Yesterday we were wrapping a few Christmas presents at our house. I like wrapping presents. It appeals to my sensibilities to cut just the right amount of paper, cover the gift neatly, making folds in just he right places, and attach a label with the name of the recipient. We’re pretty frugal when it comes to wrapping paper. We keep all of the unused scraps of paper. When pieces are too small to fit on a roll, they are neatly folded and placed in a box. I pride myself in being able to sort through those smaller pieces of paper to find one that is just the right size. When I have enough time, which is pretty much the case all the time now that I am retired, I get out a ruler and measure the box I am going to wrap so that I can measure and cut just the right amount of paper without waste. Our supply of Christmas wrapping paper is quite short this year. We haven’t purchased any new paper, so what we had was leftover from last year. One gift has one paper pattern on the top and bottom and another pattern around the sides. I think it looks pretty good that way. At one point, Susan was ironing used paper so that it would look flat and neat when used to wrap a present. If paper has a small tear as often happens, I carefully repair it on the back side before putting it on the gift. I joked with Susan yesterday that what we save on wrapping paper we spend on tape.

Of course, it isn’t about money in the first place. Wrapping presents brings so many memories to mind for us that we enjoy the process. Still, we don’t want to be wasteful of the resources of our planet. We are careful sorters of the waste that leaves our house, making sure that we recycle as much as possible. We have access to the farm for composting materials that can be quickly turned into productive soil. We subscribe to a custom recycling service that recycles items that cannot be recycled through our area’s curbside recycling program. We do our best to send to the landfill the smallest amount possible.

One of the pieces of good fortune in our lives is that we have wonderful memories of those who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s in the US. Our parents came into their teens during the depression and entered adulthood as its aftermath was playing out in the lives of their families. They learned to be frugal. One of my treasured Christmas memories is of my Great Uncle Ted, for whom I was named, quietly sitting in a chair unwrapping his gifts. He was a master knife sharpener and taught me the craft. He always had a very sharp pocket knife with him. He would carefully slice through the tape and unwrap the present without tearing any paper, then neatly fold the paper so that it could be reused. I thought the process was unnecessary when I was a child, but now I enjoy doing the same thing when I unwrap gifts.

One year my father, who didn’t do very much shopping for our home, found out the price of wrapping paper from the dime store in our town. He declared that there was no reason to pay that price for wrapping paper and brought home a roll of paper of the type used in his store where a lot of presents were wrapped for customers. The huge roll of paper supplied our family for years and years. Christmas after Christmas most of the gifts under the tree were wrapped in the same paper. One of my younger brothers believed for a time that Santa Claus only used that type of paper and that it was how you could tell a gift was from the real Santa. As a teen, I grew weary of that paper and sought alternatives. I wrapped gifts in the color comics saved from the Sunday newspaper. I wrapped gifts in butcher paper decorated by tracing cookie cutters with colored pencils. I even went to the dime store and bought a roll of wrapping paper with my own money one year. The best source of variety, however, was the stack of used wrapping paper saved by my Uncle Ted, though even that supply grew less diverse because he also saved all the paper from the giant roll. It was by using the second-hand paper that I learned to measure gifts and seek a piece of paper that is just the right size and to piece together small scraps of paper before wrapping the gift.

Meanwhile, Susan, growing up in another household, grew used to saving wrapping paper after gift-giving occasions. The saved paper was ironed and kept for her aunt who was a school teacher in a neighborhood with lots of children who suffered from poverty. She used the second-hand paper for craft projects with the children and for the children to wrap hand made gifts for family members.

Later, when we were newlywed, we received wrapping paper from a cousin who owned several drug stores. At that time, stores were provided with display rolls of paper that were not intended to be sold. The display rolls had very little paper on them, just a thin strip to cover the cardboard tube. They were thrown away when the holiday display was taken down and new rolls would come the next year. But her cousin saved those rolls and gave them to family members to use. It takes a touch of creativity to wrap a box when the paper is narrower than the box being wrapped. I’ve spent time matching paper patterns and making seams in the paper with tape to make an attractive package.

Being frugal with paper has become a fun family tradition. We enjoy seeking alternatives to going to the store to purchase paper, though we occasionally do pick up a roll at the dollar store.

Like most of the rest of the best parts of Christmas, wrapping presents doesn’t have to be an expensive process to be a whole lot of fun.