Parenting Tips & Tricks for Christmas No. #8 - Gift Bag it!

Here is Parenting Tips & Tricks for Christmas No. 8  - Gift Bag it! ….

I have committed to posting a Parenting Tips and Tricks to my lovely readers every day up till Christmas. If you want to know how and why this idea started you can track back to Tips and Tricks No #1

On Christmas Day there will be a lot of paper flying around as your children and Mummy’s & Daddy’s (if they were very good) finally open their presents.

Out come the black bin liners – but wait! Don’t forget, you have to take the sellotape off, remove the gift tags (cardboard and paper go in seperate boxes for recycling). I’m not being a goodie, two shoes, clever clogs here  … I have literally had a dressing down (in my dressing gown) on the front lawn one snowy recycling bin collection day, by a very cross refuse collector (bin man in my youth). He made me take all of the wrapping out of the recycle bin and do the above mentioned (take the sellotape off & separate the tags from the paper). He said it wasnt getting taken till I did. Given collections are limited enough and even moreso at Christmas – I wasn’t arguing! (which makes a change!).

So, is this post about ‘bagging yor recycling properly’ – eeerrr no! I’m afraid not – but do take the advice if you want yours collecting over Christmas ……

My advice is to buy gift bags for your gifts at Christmas. You can buy them quite reasonably in supermarkets and in pound/cheap shops these days and my idea for recycling them to save money is – not to write on the tags!!!!

You see, whenever I’d receive a gift in a ‘gift bag’ I keep it! I’d rip the used tag off and add my own the next time it was passed on. Then I noticed over time, that sometimes the tag was not written on and I’ve even had people say – you can re-use the bag! Which is (given they are so well made and very handy) a very good idea. So now I don’t write on the tag either and say the same when I pass it on.

You can’t put everything in bags – it’s a bit harder to get bags big enough for some things. That said, there are bigger than usual gift bags available especially at Christmas in shops (like supermarkets and pound shops)

Don’t stop at the paper/card variety of bag – you can buy felt, satin, cotton bags and sacks to put lots of toys in.

I use one medium sized bag to put all of the cards I buy in advance, so that I’ve always got a card handy when I need one – hey that’s two tips for the price of one (three if you count the seperating the tags from the wrapping). I’m getting far too generous

Tips and Tricks No. 1 - Cadbury’s White Chocolate Fingers

Tips and Tricks No. 2 - Advent Treats in Organza Bags

Tips & Tricks No. 3 - Recycling Christmas Cards into Gift Tags

Tips & Tricks No. 4 - Hand Painted Christmas Wreaths

Tips & Tricks No. 5 - Clear the Clutter

Tips & Tricks No. 6 - Recycling the Cost of Christmas

Tips & Tricks No. 7 – Saving Money on Kids Toys (and Big Boys Toys)