What are you using to wrap your gifts this year? Gift bags, paper...and if so, what type?
I remember when people used paper paper, but also a kind of foil-type paper that was a little thick.
These days, I mostly see thinner paper-paper, brown craft type paper, a little of the foil type, but not quite as thick as I remember, and a tissue paper that's meant to wrap with, not go in bags, though that's common.
I remember clearly that my grandmother had the dept. stores wrap most of her gifts, which they did for free then. And, if she was able to get boxes with cute motifs, such as Rudolf, she did. The rest were white, such as 'shirt boxes' and were wrapped over.
And, when we unwrapped gifts, we took the fancy bows off carefully, and returned them to her to be used again. 
I think that I've turned into my grandmother, because last year I told the kids not to throw away the gift bags, that I'd take them back to use another time, lol! Hey, upcycling is good for the environment! 
Actually, ddil sent them back, telling Ds that they already have their names on the tags in my own hand so...!
My mom was less about saving bows than cleaning up the mess. Growing up, we put the paper and such in a bag as we unwrapped. Voila, no mess!
As for getting presents from under the tree once I was married with children - which didn't go under until Christmas Eve. Basically because we always had dogs, cats, or a puppy or kitten. It was just less trouble to not have one of them 'help' to open then early! - I designated a child to hand them up to the recipients on Christmas morning. Or, if they all wanted to do it, they took turns.
Our traditions were to open one gift on Christmas Eve evening, and then all but one on Christmas morning. Then, we had a 'Santa Gift' after dinner. Sometimes it was one thing each, sometimes something for the whole family, like a board game.
How about you?
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