no ribbons on presents?

[gardenmom5]

I think I'm only going to put ribbons on a few larger gifts this year.  I'm just exhausted.  I managed to get the tree decorated - when I was ready to call it quits.  I've been wrapping - I have the new puppy, so I haven't put gifts under the tree (he'll have too much fun.  . . if you know what I mean . . . . ).  I thought I'd put them out tomorrow when they're picked up.  but I'm just too tired for ribbon this year.

[TheReader]

We only ever put bows on (the stick-on kind), and even that's iffy with our current kitty. 

Skip the ribbon; no one will mind. 

[Jaybee]

Granted, our gifts don't look fancy, but years ago, I quit even putting bows on them. So many of them got knocked off anyway, that I decided it was much easier to stack gifts without having to protect the bows.

[Guest]

I have cloth bags in various sizes (from "jewelry pouch" to "reusable grocery bag") plus some larger paper ones that get reused until they totally disintegrate. It's not nearly as Instagram ready, but it serves the same purpose, and it is FAR less stressful for me. 

[Annie G]

We moved this year and had to start over w Christmas wrapping stuff. Dh asked yesterday if we have bows...we were standing right by where they are sold. nope, no bows. don’t need them. Keep moving, man.  
I did, however, tape a Little Debbie Christmas tree cake on the grandkids’ gifts.  They can eat it as a treat on the way to the next grandparents’ house. 

[Bambam]

I haven't used ribbon or bows for years. It saves time! No one cares. 

[kbutton]

20 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

I have cloth bags in various sizes (from "jewelry pouch" to "reusable grocery bag") plus some larger paper ones that get reused until they totally disintegrate. It's not nearly as Instagram ready, but it serves the same purpose, and it is FAR less stressful for me. 

We're doing this also. Ours are in Christmas fabric, so they are pretty Instagram worthy, but I applaud anyone being more green with their wrapping, fancy or not! It saves a ton of stress for me also. 

We almost never had bows and ribbons growing up unless someone felt fancy. I am trying to come up with some reusable decorations for our cloth bags though because making the bags has been a fun hobby. 

I actually don't mind doing the bows and ribbons if I do wrap something. I hate CUTTING THE PAPER. Ugh. The very small rolls of paper from the Target $ spot help cut down on how aggravating it is, but I really, really hate how the bigger rolls are almost never the right size no matter the orientation of the package. 

[MEmama]

Reusable bags. They are the ultimate gift wrap hater's solution.

I am deeply entrenched in that category. Even gift bags stress me out, but I can’t think up anything simpler. 🤷‍♀️

[regentrude]

So you tape the paper? 

Growing up without transparent tape, we only ever used ribbon to tie the parcel; this way, the paper can be folded and reused and won't rip where tape was. Super quick.

But if it's already taped, then yes, ribbons are overkill. I like reuseable bags.

Edited December 19, 2019 by regentrude

[TheReader]

Those of you who do the fabric bags, do the recipients take the bag (and then hopefully they reuse it), leaving you to make more? Do the recipients give you back the bag, for you to reuse yourself? 

Those of you that make your own fabric bags, favorite links to tutorials or patterns (that are easy)? 

[Carol in Cal.]

Personally, I think a box with wrapping paper on it but no bow or ribbon looks unfinished.  Not so with gift bags!

[Kassia]

No bows or ribbon for us.  I don't need more work and don't care what the gift looks like as long as it's wrapped or in a bag! 

[Murphy101]

I don’t mind if other people go all out on gift wrapping but we never have. I hate Th e expense and the trash accumulation. Reuseable bags all the way here. 

And after this year, I probably won’t even do that. My in laws have a huge leaf bag sized Santa bag for each grand kid and all their gifts go unwrapped into their Santa bag. I love it.  I can’t decide if I’m going to switch to that or just large stockings for kids over 18 next year.  Or even switch to one gift each instead of 3. Something. It has been very expensive and very stressful this year. I’ll have to talk to them over the summer and see if we can agree on a new tradition for the adults at Christmas. 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, TheReader said:

Those of you who do the fabric bags, do the recipients take the bag (and then hopefully they reuse it), leaving you to make more? Do the recipients give you back the bag, for you to reuse yourself? 

Those of you that make your own fabric bags, favorite links to tutorials or patterns (that are easy)? 

So far, a lot of them have come back with a different gift. Mine aren't Christmas-Specific, for the most part. I also have reusable pin-on gift tags for family members.  I also have a few tin and boxes that get reused-a greeting card set from a charity came with a nice tin box that seems to be used for cousins to gift each other video game cartridges. 

