I've got 2 hours into wrapping gifts this morning (the 4am part is probably NOT NORMAL!) and am pretty pleased with my piles of packages wrapped in pretty paper (mosty Hallmark), all with a variety of bows and ties and gift tags. Beautiful packages are almost as important to me as what's inside. I love to have them packed under the tree adding to its beauty. My mom was the same way - maybe worse.

In-laws, on the other hand, seldom wrap gifts. Usually they just sling you a store plastic bag with the item inside, price tags still attached. On a good day, they'll use a gift bag. I'm not a big fan of gift bags - every now and then, but not for everything. Drives me nuts. Really nuts.

So I guess we're at the two ends of the gift-wrapping spectrum - OCD vs WGAF.

What do you think? To wrap or not to wrap? Paper and bows? Gift bags?

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I love wrapping. I go all out on paper,ribbons,bows. for the kids i skip the bows and ribbon but try to use kid themed christmas paper. ..spongebob was popular I usually only use bags for that totally odd shaped gift that no matter how you try to wrap looks like a 2 yr old did it. I think when its wrapped nicer people take more time opening it and it adds to the suspense

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"Never loan your car to someone you have given birth too"

Kid-themed for my "kids" would be South Park, King of the Hill, Simpsons.....do they make that? LOL

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

lol they do make simpsons paper!!! I bought some at target when the movie came out. My boys loved it As for Christmas wrapping I love it. This year I coordinated the wrapping paper with my Christmas tree themes. The tree in the dining room is white with candy and gingerbread decorations so all my gifts under that tree are wrapped in peppermint candy designed paper. Really cute. My living room tree is a mix of homemade ornaments and ornaments from all the areas we have been stationed. No theme other than memories so the wrapping paper under that tree is a mix of papers from previous years and a few new ones I picked up this year. My mother brought gifts for us to put under the tree and she has the beach santa and flamingo thing going on. Very bright and appropriate as she has lived all her adult years by the beach

I agree. Making a package look nice is important to me. I love to use gorgeous, expensive ribbon (that I pick up on sale or at yard sales). I also make simple gift bags out of fabric...kind of like a pillow case...and tie a pretty ribbon to close it. They're great for those unusual sizes and shapes, reusable, and people love them!

I like to wrap also. But, I don't usually use bows or ribbon. Although it is my ultimate fantasy to have absolutely gorgeous presents ala Martha Stewart. lol.
I use gift bags sometimes, but I prefer to wrap.

I like to wrap also. This year's dilemma...how do you wrap something that is round? I have tried a couple of times and it looks ridiculous! It is a set of round stacking boxes. Any suggestions?

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Cylindrical boxes can be wrapped up like candy in tissue paper, with the ends tied with ribbon and fluffed out, or you can put the paper flat around the curved side, and fold it down, bit by bit, on the ends. Stick a big bow on top to make it look neater.

We wrap EVERYTHING, preferably elaborately, with ribbons, or in odd-shaped boxes. We've done stuff like putting a paper cut-out over a bottle's label, and wrapping the rest in cellophane, or stringing together Lindt truffles with bits of ribbon. Presents for cats always had a ton of curled ribbon, to play with. Actually, a lot of presents were labelled as being from pets, or fictional people, which was fun until memory slips lead to presents from the dead.

I think my grandmother started it, my mother added the precision part of it, and I was taught by both of them. When I lived at home, my father used to leave me piles of presents for other people, so I could package them.

I wrap everything, but I don't normally use bows on what goes under the tree as they normally just get knocked off or squooshed by other boxes.

wrapped, no bows/ribbon

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I hear what y'all are saying about the stick-on bows popping off......instead, I go with all different kinds of ribbon, yarn, and other ties.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I use very few gift bags, and if I do never to kids. I think that kids like to unwrap gifts more then just pull something out of a bag. I use cute paper for everyone, Santa, Sponge Bob, Care Bear etc.... After I am done wrapping everything I will go back if I have time and decorate the packages for other people with ribbon. My mom on the other hand hated wrapping gifts so as soon as I was old enough she would have me wrap everyones gifts except for my own.

I love the way wrapped gifts look but honestly I hate to wrap. I do it though. I also use gift bags for items that are too difficult to wrap. I think I'm not normal about wrapping paper though. I don't like more than 2 or 3 gifts wrapped in the same paper. So I buy about 10 different rolls of wrapping paper and normally have at least half the roll left. And of course I don't want to use the same paper the next year. I've finally discovered that my friend loves taking the excess off of my hands, lol....so I pass my partially used rolls to her.

