Oh I'd love to show you my wrapped packages-- if i had any! I had planned today off but with a newly live application things dont always go as planned. I will be rushing to wrap tonight and tomorrow morning.

I should recycle but don't-- but this year i chose special wrapping paper and bags for each person from Caspari and Hester & Cook. Alas, I was a fool and didn't look at (or process) bag sizes so now i have a number of VERY tiny but very pretty gift bags! I had to do a quick delivery from Target which arrived 10 min ago. Talk about down to the wire!

I always love seeing your wrapped packages, Mtn.. you take such time and care with them! They surely make your loved ones feel special.

Love wrapping paper and ribbon. Big recycler here, too. Went with a red and green theme this year which is not my favorite but certainly traditional. Here’s a sample:

I love seeing everyone’s wrapping and always find inspiration for next year.

ETA: just noticed my poor ribbon cutting job...sigh.

Love the gingham, and it goes with the while vignette .... table, bowl. Is the bowl filled with moss?

mtn - yes, the bowl is actually filled with paper, a few moss balls and then covered with sheet moss. A very DIY job inspired by a $$$ arrangement I saw - don't look too close.

Its looks very Verandah. Love it. Might steal it.

Rubyclaire, beautiful wrapping!

This is my life.

Mine this year (and resembles that bottom picture way too much) ... I ordered very traditional Victorian style designs online because they reminded me of paper my grandmother would use. Very different than what I usually get (those variety 5-packs at Target).

And then! I ordered tags. And when I ordered those tags, I didn’t see that they had strings for gift bags. So what I’m doing here is starting a new trend.

I use a lot of cellophane bags. For some reason a lot of my gifts are small. Cute patterned tissue, curly ribbon, done.

Love those luxurious ribbons, rubyclaire. I did furoshiki last Christmas and that was fun. I have one charity thrift shop where the women who run it just do a wonderful job with displays and they get some great stuff from women who move down here to the desert southwest and shed all their scarves and other more spiffy clothes. So I've found great silk and challis scarves (and also some beautiful pashminas for myself last year) and wrapped gifts in those, no pics saved though. This year I decided to make some gift bags as we didn't have a big haul to wrap. I got 2 yards each of Christmas fabric, ordered online so taking a chance there, and it was actually really nice. The snowflake fabric has a glitter finish that stayed on after the wash, and the green is very sturdy with a gold foil finish. I imagine these will be reused year after year so I did finish them with that in mind. We give/get books every year so apart from the drawstring, I also made some envelope styles. My granddaughter's was in the snowflake with a big button, since that is her 17-month fascination lately. All have pockets for gift tags too. I did a velcro closure on one, button loops and button holes on others. And thanks to whomever suggested the snowflake tool. I got 4 and made little bags for each. This was a fun project and added some festivity to the season. Otherwise we're going 'festive neutral' this year, with no visitors so no tree and little decor but nice tablecloth out, with candles, for good meals. Not our first holidays alone, so we know how to make do. Here are three finished bags and the other fabric I used.

That's cool, Talaveran; does the bag have elastics?

Re the drawstring bags, I actually did casings for ribbon on some, and then buttonholes on others to interlace ribbons, and doubled red and green for one that looked pretty. It was fun.

Funky, I buy all my wrap at Home Goods. Love the selection and the quality of the paper is really excellent; in a way it feels almost stretchy. But you made me look at Caspari! Love the leopards,and the pagodas!

Ha! I thought of you when i saw the leopards! These are the ones I will be able to use.. and actually, I found a use for some of the very small bags as i prepare to go out on an errand to leave flying wish papers for a few special people (not all are friends-- but they're all people who need some good wishes in the new year),

(this is my favorite! Love the trees -- so magical).

The others have coordinating wrapping paper also but i love this combo (the cars on the far right) for the packages outside of the bag for my nephew.

I stole this from another site: You wouldn't believe I have opposable thumbs if you saw the Christmas presents I just wrapped.

I love wrapping presents and have tons of wrapping, ribbon and tags at my parent's house where I normally wrap all of the presents they've purchased as well as the ones I've shipped there. No travel, no access to wrapping supplies, so no pictures of wrapped gifts this year.

If I might be permitted to post a compilation from a previous year...

After years of being a cheapskate and buying by price, I realized that my brother’s gifts were a joy to hold before opening. Now I get my paper at Container Store. Love it. I have some left over from previous years that I will finish off, and lots and lots of recycled ribbon! Also gift bags, and some lovely boxes.

Two more!!

I forbade anyone in our household to go to stores to shop for Christmas this year. Instead I ordered everything online myself, and since all our gifts this year (just two per person) are coming from Santa, I’m not wrapping a blessed thing. Tbh it’s been years since I wrapped anything, my default setting is gift bag + tissue + tag. Even that was stressful for me, so this year “Santa” is dispensing even with the bags, I’m so relieved I may have an extra Bellini tonight to celebrate.

ETA Talaveran your fabric “wrapping” bags are beautiful and very clever!

