I'm A Keeper

I don't know if gift bags are a Minnesota thing or a new millenium thing or if they were always around and my family was just out of it (all possible) but at first they baffled me. I refer, of course, to the gaily colored paper bags (usually lined with tissue paper) into which one places a wrapped gift before bringing it to a party.

At first I ignored the gift-in-bag protocol since I am a frugal person (no, no, Steve. I am. really) and the idea of spending money on something that is used for a millisecond appalled me but eventually we hosted enough whatits of our own that I managed to acquire a nice stash of gift bags. You know, every now and then I wonder how the bag manufacturers have ever managed to sell more than a dozen of these things because surely everyone does what I do. Remove the gift, fold the tissue paper, flatten the bag, store it and then pull it out again later to use for someone else's gift. You think you'd only need about ten or so in circulation at any given time, right? Of course I am right. 

Tonight my new friend (have I told you about my new friend? I have one. I like her a lot) has invited us to the surprise birthday party she's hosting for her husband. I bought a bottle a wine and a card and Steve found a book he thinks the husband might enjoy. In the old days I would have just carried these items in my hand like a lemur but I am a Minnesotan now. I know better. So I went upstairs to my magical guest bedroom window seat of many uses and rummaged around until I found a bag that was about the right shape, size, age and gender.

I wrote the card, wrapped the book, dusted the wine and inserted it all into the gift bag, remembering at the last moment to check and see if the attached gift tag had been used. I'm glad I did. It had. It was addressed: Steve Patrick and Julia - Congratulations on your new home!

We moved here in 2003.

Comments

[Jan]

Have done the same thing, often, but I do think it is perfectly fine to reuse gift bags. Just new tissue and a card. I make a POINT of saving and reusing bags.

[Just Cyd]

wait a second! you're supposed to WRAP the gift that goes in the gift bag? I thought the whole purpose of the gift bag was to be lazy and not actually WRAP the gift! the the need for copious amounts of tissue paper.

[Kathy]

OF COURSE you re-use the bags. I even reuse the tissue depending on its condition and the pickiness off the recipient. My family discussed this at Christmas and I am certain that we used some gift bags or decorative boxes that were older than my (nearly 40 year old) husband.

[Nicky]

I never wrap the gift that goes in the bag.

[Tara]

I'm in the Midwest and I remember gift bags becoming popular around the early 90s, perhaps? And yes, I have a huge stash of them too! I save the tissue paper if it's in good shape. But no way am I wrapping the gift before putting it into the gift bag! That defeats the whole purpose. :P

[Ashley]

I hardly ever comment here, but I have to echo some previous comments: you're supposed to wrap the gift and THEN put it in the bag?
I always considered the gift bag the lazy way of wrapping gifts. If I have time to properly wrap a present, then I do. If not, I just throw the present into a gift bag with some tissue paper and call it done.
In theory I'm in favor of reusing gift bags, as I have saved a bunch of them. In practice, I often end up buying a gift at the last minute as I'm on my way to the gift-giving occasion and then I end up having to buy a bag for it as well.

[Fatemeh]

You... wrap the gift first?

[Cara]

Don't worry, everybody. Only over-achievers like Julia wrap the gift first.

[Linda Roberts]

Yeah, me too. I pop the gift into the bag, drape it modestly with tissue: done! But, I am of the mind that money spent on fancy wrapping could be used for the gift. The whole idea of ripping the paper off and throwing it away is profigate and goes against the grain.

[LMM]

Yes. To all the previous posts. There is no wrapping of the gift before it goes in the bag, the bag IS the wrap. Even here in Minnesota.

[JenL]

Seriously! The whole point of the bag is that you don't have to wrap the (damn) present.

[Lora]

Uh...I've never wrapped the gift before putting it in the bag. The bag negates the wrapping! Occasionally I may have to wrap a little of the tissue paper around the gift so it's not visible right away but that's it.

[Alyson]

I've taken to buying the cloth bags at grocery stores (some of the ones at Trader Joes are even made in USA) instead of gift bags. A lot of times they're cheaper than the paper things AND totally reusable! I also save the paper ones that are given to me. Hello, why not?

[Amy]

I am laughing that you wrapped the present AND used a gift bag. I love gift bags because I just throw the present in, unwrapped. The lazy way of making it look pretty.

[Angie]

I think she's talking about wrapping the book in tissue paper. I live one state east and I do the same thing - I have tons of bags from baby showers and Christmas. I am total Wisconsinite through and through, but I get it. I'm a keeper too.

[Nelson's Mama]

I buy LOTS of gift bags because I'm never that organized!

My gift purchases are always made on the way TO the party, which necessitates the purchase of a bag - and tissue.

Then, it's all assembled in a very frantic manner in the floorboard my the car!!

[Sue]

Poor Julia--everyone making fun of her for wrapping the gift first!

(But ditto all the comments above about the bag's purpose being lazy wrapping. ;)

[Ellie]

Pfft. I wrap **and** bag gifts for my children because it makes the opening last longer ....