I am a gift bag person. I detest wrapping presents and honestly, I hate the mess paper makes you open the gift. My whole family loves gift bags. We like how we can re-use them year after year. The running joke is who got that bag last year. It's an easy way to recycle LOL My in laws, they wrap everything...even stocking stuff (which is weird to me because we never had stocking stuff wrapped...even before gift bags.

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I even had to wrap my own gifts when I was at home.
My mother would box them so I didn't know what was inside but I wrapped the boxes!
But I still haven't grown tired of it even tho I have a "bad" back and have to sit and rest after 3-4 gifts so it takes me forever!

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

Love and appreciate the look of nicely wrapped gifts, but hate to do it! LOL..I slap it on as fast as possible and forget about nice edges or sharp corners. I wrap as many gifts as I can in one roll before I switch to another roll. I don't wrap Santa gifts (my parents never did) and it's nice! LOL With 4 kids, it saves me tons of wrapping. And you can easily see what's from Santa and what's from Mom and Dad.

I wrapped most of my 40 or so gifts in 2 sessions of a couple of hours. I also wrapped 23 books for my class of Kindergarteners in about 45 minutes! See...FAST!

We don't wrap Santa's big gifts either. Smaller ones are wrapped as are all of the gifts from Mom and Dad that are under the tree.

I use boxes, bags,ribbons and bows -- recycling as much as possible. I save bows, bags and giftwrap that is not torn up from the previous year.

We really only have about 20 gifts under the tree and with DH's help (he wraps and I do the bows and wrap while I'm waiting for him!), we were done in a little bit over an hour this morning.

I'm glad to be done. I also do not enjoy wrapping... but I do try to do it nice AND w/ Walmart paper and bows! LOL.

I like to make my packages look nice. I use ribbon (curled) and bows -store bought and made with wire ribbon. Not every package gets fancied up that much. Some, I just put a store bought bow on, and some I do go all out.....wire ribbon bow, curled ribbon, even use double stick tape so you don't see the tape.

P.S. To avoid getting burnt out and just slapping anything together, I do a few gifts at a time, not all or lots, at once.

What is WGAF?

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I hate hate hate wrapping gifts. I do it for the kids only b/c it's fun to tear it off. I am a true blue gift bagger.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

What is WGAF?


Who gives a...flip?

I wrap everything, but I have a method to my madness. I wrap all the gifts that have to be taken to my inlaws house on Christmas eve in one type of paper. We exchange gifts with a friend and her family, they get a different paper. My son has all of his wrapped in his own paper, the same for my daughter and husband, and the gifts that we take to my sister's house on Christmas day, another type of paper.
I put them all under the tree, without names on them, as I only know "the code" as to who gets what.
It keeps them guessing and makes it easier for me to make sure that I have all the gifts that I need to take to each "celebration". I skip the ribbons and bows because they all seem to get crushed when they are piled under the tree.

That's a cool idea, though I'd have to write my code down cause i'd surely forget it lol
Ooohhh I know, can use their Christmas pictures as a guide, they all get shirts that match in style <sweater in red, one in blue one in green ect> not always in the same colors every year so they cant think well red was mine last year must be this year too hehehe


I remember one year mom wrapped the gifts, they was all under the tree and I'd come home from school where i'd be alone til Dad got hme, but I'd ever so gently undo the tape and unwrap the stuff, then I'd play with them til i knew they would be home so i'd wrap it all back up useing the creases for guides. i told mom about it years later after i had my own kids and she couldnt believe i done that, I think one was a Quiz Wiz game and cant remember the other handheld game i played with tons before Christmas lol

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When he comes to our house, Santa wraps all the gifts that he brings, including stocking stuffers. Of course, he uses a different paper than any of those used for family gifts that are under the tree. He also uses a particular paper color for each of the kids. This is how he's done it for 40-some years. Well, when I was little, he wrapped the stocking stuffers in colored tissue paper. I got red, my sister got green, my brother blue. DS1 gets green, DS2 gets red, but Santa doesn't do the tissue paper any more. He got tired of that. Santa doesn't use bows, ribbons, or tags either...he's busier than I am.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I love to wrap each of my gifts, using bows and ribbon. I use a different wrap for my family and another for DH. Since the boys were little I've wrapped the oldests stuff using snowmen and youngest with santa. Very seldom do I use a gift bag for a gift.

Am I the only one who is really bothered by the knowledge of how much money is spent on expensive wrapping paper, fancy bows, ribbons, etc every year Our whole family has pretty much started using gift bags for the simple fact that they can be recycled instead of wasting so much money every year.

