For over twenty years I have saved extra sturdy boxes with separate lids. At Christmas I used the prettiest wrapping papers to wrap the box and its lid separately. The box is tied with ribbons to keep it closed. Each box can be reused every year.

Not only does this save money on gift wrap, it makes gift-wrapping a very speedy process! It does take some storage space if you accumulate enough boxes; but the boxes can be nested to save space, and they can be used to store Christmas decorations.

that is great! i never thought about doing that. a few other things i have heard about:

using fabric bags

reusable gift bags

leaving santas gifts (or most of them anyway) unwrapped

tying ribbon on to an unwrapped gift (great for bulky or odd shaped gifts like bikes)

and i love this one, although it is not reusable, put gift in box, wrap with 15 thousand layers of duct tape masking tape and or book binders tape. Great if you dont care that the box will be destroyed, but the best part is watching them try to open it : )  oh the days of being the older sister. btw this really only works well with small gifts, unless you want to pay more for the tape than the gift

I save on gift wrap, ribbons etc by doing the following:-

• Buy or make reusuable fabric gift bags
• Recycle the store-bought paper gift bags
• Use commercial "leftovers" e.g. newsprint rolls ends, to make my own gift wrap
• Buy cheap stockings from the dollar store and use those as gift bags (reusable)
• If I am forced to buy gift wrap/ bags - I buy them from the lowest cost supplier, usually the dollar store!
• Save various containers (e.g. the cylindrical containers from baby/ household wipes etc) - I can make them more Christmassy with fabric remnants.  I have one now that will be turned into a Santa container - an odd sock will become the hat, facial details will either be painted on or created with other craft/ sewing material
• Buy satin ribbon or salvage it from other packages (e.g. pretty ribbon saved from a bath gel gift set) and use that instead of curling ribbon or store bought bows.  Not only is the satin ribbon much more elegant, it can be reused for future gift wrapping, as hair bows etc.

MIL has an old fruit box that has been used for probably 20 years.  We were talking about this box the other day!  It has gone through a few different types of wrapping paper, but it's still very useful.  I bought about 10 rolls of wrapping paper from Dollar General for 50 cents/roll between 5 & 10 years ago and still have at least two rolls left with only two more gifts to buy this year!