[Arnebya]

Yup. Total re-user (as long as no one's written on the actual bag with BLACK SHARPIE WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY.) And feel not bad. I found one at Christmas from November 2000: Congratulations on your new baby. She's of course 12 now.

And sssssssh but I've taken a liking recently to those nesting boxes. I wrap one, put it in another, wrap that one, put it in another and then in a bag. I find it hilarious. Recipients find it less than hilarious, especially if I've given them only one shoe because the math grades are shit and you have to earn the other. muhahahahaha

[Liz S]

I don't wrap either. just tissue and the gift bag. And of course I use the saved ones. Except that I lost them all in my flood last March......

[Sara]

I'm with the lemurs. But I still keep the stash of bags that I have accumulated over the years, just in case.

[Sandi]

I thought the point OF a gift bag was so you didn't have to wrap the gift.
I definitely reuse gift bags and tissue, my kids just know to hand me the bag back after they take the gift out haha.

[Naomi]

Gift bags are great. Environmentally responsible (because yes, they circulate endlessly; with some close friends I think we've given the same gift bag back and forth three or four times as the kids have birthdays) and a boon for the lazy.

I think I've bought gift bags maybe twice ever. I don't know how they stay in business, either.

[Shawna]

I'm with the rest: the gift gets wrapped or bagged. Never both.

Generally, I wrap things that come in boxes and things that go to my mother (who goes to an unbelieveable amount of trouble to gorgeously wrap everything she gives). The irregularly-shaped items get stuffed in bags with the tissue paper.

[bp]

>sigh< YOU wrap the gift first?

So much the better woman then i.

[SparkleP]

My mother once invested (hahaha I mean the $5 bags instead of the $2.50 ones) in fancy Christmas bags and wrote our names on the tags. After we opened presents we'd pass them in and she would file them away for next year. The fancy present always went into it.

Now we all have a stash of princess bags and they go back and forth between family. I see one and think "Oh, look, that's X's third birthday bag."

And rupidedupie - the Escalady term made my week! Today i saw her passing people on the right after she zoomed out of slow zone and then I saw her cut through a gas station parking lot to avoid a red light. Which I would applaud in my old state of Texas but is patently ridiculous in the picture postcard postage stamp size NE town we inhabit.

[erin]

So the card was made out to Steve, Patrick and you? Um, shouldn't you have been first or second and Patrick third? Hmm. So much for the good manners of Minnesotans!

[Elsiroomom]

Yes to Alyson! Someone did that for one of my children and I do it all the time now. TJoes has nice ones as does Michael's. imagine how long THOSE could be circulating!
My pet peeve is cards for children's birthdays. A nice card with a special sentiment for a grownup, yes. Cards for kids.....total waste.....and now they cost more than the gift bag!

[rbelle]

I second the ... um, problem of fully intending to reuse giftbags only to buy presents at the last minute, on the way to the party, necessitating a new bag/tissue paper purchase. However, I will also say that we have a ton of bags that we can't really reuse anyway. Either the bag doesn't fit the current present, or the occassion is wrong. No one I know has had a wedding shower since mine (at least not to which I've been invited), and there's been only one baby shower. Since I can't give 8-year-old Rowan his Spiderman action figure in a bag with pink and yellow baby elephants, the whole reusing the bag plan is more of an eco-friendly ideal that anything else. An eco-friendly ideal for which I'm rapidly running out of storage space.

[Jill]

People wrap them first? Never have I encountered such a thing down here in the south. Gift bags are for birthday presents that have to be wrapped in the car on the way to the party!

[Amy F]

Another Minnesotan assuming she means that she wrapped the gift in tissue paper, not with tape or anything.

In addition to my pile of circulating gift bags, I now have Christmas cloth bags that my sister and SIL and I endlessly pass back and forth between each other. I had to make some the first couple Christmases but now there's usually enough around. I made a point of sending my Mom home with the paper gift bags for a couple years, knowing she would use those but maybe not the cloth ones. I usually only have to wrap a couple presents with wrapping paper now.

[Kez]

Another reason we Australians are awesome - we don't even bother with the tissue, let alone wrap the item. Straight in the bag, and count yourself lucky if we bother to take the price tag off the gift as well.

[Sue]

I am old. When I was growing up we very carefully unwrapped every paper-wrapped gift, equally carefully we folded the paper so it could be reused...and reused ad infinitum. A friend's daughter, your age, still does this. We saved the ribbon too, and I still do if it's reusable. The very best wrapping paper though was the Sunday funnies from some paper other than your own.
In Japan gifts are/were wrapped in fabric, like a scarf, that was traditionally used as a cloth to carry items to the public baths. http://www.squidoo.com/gift-wrap#module1801260,
Now I too just use a saved bag and some loose tissue, and maybe a ribbon to help close it.

[Annette]

I'm curious about the tissue - what tissue?! Over here in the old country, they are just bags: pretty, with a little card attached (that I don't write on, of course, for all the re-use issues discussed above) but no tissue. Is it supposed to be for wrapping illusion, you think? And wouldn't it have to be somewhat bunched up, to fit on top of the gift, and thus have to be thrown out? I'm puzzled - please enlighten.

