A Wrapping Question

According to BBC News:

For most of us, it's a Christmas afterthought. But to a growing number the wrapping of a Christmas present is every bit as important as the gift inside, and messy wrapping is the ultimate festive faux pas.

According to Me:

I adore wrapping gifts. I spend many hours choosing pretty paper, making silk or French wired ribbon bows, and tucking fresh holly or flowers in the bows.

According to my Mother:

The second best way to gift wrap is having a supply of decorative gift bags. She simply places each present in it's own bag and covers it with tissue paper. It's quick. It's easy. It has the added delight of making her  only daughter cringe at the mere thought of it. The only thing easier  than this? Having the same daughter offer to come over and do all of  her holiday wrapping - because, after all, she does claim to adore wrapping gifts.

Your turn. Do you agree that wrapping is as important as the gift inside? Do you adore wrapping gifts or would you perhaps like to invite me over to finish your holiday wrapping?

Comments

[pickalish]

YES. I adore wrapping gifts, too. That's part of the fun!

[Paula]

I used to love it, but lately I've been throwing stuff into the bags. You can come over and help, Michele--I'll make you a nice cup of tea. :)

[kenju]

I have loved wrapping gifts since I was in high school; in fact, I was once employed as a gift wrapper! I'm very good at it, too, Michele. I should hire out. You and I could start a business doing it, I am sure!
Bags are for people with no creativity.

[archshrk]

Gift bags should only be used for odd shaped gifts (or in situations where unwrapping needs to be easy - say on an airplane) Since the gifts we give are often something they can get for themselves, the event of unwrapping needs to be prolonged by putting it in a box and wrapping it - ribbons and bows are even better.

See my rant from last time...
http://archshrk.com/2005/12/wrap-it-up/

[Mamacita]

I loathe gift bags; they seem such a cop-out, even while I love the giver. I love wrapping a gift; I love choosing the paper carefully, matching ribbon and bells and tying tiny violins and treble clefs to it. I want the outside of the box show the recipient that I paid as much careful attention to it, as I gave to the choosing of what's inside the box. Most years (this one, for example) the gift itself is so modest that I want the wrapping of it to be spectacular.

[srp]

Oh Michele. Please come over and wrap mine. I love pretty packages but have not had success even though I have one of the easy bow maker kits. Love the fancy packages, hate to wrap.

[Jennifer]

Oh, Michele, I would LOVE for you to come warp at my house!! I have so many presents and so little time...and no desire or energy left!!!

[MissMeliss]

I use gift bags when I'm giving collections of tiny gifts to individuals, but each small thing is individually wrapped, first.

Wrapping and unwrapping are half the fun, or more. Wrapping gifts is like a masquerade - you try and disguise things so people can't guess the gift inside. (I once gave my mother tickets to a skating show, wrapped in a large box filled with cans of tomato paste - the box itself was wrapped in blue sparkly paper and festooned with ribbons.)

[david]

I am definitely inviting you over on Christmas eve, to share some holiday cheer and Yes, you can wrap to your hearts content. I prefer the unwrapping of presents.

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

Well, I do enjoy it very much and I am not sure I think the wrapping is just as important as what is inside, but I try to make my packages "neat"...I wish I still had the dexterity to make the bows you describe...I bet your packages are GORGEOUS and have great style, Michele...! Maybe I could use a little help on the bows and such, if you aren't too busy? (lol)
I rarely use gift bags...and if I do I try to wrap what is inside the gift bag so it appears Christmasy and Holiday-ish!
I'm fascinated that your mother is not big on the wrapping, but you are!

[monique]

how i wrap a gift is determined by who it's going to. for my son, crinkled corners and huge gobs of tape. for my mother's overly anal jackass boyfriend, perfectly folded corners and near invisible slivers of tape.

though i have collected quite the collection over the years, i do not and will not "wrap" christmas gifts in gift bags.

[Marie]

I'd love to see a photo of one of your masterpieces Michele! They sound too special to open!

I enjoy wrapping but am very simple about it... nothing fancy. I just like a variety of papers and bows under the tree! I like lots of colors and designs.

As for the gift bag, I can see your point. But I love them for odd-shaped items. Plus I love the fact that they can be reused.

My sister-in-law has made many cloth gift bags with draw-strings. They're really very nice. She uses them year after year at her house. At first I missed the sound of tearing of the paper, but now I like that the bags were hand-made and can be reused forever!

[Judy]

I'm with Marie... I enjoy wrapping presents. I, too, worked as a "wrapper" (not to be confused with "rapper," please) during Christmas one year. I would LOVE to have room in my utility room where I could set up a wrapping station. It was so much easier wrapping presens at the job than it is sitting down on the living room floor, surrounded by paper, tape, presents, scissors, bows.... it's always "okay, where are the scissors NOW??" I do get to watch old movies while I wrap though!

