon I found…

Thanks, Julie! It seems that ribbon would be a good width, too. I think this will be fun for young children's gifts!

So dramatic and moody..but Love this combination of colors.

Saw this today and had to come back and drop it here.

Pedersen Fireplace · More Info

I love this wrap idea for books!

https://www.littleelfproducts.com/blogs/the-gift-wrapping-handbook/how-to-uniquely-wrap-a-book

Sue that is funny! its a hamburger🤣

Dsimber..yes I love that too!

Oh, interesting. I hadn't noticed that and had to go back and look hard.