[bensonduck]

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

[AFwife Claire]

7 minutes ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

You and me both. This is exactly what I do and have done for many years!

[alisoncooks]

7 minutes ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

I do this for immediate family. This year, my kids were razzing me because I was lazy and just wrote first initials on the presents. 

[Murphy101]

8 minutes ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

Ha that’s what we do too if there’s not a bag for it.

[JustEm]

16 minutes ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

I do the same exact thing. Except u hand the gift and sharpie to dh because he has better hand writing.

Bow, ribbons, and gift tags are foreign to me. However, I would like to make reusable gift bags for next year. That would be even easier

[Kassia]

19 minutes ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

 

I just started doing this and love it!  

[rebcoola]

We use mostly cloth gift bags we have quite a collection just from holding on to the ones from Amazon.  

[TheReader]

27 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

So far, a lot of them have come back with a different gift. Mine aren't Christmas-Specific, for the most part. I also have reusable pin-on gift tags for family members.  I also have a few tin and boxes that get reused-a greeting card set from a charity came with a nice tin box that seems to be used for cousins to gift each other video game cartridges. 

oooh, I like the pin-on tags for family members. I'll have to do that, too. 

I have some cling tags for glasses/cups that I keep with family member's names on them (they cling to the fridge when not in use on a cup) and I love them. I need to get some more and add frequent visiting friends. 

 

[Chris in VA]

We had to search for wrapping paper here, but managed to find some. Not much ribbon, though, and no stick on bows! I am using small ornaments for dd's gift tags this year--she is soon to be at the age when she will have her own Christmas tree, and I will gift her all the ornaments she has been given over the years that we currently hang on our tree. 

But I think I feel pressure to go to cloth gift bags. I am trying to trade reuseable bags for plastic at the store, and I am sure wrapping paper and paper towels are next to be disapproved of. 

[MEmama]

1 hour ago, TheReader said:

Those of you who do the fabric bags, do the recipients take the bag (and then hopefully they reuse it), leaving you to make more? Do the recipients give you back the bag, for you to reuse yourself? 

Those of you that make your own fabric bags, favorite links to tutorials or patterns (that are easy)? 

I use a few  fabric bags dating from my childhood. My mom made them and I remember using them back in the mid 70s. I use those for family gifts only.

DH and I noticed a larger selection of fabric bags at Target this year, in addition to a more generally inclusive, racially diverse take on the holidays in the gift wrap department. I hope both are a trend here to stay. 👍

Eta if I give a gift in a fabric bag I would absolutely intend for the recipient to keep and/or reuse that bag, not give it back to me. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by MEmama

[katilac]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

So you tape the paper? 

Countless American heads just swiveled to you and answered, um, yeah! 

Actually tying the paper down with ribbon seems like an extremely useful skill, and the only reason I would use ribbon on a package. dh inherited his mother's aesthetic and is willing to add coordinated ribbon for effect. I'm now going to tell him he's doing it wrong and challenge him to learn how to use ribbon only. 

Is two strips of ribbon sufficient? Like one going the length of the package, the other the width?

 

 

[J-rap]

Our Christmas is super simple this year.  I'm not even putting things (like clothes) into boxes.  Just fold 'em and throw some wrapping paper around them!  But I do still use ribbon.  Just one simple strand that I wrap around and tie into a bow on top.  It feels easier than putting on lots of tape, and makes up for wrapping paper edges that aren't quite closed.

But, we've done it many different ways.  One year we wrapped everything in newspaper because that's what we happened to have on hand.  🙂 

I love the idea of resuseable cloth bags!  I haven't seen those yet.

[regentrude]

9 minutes ago, katilac said:

Countless American heads just swiveled to you and answered, um, yeah! 

Actually tying the paper down with ribbon seems like an extremely useful skill, and the only reason I would use ribbon on a package. dh inherited his mother's aesthetic and is willing to add coordinated ribbon for effect. I'm now going to tell him he's doing it wrong and challenge him to learn how to use ribbon only. 

Is two strips of ribbon sufficient? Like one going the length of the package, the other the width?

No, you use ONE single strip of ribbon. Put package centered on the middle of the ribbon, lead both ends of ribbon around to the opposite side, cross and make a 90 degree turn, lead ribbon ends around the package until the middle on the opposite side, tie bow.

No damage to the paper, no damage to the ribbon, both can be reused. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by regentrude

[Meriwether]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

So you tape the paper? 

Growing up without transparent tape, we only ever used ribbon to tie the parcel; this way, the paper can be folded and reused and won't rip where tape was. Super quick.

