My LEAST favorite holiday related task is preparing gifts and wrapping them. Though I appreciate creative, pretty, or festive wrapping and bows, I hate doing it. First of all, I am not good at wrapping gifts. My handiwork resembles a toddler. I don’t fold very well, the paper ends up tearing, the bows go on crooked, and the writing on the gift tag is illegible. I am slow as sweet holiday molasses and wrapping just a few gifts is a marathon of tangled tape and bits and scraps. Plus it consumes hours of my time. Quite literally.
So, I go the lazy way, my way, and for those of you like me, your new way. Here are my tips if you hate to wrap:
1.Gift cards! Small, easy, stuff in card.
2.Put a gift in a gift. I’ve “wrapped” gifts in blankets, scarves, towels, and stuffed gifts in tote bags/purses. Slap on a bow. Done.
3.Invest in good, hearty gift bags. For costs and the environment, get ‘em back and reuse ‘em again and again.
4.Hide your gift. Don’t wrap, just make up some clues for where the recipient can find it.
5.Just hand the gift over. No wrap. Explain you are ridiculous and don’t feel like wrapping it. Tell the recipient to shut their eyes and plop in down in front of them.
6.Realize, that if you’d rather “rap” than wrap like me, and you stink at it, again like me, but have to do it anyway, just do your best. That’s true of any holiday task. My kids still love me anyway, even if their gifts look crummy and they have no fresh baked anything (I don’t bake, can’t bake, and that’s another whole story).
Readers, bloggers, what other are the holiday related tasks you can’t take? What do you skip? What do you modify? How do you do it?
Have at it.
Peace and cheers,
Kim
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I'm also very lousy at that gift-wrapping thing...prefer to buy scarves at yard sales...or use the comic pages...somehow people don't expect you to be as neat with comics!
This year we aren't decorating...except for our sparkly spirits. Yes, we have gifts and merriment...but this time of year is ending and beginning for us in our natural cycle, one full of deep thought and connection to the messages of prophets of peace.
Hey ho, Lorraine!
Good point on the comics. Right on sparkly spirit!
Our family is made up of Goodwill shopper. Goodwill wraps breakables in nice newsprint which Ana then has Gabriel paint for wrapping paper. Last year Ana "painted" boxes with melted crayons which kept her very busy. My husband favors the Sunday funnies fo wrapping, but we do have several Costco rolls left over from past years. For large gifts we use paper holiday table clothes. I have to admit that in the process of wrapping I sometimes wonder about the effort and if the little kids even pay attention, but I have to admit that gaily wrapped backages under the tree look lovely.
Over the years I've let go of a lot of control over the Yuletide Season. Children grow up and marry somebodyelse's children and you have to be flexible. I'm at the point that I'm happy to turn a lot of it over to anyone interested which is why my dauhter0in-law now does the decorating and do we sparkle!
I close with a lovely poem/song sent to me in an email and speaks to all hearts regardless of spiritual beliefs:
From Sojourners....
Have Yourself a Peace and Justice Christmas
Have yourself a peace and justice Christmas,
Set your heart a-right.
Flee the malls and focus on Christ’s guiding light.
Have yourself a peace and justice Christmas,
Give your time a way.
Share God’s love, And serve “the least of these” today.
Here we are, as we pray for peace,
We’ll live simply and give more.
We care for those far and near to us,
Which brings cheer to us, once more.
God brings down
The haughty from high places,
And lifts up the low.
God cares for the hungry and the humble, so –
Forget the stress and let the peace and justice flow!
May Peace and Joy fill the Neighorhod!
Lorraine's scarf idea is a good one. That decorated scarf your birthday present came in was made specifically to "carry" or "wrap" items in an attractive manner by people who've made wrapping presents into an art.
With all the emphasis on "green" it's quite possible that they don't do it that way anymore, but when hubby and I went to Japan years ago even the most simple items from a ordinary store were thoughtfully double or triple wrapped with matching cords, ties before being placed in tasteful & appropriate bags.
While we never went to those lengths in my childhood, my relatives (whose parents were from the old country) were nevertheless sensitive about how presents were wrapped.
On those rare occasions when Dad wrapped a present, he'd get out his ruler and t-square to measure the paper so as to cut the perfect size piece without any excess waste.
I myself am more a measure by eye and rip it person. Gift bags are one of the greatest inventions in modern history.
Lorraine's scarf idea is a good one. That decorated scarf your birthday present came in was made specifically to "carry" or "wrap" items in an attractive manner by people who've made wrapping presents into an art.
With all the emphasis on "green" it's quite possible that they don't do it that way anymore, but when hubby and I went to Japan years ago even the most simple items from a ordinary store were thoughtfully double or triple wrapped with matching cords, ties before being placed in tasteful & appropriate bags.
While we never went to those lengths in my childhood, my relatives (whose parents were from the old country) were nevertheless sensitive about how presents were wrapped.
On those rare occasions when Dad wrapped a present, he'd get out his ruler and t-square to measure the paper so as to cut the perfect size piece without any excess waste.
I myself am more a measure by eye and rip it person. Gift bags are one of the greatest inventions in modern history.
Lorraine's scarf idea is a good one. That decorated scarf your birthday present came in was made specifically to "carry" or "wrap" items in an attractive manner by people who've made wrapping presents into an art.
With all the emphasis on "green" it's quite possible that they don't do it that way anymore, but when hubby and I went to Japan years ago even the most simple items from a ordinary store were thoughtfully double or triple wrapped with matching cords, ties before being placed in tasteful & appropriate bags.
While we never went to those lengths in my childhood, my relatives (whose parents were from the old country) were nevertheless sensitive about how presents were wrapped.
On those rare occasions when Dad wrapped a present, he'd get out his ruler and t-square to measure the paper so as to cut the perfect size piece without any excess waste.
I myself am more a measure by eye and rip it person. Gift bags are one of the greatest inventions in modern history.
Stephanie:
That poem was great. And I LOVE the tablecloth wrapping idea. Fab!
Sounds like you have a neat holiday household with a big loving family.
Mizu:
Interesting about the gift wrapping that you mention. Wow! That kind of precision boggles my mind. I can't do that. I think I'd start crying! LOL!
Happy Holidays to all!
Kim
I LOVE my scarf Mizu...thank you!!
Post a Comment