Margaret Cahill prepares a piece of Christmas wrapping paper for reuse at her home in Jefferson Township recently. By taking care how she opens presents and recycling the paper, Cahill said she hasn't had to buy it for 30 years.

JEFFERSON TWP — Whether or not they will be eating steak for dinner, Margaret Cahill's Christmas guests are always equipped with a steak knife.

Cahill, 85, has spent every Christmas since 1948 using a knife to gently cut the tape before removing wrapping paper from gifts, then storing the paper and ribbon for use in future years.

"I haven't bought wrapping paper for 30 years," said Cahill, who lives with her 57-year-old daughter, Bonnie.

"Each year we save the paper. We tear it as little as possible and I iron it," she said, explaining the older paper is ironed on the wrong side to protect the iron from non-colorfast printer's ink. A cloth diaper is used to protect the ironing board.

"I have containers of wrapping paper in different sizes. When I'm wrapping I reach for the right size paper, and we use the paper over and over," she said.

"It's not a matter of saving money, it's a matter of just not wasting things," said Cahill, who recycles countless items. At Christmas, those items include greeting cards — sent later as holiday postcards — and the fragrant needles from Fraser fir Christmas trees to be used as stuffing for floor pillows.

Although the conservation-minded family reuses paper as a matter of principle, the practice is not without sentiment.

Patterns and colors conjure memories of years past, and certain papers have come to symbolize special occasions.

With "Starlight Angel, Norcross, New York" printed along the edge, one sheet with a pink and white angel in the middle holds meaning for Bonnie, having been used each June to wrap her birthday presents.

"I don't know exactly how long I've been using that," Bonnie said. "It's ever since I was a child, so it is at least 40 — and probably 45 years," she said.

"I know that (my sister) Allison has one particular piece of Christmas paper that she watches for every year, and she wants to know who got it. And for years there was a particular red ribbon that was always put on my father's package."

"Somebody gets a package, and says 'Oh, I remember this paper,' and they remember what came in it before," Margaret said.

"And the designs change every year, so you have loads and loads of different patterns. It makes for a very colorful display."

Although Cahill hasn't purchased paper in decades, her collection is replenished as she and Bonnie receive wrapped gifts from other people. She also has seen her conservation efforts rub off on some of her five children.

At her daughter Allison's wedding shower in New York in the mid-80s, Cahill said a steak knife was in use.

"I sat beside her and she asked for a knife," Cahill recalled. "Everyone was incensed because it took a little longer."

Other events have proved less satisfying.

"I went to a baby shower recently and it was all I could do (not to say something.) "They had huge, huge presents with yards of paper. They balled it up and put it in the trash, bows and all."

"It just killed me," Cahill said. "Bonnie said 'Hold on, Mom.' She knew all I wanted to do was hand her a knife and tell her to cut."

According to the Stanford University Recycling Center in Stanford, Calif., Americans throw away 25 percent more trash during between Thanksgiving and New Year's than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week.According to Standford literature, if every family reused two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the earth. If every American family wrapped three presents in re-used materials, the saved paper could cover 45,000 football fields.The literature also says the 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the United States could fill a football field 10 stories high. Sending one card less would save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.To conserve paper, the center offers these suggestions:• Give gifts that don't require wrapping such as gift certificates, house plants, gifts of time or tickets to concerts, museums or sporting events.• When giving oversized gifts like bicycles or CD racks, tie a bow around them instead of using paper.• Wrap gifts in old maps, newspapers, Sunday comics or fancy holiday gift bags. Kids' art work is a perfect wrapping for presents to proud grandparents.• Use brown paper grocery bags to wrap small to medium size boxes that have to be mailed.• Make the wrap a part of the gift: Putting cookies in a flower pot or hiding jewelry in a new pair of gloves will keep your gift under wraps and the "wrapping" out of the trash.

Margaret Cahill's collection of recycled Christmas wrapping paper includes pieces that get used year after year.