In my family, when we open presents, we carefully peel off the tape so that we can use the wrapping paper again. My mom has a whole Christmas Wrapping Suitcase full of reused paper, and every year, I enjoy sitting down in front of it and challenging myself to find the perfect-sized piece to wrap my gift without having to cut it down. I’ve also been reusing the same big bundle of curly ribbons for at least five years now. I’ve even found paper in there with sticker-tags signed by my grandfather who died two decades ago. So, while part of it is based in frugality and not wanting to create unnecessary waste, it’s also a little time capsule of Christmases past that I really enjoy.

My girlfriend’s family is much more the “tear it open quickly” type. She would get so annoyed and impatient at me very carefully peeling open the tape and sliding the gift out.

One year, she thought she’d found a solution. She wrapped my gift in newsprint. But, yet again, there I was, carefully preserving the paper.

Girlfriend: “Oh, for— It’s newspaper! Just rip it!”

Me: “But it’s the funnies! I want to read them after!”

She hung her head and sighed, and from then on, she only wrapped my presents in the most boring grey parts of the newspaper she could find.