Read today that wrapping paper is a big no-no in the fireplace cause it's so filled with carcinogins!(sp)! So I wouldn't want it in the garden!
We have taken to furoshiki (Japanese folding) that we learned from the local library (you can look it up on-line also). We buy scarves and fabric cheap and wrap our gifts in this. If the recipient wants to keep the scarf/fabric fine, but they usually give it back to us. There are wonderful and beautiful ways of using this lovely craft including carrying babies or presenting 2 bottles of wine! Nancy

Yikes!

Fabric & scarves sound lovely!

I never buy wrapping paper (well, maybe for a wedding or a baby shower, when I really want something fresh & elegant).

I usually use the Sunday comics or plain brown paper with yarn, or gift bags that can be re-used.

I spent Christmas with my cousins, & I did bring home a few cardboard boxes & some paper plates with the "scrapings" still on them.

(My cousins are used to me, & they've explained me to their young ones.)

Maybe the thrift store can use the wrinkled wrapping paper for packing material;
they always need newspaper.

Nope, none of that in the compost! I did get the remains of the Thanksgiving turkey, made 2.5 gal of stock, chopped up all the skin/cartilage and froze in portions for a local stray cat, and composted all the small bones. Of the 28 lb turkey, only 2 lb of large bones actually went into the landfill.

I don't know about carcinogens, but if paper burns with pretty flame colors, the ink has metals in it, some of which are flying up the chimney. Probably not a good idea.

I prefer to reuse as much as possible, which means carefully unwrapping big items and saving the paper. However I am usually at the inlaws at Christmas, and they are a family of tearers. They don't get it. My sister in law practically has OCD about gathering every piece of paper immediately and stuffing it into a trash bag. I'm the weird guy who recycles everything, so now she lets me have the fancy bows (haven't bought bows for years) and the shirt boxes which we fold up and store for next year. I do what I can.

We have a box that is wrapped in comic page from Pearls before swine, that is all about using comics for wrapping paper!
My (cheap) sister is known for using comics.
We have used this same box for at least the last 5 years to wrap her gifts! LOL We just give token gifts these days!
Our actual gift is to the community college for a scholarship in our parents' name. Nancy

We had the parties at my place this year and everyone was very glad that I'm now compost obsessed, because they could pretend to NOT grasp the concept of compostable, which allowed everyone but me to indulge in lazyness and stay on the chair while I was all alone sorting out the remains ;-)

Then they exchanged glances and laughed at me when I went mad because I couldn't find the 14th used tea bag because they couldn't realize how nice those organic and wet tea bags are for the compost.

I made a fool of myself but I don't care because I got everyone fed, worms included, and on top of that my young neighbors also had the parties at their place and I got all their remains, half rotten grapes included, and there were a lot !

Parties are even greater for one who has compost piles !

The 14th Tea Bag. It would make a great title for a book!

LOL^ Nancy