But if it's already taped, then yes, ribbons are overkill. I like reuseable bags.

We always tape the paper, but everyone in Grammy's family learned to open the paper carefully so the paper could be reused. Most of my gifts are in reusable bags I've sewn over the years.

[TheReader]

25 minutes ago, MEmama said:

I use a few  fabric bags dating from my childhood. My mom made them and I remember using them back in the mid 70s. I use those for family gifts only.

DH and I noticed a larger selection of fabric bags at Target this year, in addition to a more generally inclusive, racially diverse take on the holidays in the gift wrap department. I hope both are a trend here to stay. 👍

Eta if I give a gift in a fabric bag I would absolutely intend for the recipient to keep and/or reuse that bag, not give it back to me. 

I noticed this in the "dollar spot" stuff, too; they had some great lace-up characters that were racially diverse (for schools and things, the kind where you lace around the edge of the shape). I wanted to get some *so badly* for my little K class, but they were all Santa themed, and we're a Christian co-op and you never know who "does" Santa and who doesn't, so I opted not to. 

I am hoping they start showing up in their generic themed ones, too, though; and that yes, the holiday stuff remains inclusive. And beyond just Target, too, I hope. 

[barnwife]

1 hour ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

 This, along with other posters who say they do the same, just gave me an actual OMG moment. The first time I encountered this, I was absolutely horrified. I am from a  "presents have wrapping paper and a ribbon or bow" family, along with a tag with that says who it is for and who it is from. I  have told the story of that gift to many others because it is so far from what I knew. Never has anyone said, "Oh, yeah, I do that too!"

I am absolutely flabbergasted that it is a thing. (Note: I am not flabbergasted that person I know does it. It's totally in keeping with her character.) I just never imagined there were others!

Also, yes, even when ribbon is used we also use tape. I've never thought about using just ribbon, although from a historical perspective it makes perfect sense. FWIW, growing up wrapping paper was reused over and over. As it got worn/torn, it was cut up and used for smaller presents, until the only thing it was good for is stocking stuffers (yes, in my FOO those were wrapped too). 

All that to say, I now only wrap with tape. No ribbons or bows due to a cat who ate some ribbon once.

[wathe]

2 hours ago, dmmetler said:

I have cloth bags in various sizes (from "jewelry pouch" to "reusable grocery bag") plus some larger paper ones that get reused until they totally disintegrate. It's not nearly as Instagram ready, but it serves the same purpose, and it is FAR less stressful for me. 

I have the same.  And I tie them off with jute twine.  We reuse the twine pieces from year to year too.  "Rustic" look 🙂  It actually doesn't look terrible.

[Arcadia]

38 minutes ago, katilac said:

Is two strips of ribbon sufficient? Like one going the length of the package, the other the width?

One cloth ribbon strip is sufficient, you tie the ribbon like you would a stack of school books. You just criss cross at the back and criss cross at the front when you tie the ribbon into a nice bow.

e.g the 6 photos in link https://www.homedit.com/how-to-make-a-bow-with-ribbon/classic-ribbon-bow-tutorial/

[wathe]

1 hour ago, TheReader said:

 

Those of you that make your own fabric bags, favorite links to tutorials or patterns (that are easy)? 

No real pattern.   The bags are super simple. 

I use holiday print cotton that I get on clearance for a couple of bucks a meter.

Cut fabric to a useful sized rectangle.  Fold over.  Sew bottom and side seams.  Hem around top opening.  That's it.  This is not heirloom quality sewing - I measure by guessing, no pinning or pressing, etc.  Bag is closed by tying jute twine (or ribbon if feeling fancy) around the top.

I keep uncut fabric handy (instead of wrapping paper) to sew up bags "on-demand" for odd shaped parcels.    It's nearly as fast for me to sew up a bag as it is for me to fuss around with wrapping paper.

I make a few more each year as needed.  Most of our bags stay within the family and get returned to the stockpile.  Those that get given outside the family are given as part of the gift, with the hope that they will be reused many times.

[maize]

I don't do ribbons, never have.

I wrap, sometimes sloppily but wrapping paper is pretty and the packages look nice under the tree, at least to me.

I've sometimes done the stick-on bows but didn't get any this year. No tags either, I just write first initials on the wrapping paper.

 

[BarbecueMom]

Not only do none of mine have ribbon, some of them are wrapped in the brown paper Amazon uses to stuff its shipping boxes.  I think it looks kind of cool, like old timey parcels.