The gift wrap I’m proud of is a medium-sized, square box, wrapped in plain white paper, and topped with black felt cut into the shape of a top hat with a red ribbon hat band. The hat was made from crafting scraps I had. It‘s meant to represent a snowman head, in case that’s not obvious 😆. Its going to my SIL who collects snowman-themed stuff. It’s a nod to her theme but nothing to add to her (too large IMO) collection. Her 3 other gifts are in snowman themed bags & gift card holder.

I'd love to see that, sounds so cute HHireno!

My pics probably look the same as last yr, but this time snow in the background, yay! When I finish wrapping, i think I will try putting them in an antique cradle I have ... not sure if it will fit under the tree. Then in the am I will take out the girls luggage, open them under the tree and fill them with gifts. I think that'll look cute.

Lovely as always Mtn.. and i think the open suitcases filled with gifts is perfect!

We have crazy heavy rain today and into tonight-- so much as I didn't "wrap" i did package beautiful gift bags-- and they will all be going into black trash bags for each home they need to be delivered to. .I wish i had something prettier-- but i don't. I wish i AT LEAST had super large red bows to put on the trash bags lol .This has been a really messed up year all around.. at least the gifts are good!

Very pretty everybody!

No gifts under the tree this - no tree either. I just have a container full of greenery with a few ornaments tucked in.

This is from some years ago. I found the joss paper in a local Asian market and thought the groovy 60s colors went with my 60s tree...

Fifty+ years ago, as newly-weds with DH a lowly second lieutenant in the Air Force making $175 per month, I continued saving wrapping paper as I had learned to do as a child of Depression-era parents with all their frugality becoming a way of life. Sometimes I still reuse paper to this day, but not as fanatically! Ribbon - yes, I do save that if I can get the wrinkles out. Far too pretty and pricey to toss, IMO. It becomes a game with me to figure out what old ribbon will fit around new packages.

I love wrapping gifts, altho these days I find that tying even simple bows difficult -- not arthritis, just fumble-fingers. So aggravating!

I used to do fabulous gifts. Gifts from other people not up to snuff would go to the back of the tree because gifts are decor. :) Parts that could be reused were--and still are--kept.

The waste has started to bother me so I've decided to use up what we have and buy no more single use wrapping. Cookie tins? Sure! Decorative boxes? Yeah! Beautiful paper? Not once we run out.

I decided to make gift bags too late to get any fabric so I only made a few plaid ones. Next year we'll get some actual festive fabric instead of using mask-making leftovers. Funny cuz I always thought gift bags were a cop out and have never ever purchased one. (And yet I have reused many. They can be pretty useful!)

I also was taught to save wrapping paper & ribbons. I only save it now if I want to use it for crafts. We do mostly gift cards and small things now that kids are older, so not much to wrap any more. I think I have enough wrapping materials to satisfy my needs for years to come.

I used to spend a lot of time & energy doing it, and the only one who appreciated it was me. (not saying family is selfish, it just doesn't matter to them) The days of fancy wrapping for me have passed.

This year is gift bags and what remaining paper I have. Which wasn't much.

I DO adore a finely wrapped gift!

Oh goodness, I just finished putting Santa out...and my kid’s piles are a haphazard, dollar store wrapping mess!! I love beautifully wrapped gifts, but no one here cares but me, and this year I REALLY didn’t care! 😂 I used soooo many bags (I even found one with a dog on it that looks like ours, lol.)

What a mess, but here it is😂

You’ll have to click on it...real pic isn’t small & blurry! 😂 Merry Christmas, y’all! I’m going to bed!

I have loved looking at these pictures! They remind me of my childhood. My favorite holiday "thing" as a girl/teen was to go with my mother to Marshall Field's (in Chicago) and shop for wrapping paper and ribbons. They had an incredible selection, although, of course, not like what is available today online. The ribbons were of both fabric and also that ribbed paper that you curl with a scissors. After we had a good stash we would go for lunch next to the fabulous, gorgeous Field's tree, a major Christmas destination, like Field's decked-out windows, for Chicagoans.

Then we'd come home and over the next week or two would wrap gifts for my dad and other family and friends. Each of us disappeared when wrapping for the other one! My mother patiently taught me how to cut paper to fit a package, how to make perfect creased folds, where to unobtrusively place a bit of scotch tape, and then, how to create those pretty bows. I loved doing this with her! And I loved arranging and re-arranging the presents under the tree, trying to show off each one to its best advantage.

My favorite wrapping paper was a pale pink and gold with rather abstract angels. My mom insisted that I be gentle with it so that we could use it over and over again. Then I grew up, left the country, got married, had kids, returned to the States; we all got older and my mother passed in 1994. Going through her belongings afterwards, what did I discover? A sheet of that paper with the pink angels, carefully saved. And so today it lives on in my own box of paper and decorations. Going to blink back a tear now, as the holiday season always was all about my family, especially my mom.

Wishing all our forum peeps, writers and lurkers, a Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year... dry-eyed, if possible!

I'm not one much into making fancy packages, but I do remember enjoying this display at Longwood...

Nothing fancy here. Just mostly bags which we re-use. Some wrapped boxes out of range of the photo.