I know people who think nothing of spending $5 on the paper and bow for ONE gift, but are too damn cheap to donate to Toys for Tots That $5 would have bought a pretty nice toy for a needy child

I do like bags because they can be reused. It doesn't bother me what others spend on their paper and bows but I am too cheap to pay $5 for a roll of paper. I normally buy the $1 roll at Dollar Tree or use the Walgreens coupon and get 3 sheets for .39 cents. I also buy ribbon when it's 2/$1 or .39 at Walgreens.....but that's just me. I feel my gifts look pretty decent though I didn't spend a lot on the wrapping supplies.

my grandmother... until I was a teenager, had us carefully open the gifts and she'd pack away the paper to use the next year. I'm 30+ and I still dont really shred the paper, my 2 year old handles that. and I always by clearance paper. we dont really use bows, i have a bag that i've had for a few years now I just never put them on, forget abut them until i'm packing Christmas away til next year

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Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com

My other favorites
www.paperbackswap.com
www.wheresgeorge.com
www.geocaching.com

I hate wrapping with a passion loved it when I was younger though now with 3 kids it takes forever & a day to wrap I hate it When we celebrate with others I try to use as many gift bags as possible then I wrap for my kids so they can rip of the paper thats the fun right thier right??

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mom of 3 greats girls

I love nicely wrapped packages-pretty paper and bows. Santa wraps everything @ our house-each boy gets a different wrapping paper for his pile, and when I send gifts out to our family members, each gift needs to be wrapped in different paper. I rarely buy gift bags-it's actually cheaper to wrap a present IMO. About 10 years ago, a local store was going out of business. They were selling EVERYTHING. I bought a hanging rack, w/ about 18 different colored ribbons (huge rolls) for $18. They were selling it for $30, and I talked the manager down. There is so much ribbon, I will probably have it for the rest of my life-that really makes the packages look great!

Dont think alot of the kids really care how exactly it's wrapped just what the shred factor is lol

__________________
Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com

My other favorites
www.paperbackswap.com
www.wheresgeorge.com
www.geocaching.com

Oh....where to start?

I don't know about anyone else but as with anything seasonal, I don't spend a lot of money on it. Christmas is coming every year, so it's an easy one to buy paper, bows and rebbons ahead at 75% or 90% off. (that would include gift bags, but I don't like them ). I don't think I've ever paid full price for any gift wrapping item. I'd guess I spend $5 per year in total. We recycle the bows and ribbons and tie-ons and reuse them until they aren't usable anymore. The paper is used to start the fire in the fireplace. We like the pretty colors that it adds to the flames.

I know this wasn't aimed at me, but I think that my philanthropy would pass muster as well. It's a slippery slope and not very productive to get into hyper-analyzing how each individual chooses to spend their discretionary income. Having worked at sorting and distributing Toys for Tots, I think you might be surprised at where those toys actually go and whether the children are as needy as you think. Nonetheless, I gave Legos, Polly Pockets, and Imaginext toys to them through my drive at work. I also pinned three hat/mittens sets to the Mitten Tree and sponsored 4 homebound senior citizens with gift baskets filled with goodies. Oh, and there's the troops.....and the foster girls....and yeah, everything that was able to be wrapped (the donations often ask that you don't) are wrapped beautifully!

Cheers!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

NO, you're not. I think overall there is a lot of waste (money, resources,etc.). I try to do as much as I can to conserve. In fact, this year I kept the brown paper that they use for the roll on some wrapping paper, and had the kids stamp Christmas designs on it, and used that to wrap a gift No one will have a gift wrapped like that but this one recipient.

I have been known to spend a bit on some gifts' wrap.....depends on the occasion. Getting a little off topic from the OP, but, somewhat pertaining to your post KellyJef, I saw a story about a "club" where you give away 50% or more of your income to charity. It had a wonderful intent. I think if everyone did "something", including those on the receiving end, there would be FAR less poverty and such....but, like I said, getting off topic from OP's post.

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

My sister-in-law does sponge stamping on brown paper grocery sacks turned inside out and used as wrapping paper and ties with raffia.... looks lovely.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Quote:
Originally Posted by KellyJef
Am I the only one who is really bothered by the knowledge of how much money is spent on expensive wrapping paper, fancy bows, ribbons, etc every year Our whole family has pretty much started using gift bags for the simple fact that they can be recycled instead of wasting so much money every year.

I know people who think nothing of spending $5 on the paper and bow for ONE gift, but are too damn cheap to donate to Toys for Tots That $5 would have bought a pretty nice toy for a needy child




No, my post was not aimed at you or anyone else on this board. It was aimed at the people like I described in my original post: people who are too cheap to donate to needy children, but have plenty of money to spend on very expensive wrapping paper, etc.

IMO, anyone who can spend a ton of money on buying extravagant gifts for their own family and friends, but "can't afford" to help others in need are beyond selfish.