Using Christmas paper that you get on clearance for birthday presents is just one way to save money on wrapping paper. Find more in this post.
For more tips on saving money, check out all of our frugal posts.
Christmas was just the other day, but stores are over it. Every store wants its Christmas items off the shelves, which means deep discounts for shoppers.
One of my biggest money-saving tips this time of year is to stock up on birthday wrapping paper. Yes, birthday.
When you’re doing your post-Christmas shopping, you’ll see a ton of wrapping paper on clearance, so you can get a great deal on it. The majority of the decorative paper has images of reindeer, Santa, and words like Merry Christmas all over it. But a lot of the rolls of wrapping paper are actually pretty generic. Yes, red paper with white polka dots looks really Christmas-centric when it’s under your Christmas tree, but if you take that paper and wrap a birthday gift in it, no one thinks twice about it.
And, a couple years ago, I actually found a double pack of Christmas paper where a single roll was Christmas and the other roll was dinosaurs. Just plain dinosaurs. Not even ones with Christmas hats on. So I picked that up and wrapped all of our nephews’ gifts in it the following year.
No one knew. Except me, who got that roll for a lot cheaper than I would have if I specifically bought birthday wrapping paper, even if I went to one of the local dollar stores here and bought birthday paper.
But, using Christmas wrapping paper as birthday wrapping paper is just one of the ways you can save money on wrapping paper. We have a bunch of other great ideas for you if you keep reading.
Christmas wrapping paper is definitely something you should buy on clearance, but it’s not the only item you should be shopping for. For more, check out our list of 9 Things To Buy The Day After Christmas.
Ways To Save Money On Wrapping Paper
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Use Clearance Paper
As we already mentioned, pick up rolls of paper on clearance and use those for birthday presents. That’s such a great way to save a lot of money because wrapping paper can get so expensive. And it just gets thrown in the trash when you’re done with it. So you don’t want to throw lots of money away, if you can help it.
Look for clearance tissue paper at the end of the Christmas season too. If you can find a package of red and green tissue paper, you can use that red tissue paper in your Valentine’s Day gifts.
Reuse Gift Bags
Any time Pete or I get birthday or Christmas gifts in reusable gift bags, I save the gift bag and the tissue paper together — because that way, you always have tissue paper that matches the bag.
If you are reusing gift bags, double check them to look for any gift tags that may be attached to the bag that have your name on it. You don’t want to accidentally leave that on when you reuse the bag next year.
You could also save paper from a wrapped gift you received and reuse that to wrap other people’s gifts during the year. Personally I don’t do that, but wrapping paper doesn’t have to be single use. So as long as it’s not cheap paper that wrinkles really easily, you could definitely reuse it.
Use Paper Bags
If you purchase wine or spirits, there’s a chance that the bottle is put in a brown paper bag at the register before it’s handed back to you. Don’t throw out that bag. You can put that bag to good use and wrap that bottle — completely for free. You can color it, add a pretty bow, gather it up top with some festive ribbon, whatever you need to do to dress it up a little.
You can wrap other gifts in brown lunch bags. I do that all the time when I need extra Easter or Christmas bags. I have a tutorial for a Paper Bag Bunny Craft and DIY Card Stock Easter Bunny Treat Bags, both for Easter, and then a DIY Reindeer Gift Bag Tutorial for Christmas.
Make Gift Boxes
A couple years ago, I put together a tutorial on how to turn toothpaste boxes into gift boxes for small gifts. I also have a DIY Snowman Candy Holder post made from a peanut container because I have an affinity for upcycling anything I can.
So, keep gift boxes in mind when you’re opening any packaging. Paint them however you want, which could be a really fun way to get your kids to be a part of the gift, and then wrap your gifts in them.
If you wanted to, you could also make your own gift bags from wrapping paper. This is a fun craft, but not a money-saving tip because you don’t really save any money by making a gift bag instead of just wrapping the gift in wrapping paper.
Skip The Paper
The easiest way to save on wrapping paper is skipping the wrapping paper altogether.
I actually did that with a couple of my holiday gifts this year. I put together a gift of a mug filled with chocolate and a coaster and instead of wrapping them in holiday gift wrap, I wrapped them in cellophane — which I actually reused from a gift someone gave me.
But, you don’t have to not wrap things. Our DIY Starbucks Gift Card Coffee Cup Holder is a fun way to give a gift card without just sticking it in an envelope. This way looks like more of a gift and all you really do is stick some brown paper shred in a to go cup.
Use Your Kids’ Drawings
Most people’s kids color a lot (especially if you’ve made our DIY Crayon Letters for your kids this year). And there’s only so much fridge space to display them. So, a fun idea would be taking those drawings and using them to wrap smaller gifts.
If you don’t have any of your kids’ drawings handy, but you have some butcher paper from online orders saved (which yes, you should save all of that and all the bubble wrap too), roll that out and have your kids draw all over it with different colors of colored markers. Then, use that instead of rolls of gift wrap.
That’s actually a really good snowy day activity, if you’re wrapping gifts for Christmas and your kids can’t play outside.
Make Your Own Gift Tags
While we’re talking about making your own paper, let’s mention making your own gift tags too.
A good idea that we suggest is to make gift tags from your old Christmas cards using a tag-shaped paper punch. You could also make birthday gift tags from used greeting cards. That way, you’re upcycling old cards rather than just throwing them away and you save yourself some money by not actually buying a birthday card.
Many people will use wrapping paper scraps as a to/from tag when they’re wrapping gifts, but using old cards looks a little nicer.
Which of these ways to save on wrapping paper makes the most sense to you? Let us know in the comments.