[Jennie]

I love a beautifully wrapped gift and I do love wrapping gifts. I find that much more fun than buying them. It's one of the first things I do in preparation for Christmas, but that's partly because I have 3 big snoopers here. I'm trying to think of a special way to wrap two BB King tickets.

[Linda]

I love wrapping! I take my time, love to choose a variety of paper, decorate the packages with bows and ribbons and such. I get sad when I have to mail packages (such as this year) because I can't put all the flourishes upon each package, as they get crushed in their boxes...and I had to ship 10 large packages this year.

[Chrysalis]

It's strictly a mood thing. When I feel like it, I practically origami. When I don't it's gift bag city.

[Courtney]

I often compare my gift wrapping skills to that of an intellectually impaired resident of a group home, although, to be fair, they're much more skilled at gift wrapping than I. Although, for some gifts, gift bags feel like a cop out. So I struggle through, and apologize for half a roll of tape.

I have a masters degree in SPECIAL EDUCATION. Perhaps I need my own services in this regard.

[Tracey]

I can't wrap a gift to save my life. I have taken lessons from the best, my mom, and still can't do it. I am a bag wrapper. Sorry! I adore the bag. I dress them up though. All different kinds of tissue paper, bows etc.

[barbie2be]

absolutely. i love giving a gift that is beautiful on the outside as well as perfect on the inside. :)

[rampantbicycle]

I like to wrap, though I usually end up with simple, neat, sort of workmanly packaging - it does the job, it looks nice enough, but it may not be very exciting.

Gift bags are all right, especially if the gift is oddly shaped or has lots and lots of little bits...I mean, it's not OPTIMAL, but I won't lose any sleep over it either. :)

And I'd invite you over to do my wrapping in a heartbeat, except then everyone would know it wasn't me who did it... :)

[Becky68]

I have kids, nosy, wild inquisitive kids who just don't care if Christmas isn't as fun when you know what you're getting, if I used gift bags it would make it too easy (At least with wrapping the gifts up tightly they have to slit the tape, peek & re-tape the gift) This is why I rarely wrap gifts until the day before Christmas. They're safer locked in my shed than under the tree!

[craziequeen]

I just wish I were better at wrapping presents.....but after struggling with paper and tape, I don't really care about bows and ribbons and stuff.....

I remember one year my brother wrapped his gifts in newspaper and string..

cq

[Jugglernaut]

I used to hate wrapping because I'm not very good at it. But now I drink while I wrap so I have an excuse for the sloppiness, and it's a lot more fun.

One year for X-mess, my Mom did brown paper packages tied up with string, just like the Sound of Music song.

A friend of mine wraps gifts in plain white paper, then decorates with stamps, cutouts, and handwritten messages. Gorgeous!

My brother-in-law usually tosses you your gift in a grocery or Home Depot bag — but he finds great gifts, just hates the froufrou of wrapping.

[Karen]

Normally I would invite you over to help me finish wrapping all my gifts since it's not usually my favorite task. However, this year, after each little shopping trip, after the kids went to bed, I wrapped all that we had bought that day, and at this point, I have 5 gifts left.

[Denise]

I, too, am very particular in my wrapping and also have a mother who is enamored of the gift bags. (Grr.) My mother is so bad that she'll actually gather up the gift bags and re-use them next year if you don't insist on taking it with you and the gift.

[Virginia]

I rarely go the gift-bag route unless it's really odd shaped, and even then I try to fit it into a box instead. However, I don't go as pretty as I used to. When I was younger, there were maybe 10-15 people on my list and I had lots of fun wrapping everything up perfectly. But now, there are close to 50 gifts to wrap and I've gotten lazy. The corners are scrunched, the bows are store bought, and the ribbon isn't even the curling kind.

Oh, the shame.

[Phil]

I'm somewhere in the middle. While I loathe using gift bags, I do not spend a lot of effort/time wrapping the gift oh-so-perfectly. But it's definitely not an after-thought . . . I almost always wrap a gift as soon as I get it home, even if it is weeks (or occassionally, months) ahead of time.

[Mary]

One of the most fun Christmas Eves was the one where we didn't wrap anything. We traditionally go to my MILs for Christmas Eve. This particular year on the way home, we were talking about how each of us had wrapping to do when we got home. We were all tired and didn't want to wrap. So when we got home, we each retreived the presents from the various hiding places, still in the shopping bags, and exchanged gifts unwrapped. The shopping bags were the wrapping!! It was such fun and took the stress off of having to wrap. I don't like to wrap (probably because I'm not good at it). That was the only unwrapped year, and we laugh everytime we think of it.