Wrapping Gifts

[Commander Quan]

Maybe it's a guy thing, maybe it's just me, but does anyone else despise wrapping gifts? Perhaps I have a some motor skill dysfunction, or maybe it's my attention to detail, but I'm not very good at it. No matter how careful I am, whatever I wrap always ends up looking like a gigantic spit ball. In contrast, my wife loves wrapping gifts, big gifts, small gifts, they all look perfect. She went to a baby shower once and gave the mother to be a baby seat that was in a 8 sided box, and somehow figured out how to wrap it perfectly.

I bought her a new hand bag for Christmas and the lady at the store gave me a 16"x16"x8" box to put it in, and I almost had to go set a piece of plywood on saw horses just to wrap the dang thing because the kitchen table wasn't big enough to unroll the piece of paper I needed to use to cover it. I knew that I should need just over 7 square feet of paper, but for some reason that wasn't nearly enough, I felt like I needed something the size of one of those flags they use at football games that goes end zone to end zone just to be sure there wasn't an uncovered piece of the box sticking out somewhere. Her other gift, a piece of jewelry was slightly more manageable, I only needed a piece of paper the size of a tennis court to completely cover that one.

 

[Eskimo]

I'm with you 100%. Generally by the time I'm done, it looks like crap and the cost of the scotch tape exceeds the cost of the present.

 

[Commander Quan]

We were a little low on the scotch tape, so I had to go sparingly. The one gift has all these folds sticking out like a deranged origami crane

 

[njpaddy]

My wife takes forever to wrap a present. Takes me like 30 seconds. Needless to say she does all the wrapping for kids and grandkids.

 

[Toothpick]

Gift bags are a mans best friend and can be used time and time again.

 

[orchestrion]

I'm not particularly good at it, but I find wrapping gifts to be somewhat relaxing. Must be the "working with the hands" thing.

 

[MaxP]

Many service organizations raise money at the malls by offering gift wrap services for guys like us!

 

[Emooring37]

Gift bag plus tissue paper = done !!!!!!

 

[BrianL]

Gift bag plus tissue paper = done !!!!!!

+1

 

[dklaiman]

I'm also bad at wrapping presents. I delude myself by thinking that the effort shows how much I love the person I'm wrapping the gift for (primarily my wife or kids) and that they appreciate the effort more than they would appreciate the perfectly wrapped gift if I had the store wrap it. It's a delusion, because I know my kids never notice the wrapping job, and I assume my wife never does, either.

I also find a big bow useful in covering up any truly horrible parts of of the wrapping job I did.

 

[Argonaut]

Brown paper sacks, lunch bag sized up to supermarket grocery bag. Duct tape. This is what I do, seriously. Otherwise there is a chance the gift will be smashed out of frustration. I used to use the Sunday comics for wrapping paper, but I don't get the paper anymore. I look at wrapping as a way to hide the contents, not as a decoration. My wife and oldest daughter see it as an art form.

 

[syngent]

Gift bags and crinkly paper work for me

 

[garyg]

I'm not particularly good at it, but I find wrapping gifts to be somewhat relaxing. Must be the "working with the hands" thing.

I'm with Matt, I am inept but like to get all the stuff together on the day before, put on Christmas music ("Zatt You, Santy Claus?"), clear the table, get a drink mixed, then do it. Puts me in the mood, until the tape or paper runs out ..

 

[buffdaddy]

Yeah I'm not a big fan of it. Mostly because whenever I wrap a present it looks like a 5 year did it.

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

I can do it and have it look nice but I would rather bribe someone else

 

[Rushman2112]

I can make a reasonable fist of it, but all the chintzy bows and adornments are thankfully beyond me. Mind you, I have a black belt in origami.

 

[EvilGobi]

I don't really have a problem wrapping presents. My yearly tradition is put on (the greatest Christmas Movie of all time) Die Hard, grab a beer, spread all the presents and wrapping paper on the floor, and by the time John McClane has finished his Christmas I'm done all the wrapping.

 

[JoshuaNY]

I enjoy it, and am pretty good at it. I just dont do bows.

Every year I watch Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire and wrap away

 

[Taylor of Bank Street]

Maybe it's a guy thing,

Nailed it.


With the exception of a small percentage of dexterous men amongst us I think it's a congenital aspect of being male.
Do your best and the ladies will generally understand when you hand them something that looks like it was wrapped by a five year old wearing oven mitts. Puppy dog eyes help too.

 

[OldSaw]

What's wrong with the bag that the store clerk puts it in when you buy it?

I can wrap very well, and sometimes do. In fact I'm very anal about it when I do, but what's the point? So for me it's usually the bag it came in (especially if it is a nice one, like from Coldwater Creek) or any other bag or even newspaper that happens to be available.