[PrincessMommy]

3 hours ago, Jaybee said:

Granted, our gifts don't look fancy, but years ago, I quit even putting bows on them. So many of them got knocked off anyway, that I decided it was much easier to stack gifts without having to protect the bows.

I almost never use ribbons or bows.  It's just plain Christmas wrapping paper and a tag for our family.   Oh and I just finished decorating the tree today.  No one wanted to help me so I did it alone 😏

Edited December 20, 2019 by PrincessMommy

[Tree Frog]

1 hour ago, TheReader said:

oooh, I like the pin-on tags for family members. I'll have to do that, too. 

I have some cling tags for glasses/cups that I keep with family member's names on them (they cling to the fridge when not in use on a cup) and I love them. I need to get some more and add frequent visiting friends. 

 

These sound awesome! Do you have a link? I've used dry erase markers on our glasses (which are just reused jars), but sometimes it comes off too easily or not at all.

[matrips]

I’ll do ribbons and bows for non-immediate family, or for friends etc.  

our immediate family- everyone has their own paper, so no need to write names.  Just paper and tape. My kids started the tradition when they were toddlers by each picking out their favorite wrapping paper at the dollar store. So over the years we’ve had Christmas Pooh Bear, Rudolph, Snoopy, trains, whatever they were into at the moment. I like to reuse- I grew up reusing and saving paper year to year.  They like to tear it open for the most part.

[TheReader]

27 minutes ago, wilrunner said:

These sound awesome! Do you have a link? I've used dry erase markers on our glasses (which are just reused jars), but sometimes it comes off too easily or not at all.

Let me see if I can find them; they're from Target and usually in the party type area. Walmart also has them. 

Hmm, I can't seem to find the exact ones on Target online, but these are similar from Amazon. I can't quite figure out the correct search terms to find the ones that I actually have; mine are oval shaped and different colors, and I wrote on them with permanent marker. 

These seem to work the same way, though, with the cling style. 

https://www.amazon.com/Chalkboard-Labels-Complete-Bundle-Stickers/dp/B00MN4VRG2/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=vinyl+drink+labels+cling+on&qid=1576808488&sr=8-3

 

[kbutton]

3 hours ago, TheReader said:

Those of you who do the fabric bags, do the recipients take the bag (and then hopefully they reuse it), leaving you to make more?

Heck no! Within the family, we might swap around, but if I think someone is going to keep my bag, I'll use a paper gift bag or just wrap with paper. There are very few people I know that would do anything with the bag outside my family, so I am not going to that kind of effort for someone else. 

I read that when they use fabric to wrap gifts in Japan, the receiver gives the cloth back, but who knows if the source I found was accurate. I am trying to use some flat fold fabric that is just hemmed for wrapping gifts and pinning on a cloth ribbon to hold it together, or else tying the fabric on. I have done this only when I run onto something pre-made that works well for this purpose, so it's pretty limited so far.

2 hours ago, rebcoola said:

We use mostly cloth gift bags we have quite a collection just from holding on to the ones from Amazon.  

Do you buy them on Amazon, or do they use cloth gift bags if you select to have your gift wrapped? 

 

 

 

 

[kbutton]

Patterns--this one is not so bad. You can do the same thing with fewer steps and fewer cuts, but I am too lazy to take pictures right now or sketch it out.

Once you do something like this, you can do it many ways with many closures and in many sizes. 

Most of mine are lined with muslin or contrasting fabric.

I pick up as much fabric as I can from garage sales or thrift stores. Once in a while I'll score a huge chunk of muslin that someone donated when they didn't finish their aspirational quilt. 🙂 If I get small pieces from salvaging around, then I make bags that best suit the size of fabric. I save my bigger pieces to make few big bags for giant lego boxes and things like that.

Oops, you might like the actual link: https://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html

Edited December 20, 2019 by kbutton

[TheReader]

26 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Heck no! Within the family, we might swap around, but if I think someone is going to keep my bag, I'll use a paper gift bag or just wrap with paper. There are very few people I know that would do anything with the bag outside my family, so I am not going to that kind of effort for someone else. 

I read that when they use fabric to wrap gifts in Japan, the receiver gives the cloth back, but who knows if the source I found was accurate. I am trying to use some flat fold fabric that is just hemmed for wrapping gifts and pinning on a cloth ribbon to hold it together, or else tying the fabric on. I have done this only when I run onto something pre-made that works well for this purpose, so it's pretty limited so far.

Do you buy them on Amazon, or do they use cloth gift bags if you select to have your gift wrapped? 

 

 

 

 

Oh, within the family makes sense. Thanks!