[Laura]

Annette: tissue goes in the bag "fluffed" on top to cover the gift from anyone peering in the top, like this
http://www.birthdaydirect.com/images/73235-easter-gift-bag-tissue.jpg

[Sonia]

If I, egads, have to buy a gift bag, I purposefully buy a generic solid color or multi-occassion bag. I will buy a yellow bag for a baby shower, rather than a cute one with booties or something. That way it's easier to reuse. But I also smooth out the packing paper some companies (like Penzey's) stuff their boxes with to use as wrapping paper. I have a kid who draws all day, so he decorates the paper for me.

[Karen]

My husband threw away a ton of cute gift bags that I received at my baby shower and I was so furious with him (perhaps partly due to pregnancy hormones but, still, those things can be pricey and I always reuse them! Stupid anti-clutter husband).

[Tommie]

If I'm going to put more than one gift (like Julia with the book and the wine) into one bag, I will wrap one gift in actual wrapping paper and then put them both in the bag. It just seems to prolong the unwrapping/excitement of gift-getting/giving.

[Shana in Texas]

Love it! Frugal and eco-friendly! No family celebration would be complete without my mother's admonition to Save the Bags & Bows! I have a large plastic bin with my own collection.

[Stephanie]

I like to use the Patty Reed lunch totes (http://www.pattyreeddesigns.com/Cat-34-1-2-0/lunch-totes.htm?SortOrder=3) as gift bags - they are always half price at my local store and kids and adults can always use a cute reusable bag!

[Dara]

wait a second....you're supposed to wrap the gift, then put it in the bag? I've never done that!!

[Terri C]

Whew! So relieved that my failure to wrap the gift before slipping it into the gift bag is not some sort of unique moral failing of mine. My heart was sinking... Some companies sell tissue with the bag, others make more $$$ by selling the bag and tissue separately. That way you can select from a number of tissue paper colors that complement the design of the bag you have selected.

[Lisa]

I've heard of wrapping a baby gift in a blanket(tie a ribbon around it, I guess)and giving an inscribed book as the card. Useful and eco-friendly!
I have some bags so cute that I want to keep them. Silly I know...

[Carie]

I keep the bags too - I'm still waiting for friends to produce some little girls because I have a massive stash of pale pink from the arrival of my daughters - but I wouldn't also wrap the gift it just goes in the bag maybe with a bit of tape to hold it shut. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

[Nancy]

I've never wrapped a gift to put in a gift bag - seems silly to me. Gift bags are a boon to my husband - I used to get my gift, unwrapped, in the store bag!!!

[Gretchen]

It's like being at the Grand Canyon. The echoing just won't stop and I'm going to keep it up. You don't wrap the present. The gift bag IS the wrapping, right? I put the gift inside and stuff tissue all around it, then leave some sticking out jauntily.

[jen w]

I'm in MN and I use gift bags, usually with a little tissue paper, but never wrapped then put in the bag. Not sure if that is just where you live in MN or what but I've never done it or seen it done. Do you mean wrapping in tissure paper or actually wrapping in wrapping paper??

[Tina]

Gretchen's "echo" comment made me me choke on my drink! I am also of the opinion that Julia meant she wrapped the gift in the tissue paper she had so lovingly saved for just such an occasion.

I only wrap gifts to frustrate people. I tend to be an over-tape-r, probably due to the fact that for most big holidays we have to schlep everything 8 hours north to our parents' homes. If something is too large for a bag & has to be wrapped, I'm taping that sucker up like Ft. Knox. I suppose I could just wait & wrap stuff when we get there so I don't have to worry about the paper tearing en route, but who wants to mess with alla that? "Not I," said the fly.

I, too, have a stash of wedding & baby shower bags. On the rare occasion that one of those comes up, I'm text-bombing the neighbors going, "IF ANYONE NEEDS A BAG, COME TO MY HOUSE! DO NOT BUY ONE!" Unfortunately, they all have stashes of their own. Someone needs to open a bag swap already.

[Tine]

Now Julia. Clearly you are not quiiiiiite a Minnesotan yet. Minnesotans are sensible. Wrapping a gift and then putting it in a gift bag is not sensible. It's OK though. We're a kind and patient lot, too, and we'll be nice to you while you figure this out. ;)

I know for a fact that my box of wrapping doodads still contains yards of fancy fabric ribbon from our wedding. That was 16 years ago!

[Shannon]

I used to think bags were for lazy people. And admittedly, I've only used them when being lazy, and always re-used bag. However, after holding my very first birthday party at a PLACE (not home!), I am totally going to go for the bags next time we're invited somewhere other than the person's home. With wrapped gifts, I probably could have only carried 4-5 at a time when taking them out to my car. With the bags, I was able to carry 10-15, thus taking one trip instead of 3 (I had to make 4 trips as it was). The bags don't fit in the car as well, but I'll deal with that. I would, however, loosely wrap the gift in tissue paper before putting in in the bag, lined with tissue paper to make it pretty, so it's can't be seen.