First off, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings or whatever wish you'd like to hear this time of year!
We've already had one family gathering this year and I realized there's several things I reuse throughout the year when it comes to wrapping gifts. This should probably have been shared a few days ago, but hey, it's that time of year right?!
Tissue Paper
Smooth it out, fold it up and put it away. Tissue paper can be reused for birthday gifts or next year's holiday gifts or even art projects. Who cares about a few wrinkles?! The majority of the time you're shoving it into a gift bag anyway. A small tear or ripped off edge is not going to be all that noticeable.
Bows
I bought bows on clearance last year. Those darn things aren't staying on the gifts, but they look good. I'm saving all bows this year because a rolled up piece of tape will attach just nicely to gifts in the coming year. Honestly, a few are taped on right now because the little sticky pad just isn't sticky enough.
Wrapping Paper
I'm not a big advocate of reusing wrapping paper. I'm not going to carefully unwrap a gift to preserve the paper. But, the kids opened a gift tonight (who doesn't do Christmas Eve pajamas?!) and I snatched just enough unwrinkled, unripped paper to wrap one last small gift. My actual tip is do not buy Christmas themed paper on clearance after Christmas! I always buy fairly neutral paper that I can use throughout the year for wrapping birthday gifts. I might splurge on one roll of Christmas-y paper, but mostly I look for stripes, dots, solids or neutral stuff that I can use ribbon and bows to de-holiday. It's the only time of year that I buy wrapping paper!
Gift Bags
I think most people are good about re-using gift bags. I cringe when I have to buy a gift bag. When we moved to Texas, we left a lot of things behind and I was already running low on gift bags. The thing I hate most about gift bags is that they're usually themed and gender specific. It's so hard to find bags that be be used throughout the year, for either gender, unless you go with something solid.
Ribbons
Yep, I'm going to attempt to save ribbon this year. It might not be worth it, but I'll have to make that decision next year. I figure if I save the longer pieces, surely I can find a way to reuse them next year. We'll see how that pans out through 2013.
So, there you go! My tips for making Christmas 2013 a recycled Christmas. What do you do to same money and reuse and recycle? I'd love to hear more tips. If you save ribbons, let me know how that works out for you!