Gift Bags vs. Gift Wrap

[athelind]

Some people have an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other.

I have a dragon on each: one dressed in tie-dye and flip-flops, the other dressed in a classic Santa costume.

Environmental Scientist Dragon loves Gift Bags: present packaging that is fast, easy, and best of all, reusable year after year. They reduce the amount of post-holiday household waste dramatically, and they make the wrapping of oddly-shaped presents trivial.

We have some nice ones that we've been using for a couple of years now, and quelonzia and I hit the Dollar Tree a few weeks back to pick up a nice, big stack of'em, in a wide range of sizes. Gift Bags are part and *ahem* parcel of a Green, Responsible Holiday.

Traditional Holiday Dragon understands the intellectual appeal of Gift Bags, and even grants that they look nice, too. They just feel wrong.

Part of it, of course, is that Traditional Holiday Dragon is Traditional.

Another part is that he takes Gift Security very seriously.

This is, alas, an issue in our household; we have Unauthorized Personnel in residence who have no strong compunctions against peeking, or even actual tampering with presents under the tree.

With a properly-wrapped and taped present, one actually has to make an effort to sneak a peek. Gift Bags, on the other claw, allow even inadvertent glances -- unless they are taped closed (which compromises their reusability) or stuffed with tissue paper (which just brings back the disposable trash issue, and is wholly ineffective against deliberate security breaches).

We do have some Gift Bags which have Velcro flaps, but, alas, only a very few. Of course, even Velcro won't stop a deliberate security breach, but Traditional Holiday Dragon is willing to begrudge that much Benefit of the Doubt.

Suggestions solicited.

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(And, yes, okay, I admit it. Gift bags feel lazy. They lack the personal touch of wrapping -- though I confess that this year and for many years past, all my gifts are store-bought, so how "personal" can they get? Maybe next year I'll try for hand-made gifts and store-bought, reusable bags. That sounds like a nice, environmentally-conscious way to break out of the consume/dispose trap.)

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Comments

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

Like any good hoard potato caught in this conundrum (I do have the right dragon, right?), I will state for the record that doing a mix is usually best. Oh, and arming the gift bags with alarm systems (that will be reusable).

Doing a mix will do two things; it will reduce after-Christmas waste, and if the would-be tamperers look only for their own gifts to peek at or tamper with, then they get boxed presents. Those who you can trust to not look at their presents can get gift bags.

For wrapping ideas, you can still tie the gift bags closed (in some form or fashion) with decorative ties, tied in a neat, and hard to reproduce bow. This might crumple the top of the bag, or it might not. For my personal preference, I'm considering using over-sized 'dice' bags, of festive colors, tied shut with both their drawstrings and ribbon. Oh, and the family will only THINK that they're getting dice. Muahahahahaha.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

I don't do a damn thing for X-mas, but I have the present conundrum upon b-days and the like. I for one go for properly wrapped gifts, only to reduce the peeking into gift bags. ^^ Plus just stuffing things into a gift bag rings too much of being lazy in my books. :3 Everyone I know likes having some effort put into the things they receive.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

*shifty eyes* Not getting gifts at all would be even more environmentally friendly. Reject the capitalist consumerist tyranny of Christmas!

[athelind.livejournal.com]

That, alas, takes the cooperation of the whole family. Otherwise, you're not the "environmentally conscious anti-consumer", you're "the jerk who didn't get anything for anyone else."

Before I was married, my family went Present-Free for about a decade. It makes for a very relaxing holiday.

Personally, I tend to use the holiday season as an excuse to get people stuff that I'd get for them anyway.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pretty familiar with that one, yeah. It can be awkward when people get me things and I say that I don't celebrate Christmas and rant at them for ten minutes. But you know me. I do love a good rant. ;)

[richardf8]

Newspaper.

The moment you wrap a gift in it, it has been re-used once already, and it offers the tamper-proof seal. Bonus points if you can establish a common theme between the content of the wrapping and the contents of the package.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

My wife recently gave a present to a friend who's a post-modernist wrapped in scanned pages (on scrape paper) of Lyotard's The Post-modern Condition. Amusement was had by all.

My gift was post-modern. I rejected the narrative of gift-giving and took him out for karaoke. Or however it's spelled. :)

[sternbunny.livejournal.com]

This is what my mom would do before she switched to bags. I preferred the comic pages around my gifts, as I could read the funny papers once the gifts were opened.

Beth

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Since I don't normally read a newspaper, I'd just be buying it for wrapping, so that wouldn't really count as "re-use"...

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I'm with the newspaper. You can use the black and white comics for inside the gift bags, and the color comics for the non-gift bagged stuff or appropriate sports/real estate/whatever sections for the person getting the gift. I've one friend who regularly gets things wrapped in the stock market sheet (though he may not like that this year).

[araquan.livejournal.com]

I tend to re-use boxes I've received stuff in, including postal boxes, and re-use newspaper for both the packing material and wrapping paper. It's a little tacky looking, I guess, but it does offer the best of both worlds- wrapped, boxed stuff with all materials having been reused at least once.

The paper is generally then recycled afterward, if I'm around when stuff is opened.

Recycled & Recyclable Wrappins

[foofers.livejournal.com]

Some folks feel the newspaper/comics thing is kind of "ghetto." That is, until I wrapped some of last year's gifts in a Japanese newspaper. Suddenly it was the greatest novelty in the entire universe. (The sports pages have pictures of sumo wrestlers, which always helps.) If you have a Daiso store near you, they have stacks near the checkout registers, essentially free for the taking (they're for customers to wrap up dishware and other breakables).

Colorful road maps as wrapping paper is often well-received also, especially if you can match the recipient's home town (or where they went to college, a honeymoon, whatever). These sometimes turn up at thrift stores and used bookstores for a quarter.

And then I found some 35mm movie film cans at a thrift store, one with film still in it. I "wrapped" DVD presents in these, using the film to make a bow. The response was nothing at all like what I expected...folks handled these like gold bricks, and had more fun with the box than the toy inside. Those won't end up in a landfill any time soon!

Re: Recycled & Recyclable Wrappins

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Film Cans FTW.

I really like the idea of a "wrapper" that's a useful or intriguing item in and of itself.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

First you need a secure place for your stuff, a safe works, is reusable, and can store things throughout the year.

If a gift must be wrapped... I might still put it in a bag inside a reused container but construct a box and lid of shirt-board and wrapping paper (3/4" on a side) and tied with a bow of colored thread. It takes a sharp pencil to make the to/from label. A tightly wrapped note that rattles inside will inform the recipient of the gift to come.

Just a thought

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

Get reusable fabric shopping bags. Hit 'em with a zap of paint and glitter to make them festive, if desired. Afterward they can be reused as gift bags, or used as shopping bags. Or around the house. I'm always having to buy more of those stupid things because I grabbed one to lug tools or drill bits or to store something that needs protection from dust.

For Unauthorized Personnel, sew them shut.