I do know Amazon uses fabric bags for their gift wrap; they are actually really nice bags, too. 

17 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Patterns--this one is not so bad. You can do the same thing with fewer steps and fewer cuts, but I am too lazy to take pictures right now or sketch it out.

Once you do something like this, you can do it many ways with many closures and in many sizes. 

Most of mine are lined with muslin or contrasting fabric.

I pick up as much fabric as I can from garage sales or thrift stores. Once in a while I'll score a huge chunk of muslin that someone donated when they didn't finish their aspirational quilt. 🙂 If I get small pieces from salvaging around, then I make bags that best suit the size of fabric. I save my bigger pieces to make few big bags for giant lego boxes and things like that.

Oops, you might like the actual link: https://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html

Thank you! I'll check it out!

[vonfirmath]

You're supposed to put ribbon on gifts?

We don't and my parents, didn't growing up.

The only presents that got fancy treatment like that was a wedding gift. Sometimes

[vonfirmath]

1 hour ago, kbutton said:

Patterns--this one is not so bad. You can do the same thing with fewer steps and fewer cuts, but I am too lazy to take pictures right now or sketch it out.

Once you do something like this, you can do it many ways with many closures and in many sizes. 

Most of mine are lined with muslin or contrasting fabric.

I pick up as much fabric as I can from garage sales or thrift stores. Once in a while I'll score a huge chunk of muslin that someone donated when they didn't finish their aspirational quilt. 🙂 If I get small pieces from salvaging around, then I make bags that best suit the size of fabric. I save my bigger pieces to make few big bags for giant lego boxes and things like that.

Oops, you might like the actual link: https://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html

 

Amazon "pre-wrapped" gifts come in this fancy mesh bag. We've gotten them over the years and acquired quite a supply of green and red bags. and yes I reuse them in future years.

 

[Shoeless]

I don't usually do bows or ribbons on gifts.  My mom never did it, so I didn't either until DH expressed a little sadness that we didn't have bows.  So I buy a few bags of stick-on bows each year at the dollar store and that's about as far as I'm going with it, lol. 

We've become cloth-bag users over the last few years.  I have a box full of them that I have saved from Amazon.  My MIL also packages everything in paper gift bags, so we have eleventy-billion of them that get re-used.  We still use some wrapping paper for those items that are too big for the bags we have. 

When kiddo was tiny, it was fun to watch him tear open presents.  The cats would jump around in the piles of paper, and that was fun, too.  But I like using the cloth bags, because there is less waste and less trash to fill up the can. It makes "wrapping" everything go so fast, too!

[ktgrok]

5 hours ago, bensonduck said:

Ha, I must be the laziest person in the world. I just wrap the gift and write the recipient’s name on top with a Sharpie 🙂

That's how we grew up! I do use gift tags now - the stick on kind, but no ribbons. I hate ribbons, they slow down the unwrapping, lol. 

[rebcoola]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

Do you buy them on Amazon, or do they use cloth gift bags if you select to have your gift wrapped?

That's what they send when you choose gift wrap. Since most of our extended family sends gifts each year for birthday and Christmas that way so we just keep them.  We have made some to.

Edited December 20, 2019 by rebcoola

[edelweiss]

I love wrapping gifts and so does my younger daughter. We love buying beautiful papers and tags every year and have accumulated quite a variety of it. We always put a bow on the gifts but not always ribbons.  It just depends on the gift and if we feel like taking the time.  

 

[MercyA]

My daughter still loves opening wrapped gifts far more than she enjoys gift bags, so it's wrapping paper for now!

Does anyone remember the Brady Bunch Christmas episode with the ENORMOUS bows on the presents? Did anyone really use bows like that, or was that just for tv? They were almost as big as the presents themselves.

Look at the size of these things!

https://bradybunchreviewed.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/confront.jpg

https://bradybunchreviewed.wordpress.com/2016/12/25/sunday-special-the-voice-of-christmas/boyspresents/

https://bradybunchreviewed.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/eve.jpg

https://bradybunchreviewed.wordpress.com/2016/12/25/sunday-special-the-voice-of-christmas/girlspresent/

[MercyA]

7 hours ago, Annie G said:

I did, however, tape a Little Debbie Christmas tree cake on the grandkids’ gifts.  They can eat it as a treat on the way to the next grandparents’ house. 

Aww, I love this. My grandma always gave us "goodie bags" to eat in the car--paper bags full of cookies and candy. Couldn't eat the cookies because they tasted like cigarettes. But I felt loved. ❤️