I waited for Christmas morning to read this because we don’t do holiday gifts anymore. All of yours are beautiful.

I’m doing all the things I don’t normally do on Christmas. No makeup, maybe a shower, casual clothes, messy house (projects ongoing), crockpot chili for dinner and already planning a nap. DH will watch basketball.

Merry Christmas- or not-Christmas, as the case may be!

My dad was the one who taught me how to giftwrap. He had worked in Macy's gift wrapping dept. in NY when he was young. We even had a cool Victorian looking iron stand to put the rolls of paper on, with a bar that cut the paper. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to it.

Before my husband delivered the gifts, he taped a big, ugly scratch off lottery ticket to the white snowman head box. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Clearly, he didn’t understand my vision. And he put his mother’s gift card in a gc holder then in a bag. So he used up 2 items for a cheap gift card. 🙄

A few years ago I gave DD all of my wrapping paper and now I only use white Kraft paper but jazz things up with beautiful ribbons, bows and other little objects. DH wraps his presents in plain brown Kraft paper and ties them with string. It's a rather schizophrenic look under the tree.

I've been including more fabric bags which are great for large items. These are a few of the bags that I purchased and now that my sewing machine is repaired I plan on making more.

Wow - those do look large!

As I said, our gifts are usually pretty tiny now. Finally found this photo of origami gift card holders I made a couple of years ago...

This was 2 years ago, my house was actually on a Christmas House Tour. I went to the thrift shops and bought ski and cable knit sweaters and wrapped up the packages. I still have them in a storage bin......lucky I don’t have moths too!

Another who did not set foot in a store and ordered everything. I used brown bags and smaller white bags with pretty tissue paper. In lieu of gift tags, I used vintage Christmas post cards (I collect them) and punched a hole in the corner to tie to bag.

This morning when getting something out of the closet where I keep Christmas stuff, I looked up and saw the trophy I won for our family giftwrapping contest about ten years ago. It was just the women who wrapped the gifts and we laughed so hard during all of our competitions.

The men were the judges and they had no idea who wrapped which gift becauswe we kept them hidden from our DH's/SO's.

One year my DIL won because she put our first grandbaby's ultra-sound on her gift. The rest of us contestants screamed, "No fair!" lol

I'm so proud.

Front:

Back:

Tina, I keep small white bags and kraft paper bags on hand; they always look nice.

Maire, I recall yoru white only wrapping scheme; i would like that!

Carol, that's sooo pretty! Well done

Cran, I have never heard of that, it is uber cool! Nice job.

My fave part this year was using the luggage presents to hold gifts (my kids like me to put the presents under the tree after they go to bed, so they didn't see the luggage presents until Christmas morning. Here are some shots of the luggage stuffed with presents:

DH did a super job on my gift; he used the gift as the "bow." This is a set of tiny silver spoons for salt cellars. I love tiny little tableware items and use them all the time for all sorts of things. I have assorted tiny dishes and bowls. I might put lemon slices in them and put them at each place if I serve fish, for example. Or if one of my kids is studying I might bring them a tiny plate with a few Hershey's kisses on it, etc. Anyway I love the spoons! Inside the box is a card thanking me for 25 Christmases spent together, which he celebrated with silver since that is the tradition for a "25 year anniversary."

I have these little "mussel shells" i like to use for sea salt.

Oak, you were posting while I was! I love that idea! We take family competitions very seriously. The first time we did one it was a bake off at Easter. My DB casually mentioned, will there be votes for presentation and I said, sure, ok. Well I made a banana cream pie with macadamia coconut crust. Delish but, not pretty. DB made a cheesecake under a spun sugar dome!

Mtn—-genius of your DH to use the little spoons as the bow! And how sweet to thank you for 25 Christmases together. Love the gifts nestled in the luggage.

I have a long handled baby spoon that is very small and narrow and perfect for spooning the jelly into the thumbprint for jelly thumbprint cookies.

I like the idea of the old sweater wrappings as well as the fabric gift bags.

Mtn, your DH is so romantic! I have a minor obsession with little spoons too, and little bowls.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this post - love Mtn's suitcases and her DH's originality.

These are some of the presents DH wrapped, you can see the elegant brown wrapping paper with his custom calligraphy. Notice the large white one? The one covered in paper towels with the crude lettering on the side? He put this under the tree after I went to bed on Christmas Eve and he made sure that it was the last one opened. Under the paper towels was a brown cardboard box with round holes in it from Longfield Gardens, the kind they use to ship flower bulbs. He reminded me not the shake the box and I assumed it was full of bulbs packed in peat and dirt. I thought it a little odd because we had recently planted a hundred or so bulbs and I was not looking forward to planting more in the middle of the winter.

I opened the box and it was full of styrofoam peanuts, the kind that fly up and stick to your clothes and hands. My grand daughter immediately dug in and giggled when she discovered that they clung to her arms and belly. There was another, smaller box at the bottom and inside was a beautiful tsavorite necklace and a little note that said he had finally found a birthstone for me that was prettier than the traditional garnet. He was quite pleased (me too) with his little charade.