Wrapping presents!

I made Christmas bags of various sizes, last year, for my daughter and me. We'll be using them again this year but I'm busy making more right now because you can never have enough!

They sell them on Amazon and presumably Ebay, kwest.
Various prices.

I have used brown wrapping paper for years. It is recycled paper and can be recycled. I tie with proper ribbon...always gold. Last year I discovered some brown card gift tags that I write on with a gold pen. Shiny Christmas wrapping paper is not recyclable.

I love the fabric bags idea too but doesn't it make them awkward to post?
Presume you would still need to encase the whole thing in brown parcel paper.
Great for local family though

For various reasons I haven't written cards yet or bought many presents. Thank you so much for this thread, I have just ordered from awful Amazon and it's wonderful to think I can just bung presents in bags and save so much time!!!

That's excellent.
One less thing to worry about.

The Japanese wrap their gifts in fabric which is then returned to the gift giver. Seems like a great idea!

I wrap all my presents on the ironing board. Set to right height ensures no backache.

Judy I was just about to post that as my clever tip - I was told this a few years ago after I had spent many years wrapping gifts while kneeling at the side our our bed with the gifts and tags etc. spread out on the duvet cover. Why I don't know - perhaps I was trying to hide from the children when they were small. The ironing board is the perfect table for gift wrapping, isn't it?

Thank you.
I'll definitely be giving my ironing board an airing.

I get great joy out of giving gifts and even greater joy wrapping them. I love to create fancy bows and ribbons and love to see people’s faces when they open them. My problem is running out of ideas what to buy my adult children.

I try to have different paper for each child so I can easily which is for who. I have paper and tags I bought last year which I am still using. For the grown ups I tend to use gift bags and tissue paper. Most of the gift bags have already been used once (I always keep them) a couple are ones I have bought in previous years but not used. So this year I haven't spent anything on wrapping gifts.
I actually enjoy both buying presents and wrapping gifts. For me it is one of the nicest things about Christmas..

I buy the reusable shopping bags from the supermarket. They have generic Christmas ones as well as some based on films and other cartoon characters like Winnie and Elf etc. Not only fun but makes keeping everyone's presents separate easier. Also great for gathering up at the end of the day and taking to their ultimate home. £1-2 each and still useful after the big day.

You took the words out of my mouth Kc55. I bought lovely Christmassy supermarket shoppers and labelled them then just popped some wrapped surprise presents in each one with some foodie goodies unwrapped. Easy to see at a glance whose bag it is.
But am definitely going to see the drawstring fabric bags for next year.
My Mum got a big padded Christmas card years ago from my sister and insisted she gave it back to be returned each year. Happy memories.

After reading this thread I remembered that tucked away I have several of the cloth drawstring bags that new handbags come in.
After a while the novelty of keeping them pristine in the bags wears off.
I have been upstairs and retrieved them and they are ideal.
Some of them do have the brand name on butI don’t think that really matters.
It is now just a case of sorting the few presents out and packing them in the bags.
There are not many but still more than I like to wrap.

I don’t mind wrapping but I tend to do it all at once to get it over and done with, it plays havoc with my back. I have an old sellotape dispenser which helps, although the sand has started leaking out of that. Good idea about the ironing board and the cloth bags. I tend to buy wrapping paper in the sales, usually the thicker paper because that awful thin stuff is a nightmare, it rips and corners end up poking through. I love to see a nicely wrapped gift though and try to make them looks as good as possible. ?

Nannan2 the great thing these days is how cheaply you can buy nice Christmassy pillowcases. When I started making mine I used to stencil motifs and things on - which I like doing, but not everyone does ? I love YouTubing for things like that.

Rh58

The Japanese wrap their gifts in fabric which is then returned to the gift giver. Seems like a great idea!

My DD always did this when she lived here, perhaps she picked up that tip from her Japanese friends.
I turned the fabric into Christmas napkins!

I use the Amazon bags we are given and tissue paper. We have a lot of birthdays around Christmas and I confess DH gets his birthday present in the same large bag I have used for the last five years. He never notices.

Having a publisher DH I know that brown paper is not much, if any, better than wrapping paper. Still, it looks good.

I found the game changer with wrapping presents was buying a heavy Sellotape dispenser which enabled me to wrap every present easily as it came into the house.

Like others, I have also resorted to tissue paper and present bags (mostly recycled).

I like to avoid waste and expense when wrapping presents - but I also like them to look nice.

Have come late to this thread but MayBeMaw what a fantastic find! Fabric bags! Never heard of them before, and too late for this Christmas, but I may well get the sewing machine out and get ready for next year. Such a good idea, especially for those (me) challenged with arthritic fingers. Thank you

I struggle with wrapping, too, these days - but our family all live in different Counties, and we are in the far north of Scotland - so everything has to go in the post. It gets wrapped at least twice. I try to save Cardboard Boxes for this use, but it's very hard to be eco-friendly with everything!

We have been re-using gift bags for many years, for both Christmas and Birthdays. I tell friends their gift bag is a recycled one and they have now started doing the same. I like the idea of using fabric ones though so will be getting busy sewing for next year.

MissAdventure

It's one of my most hated parts about Christmas, so I use any old paper, shove sellotape here there and everywhere, and complain a lot.
I really like the idea of the bags, though.

Someone mentioned some made out of sari material, but I don't think my boys would like that so much.

Wrapping presents really gives me a back ache!

I did some today. In the past I have done various handcrafted ones with craft paper, string and sealing wax: but tbh I am pretty bad at wrapping.

I did buy gift wrap being careful to choose a recyclable one. Just as well as the bags I have hoarded since last year are the wrong size. Anyway the gifts have that ribbon stuff from my craft stash. It's not at all christmassy but I have a big roll so will be using it for several more years! I even managed some very amateur curls. I am hoping that the recipients will be laughing so much at the naff ribbon and bad curls that they won't notice the paper isn't exactly folded neatly and crisply round the gifts!!

Different styles of wrapping as the fancy takes me.
Last year it was Japanese Furoshiki cloth wraps for most presents, one year newspaper and string, another year the brown paper and ribbon idea. Really enjoy wrapping presents and decorating the parcels, used to use lots of shiny paper but not anymore due to recycling problems.