Christmas in July 2019 - Day Four

Today's topic is upcycling gift wrapping.  Have you ever carefully unwrapped a gift, smoothed out the paper, and saved it for another day?  I've never done this - I tend to be a "rip it open" type of person when it comes to presents and the paper ends up balled up and in the trash or I used to be that way.

Several years ago, I decided to switch to reusable boxes.  All of my local craft stores - Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Jo-ann Stores, and even places like TJ Maxx - have beautifully-designed boxes in all sizes.  You see them year round in florals and botanical prints, with Paris featuring prominently in the designs but at Christmas, the designs are simply gorgeous.  All sorts of fun and vintage themes, often in a set of different sizes, I just love them.

You do have to get creative to store them.  I often buy the sets as they stack inside one another.  I do 95% of the Christmas shopping and wrapping (or boxing) in our family so I don't usually use gift tags.  I know what box belongs to whom and direct the Christmas morning activity so no-one gets the wrong box.

Last year, I didn't have my Christmas boxes as they were still in Virginia so I bought several rolls of gift wrap (when I used it before I switched to boxes, we each had our own pattern, again eliminating the need for gift tags).  On Christmas morning, there was a LOT of trash which seemed a shame.

On a side note, I was watching an episode of Downton Abbey the other night (in my quest to rewatch the entire series before the movie comes out) and I watched Mrs. Hughes gift wrap a package without any tape.  She used enough paper that, when folded and tucked under, it could be secured with ribbon which would make it effortless to smooth out the paper and save it for another occasion.  I think the Edwardians were upcyclers even if they didn't realize it.

How do you handle gift wrapping?