Father Christmas enterprises today announced that it will no longer use shiny wrapping paper for its Christmas presents.

The move is to ensure that all festive wrapping paper used by the Real Santa Clause is fully recyclable.

A spokes-elf for Father Christmas said; “This is the next phase in reducing our impact on the environment during this festive time of year.”

“The labeling on Christmas wrapping paper is very confusing” he continued, “but as a general rule we will be avoiding very shiny paper and paper with glitter on it. These can’t be recycled but more matt Christmas paper can.”

Newport recyclers Wastesavers welcomed the move saying “We fully support this move as vast quantities of paper are used over Christmas and recommend people try to avoid shiny wrapping paper because we can’t recycle it.”

Father Christmas (aged 1,748 years) is not new to leading the way on environmental issues.

His reindeer powered sleigh first appeared in 1823 and is so efficient he saw no need to change to coal, petrol or electric power.

The Grinch was unavailable for comment.

Notes:

If you are unsure if the paper you have bought can be recycled, give it the “scrunch” test.

Take a reasonable size sheet of the wrapping paper (say at least 1ft x 1ft) and scrunch it up into a ball.

If it bounces back out it will have a large portion of plastic in it and cannot be recycled.

If it stays roughly the same shape as when scrunched it can be recycled.