Spinoff: How Well Do You Wrap Gifts?

[BearcatsFan]

Spinoff of my own wrapping thread.

I am so very bad at gift wrapping. I probably should use gift bags for everything, but every year I forge ahead with the paper, thinking I'll eventually get better at it. Yes, I'm the type whose gifts have a gazillion little pieces of tape everywhere, the ends are sometimes crunched up looking instead of folded neatly. Sadly, I sometimes have to insert a small piece of paper where a gap would be because I cut the paper wrong. You can always recognize the gifts I've wrapped for all the wrong reasons.

In short, my gifts are sad and pathetic looking! I had a job wrapping gifts at a mall store years ago - they moved me to a different department in quick fashion!

That leads to my question. Does your gift wrap style rival Martha Stewart's ... mine ... or somewhere in between?

 

[usnuzuloose]

Mine is terrible. I sat down yesterday wrapping games. I put ribbon on one of the packages. Got to the next and I sat there staring at it , and then nope that is horrible looking. I ripped it off and slapped a bow on it and said it will do.

 

[kimblebee]

Wrapping gifts is one of my favorite parts of Christmas! I spend a lot of time making sure the ribbons and bows match the paper. I'm not as bad as Martha but I would never put a purple bow on green paper. At last count I have 27 rolls of wrapping paper, 3 bags of bows (all different colors and sizes) and 23 rolls of ribbon (all different colors and designs). I freely admit I am obsessed and I'm ok with it.

 

[afnaechiquita]

I do pretty okay. I always end up with too much on the ends but I don't think it's terrible!

I did give up on the wrapping and bought bags for the rest of my gifts today.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Well, my gifts always look much better in my imagination than they do in real life. I either have too much on the ends or not enough. I either over tape or under tape. I never get the ribbons to look right, and forget bows- they fall off, get crushed, or are off center.
Luckily, the kiddos are always more interested in what's inside than in the wrapping.

 

[*JoGo*]

You can tell which gifts I wrapped first (all tied up with curling ribbon) vs. the gifts I wrapped last (stick-on bow... Or not).

I only use gift bags if the gift is too odd shaped to wrap or it is several small gifts. I will put things in boxes also. It's so much fun to tear paper!!!

My kids get bows slapped on as they're being set out under the tree. They don't appreciate the curling ribbon.

Between the tree and ribbon, my cats LOVE Christmas!!

 

[TifffanyD]

Mine is worse than yours. It is ALWAYS scrunchy and usually has hairs (mine and now the dog's) stuck in the tape. I really don't need to fill out the "from" on the gift tag... Noone else would claim it as theirs

 

[TifffanyD]

I think i need to find better paper and use more boxes. It also takes me FOREVER to badly wrap my presents.

 

[ilovemk76]

I can wrap very nicely. Some odd shaped gifts are just too hard to wrap and I use bags for them. I use to make my own bows and add ribbon to the packages. Taking packages to other places crushed the bows, so I have stopped with bows.

 

[onelilspark]

I do pretty well. When I was a teenager I worked in a card store that offered gift wrapping services, so I learned to get pretty good at making it look nice.


My husband was wrapping gifts while I was doing something else in the same room and it took all of my willpower not to take-over!

Most of my presents get mailed though, so they stay pretty basic so nothing gets squished.

I bought gift wrap this year that has glitter on it. That was the worst idea ever. Glitter is everywhere and the tape doesn't stick!!

 

[LisaR]

The good thing about my wrapping job is that it always gives my family something to laugh hysterically about. I am a horrible wrapper!

A few years ago, DH thought he solved my problems by buying paper with lines on the back so I would cut straight. That didn't solve a thing.

If we have to wrap a present that needs to look nice (wedding, baptism), DH does it. I generally wrap most of the Christmas presents for the kids since I like to wrap as I buy them (they snoop if I don't). So not only are my kids thrilled about getting presents on Christmas morning, they are excited to see how bad mom did with wrapping them.

 

[Buckalew11]

OP, I feel sure I rival you. I wrap like a 5 year old.

However, I just heard on GMA the other day that when a package is wrapped beautifully, people expect more from what is inside. Therefore, people are always pleasantly surprised by my presents.

 

[LuLuO]

I'm terrible at wrapping. Terrible. I think my 3 year old could do a better job. My husband on the other hand could do it professionally. His packages are beautiful.

 

[mom2travel]

I'm pretty good at it, but don't go all Martha on it (the amount of curly ribbon & bows decreases as we get closer to Christmas). I worked for a jeweler in high school and had to have tight edges on all the packages

 

[Pamlur]

Gift bags are my friend. My oldest granddaughter just came over and wrapped some stuff that was too big for the bags I have, but even she drew the line on two of them. Hopefully my daughter has some bigger bags.

 

[castmemberb4]

Wrapping gifts is one of my favorite parts of Christmas! I spend a lot of time making sure the ribbons and bows match the paper. I'm not as bad as Martha but I would never put a purple bow on green paper. At last count I have 27 rolls of wrapping paper, 3 bags of bows (all different colors and sizes) and 23 rolls of ribbon (all different colors and designs). I freely admit I am obsessed and I'm ok with it.

Me too! On all of this ! Although I have tons of stuff, paper, bows, boxes, bags, after Christmas for the last several years I go out and buy all matching stuff. This year I have two papers, three bag styles and matching tissue, bows and name tags.
Even in the past when I didn't do a theme I had to make sure that everything matched on a present from the name tag to the tissue AND matched the gift reciepent. My family could care less but I like it

 

[anniemck]

My aunts, cousins and neighbors used to pay me to wrap as a teen. I have also done it for friends over the years... $1 per gift is what they paid me, without me putting a price on it, and it does add up after a while. They would bring me the paper/bows/ribbon/tape and I would go to town. Love the ones who buy for EVERYONE!!!

 

[POPCITY]

I do okay so long as I'm wrapping a box, but give me something the slightest bit odd-shaped, and I choke. I plan it all out in my head, but it never comes out right. I can't stand gift bags, though, so I persevere! ; )

 

[arminnie]

Okay - I might be the only person you know (or the only person who will admit it) who took a COLLEGE COURSE in gift wrapping.

At SMU in Dallas one summer in the 60s.

I'm sure SMU is much more academically oriented today, but it had more than it's share of "fluff" classes back then.

 

[si-am]

I'm pretty good at it, and I love bows and ribbons, but it really kind of depends on my mood. This year, I left the wrapping to do all at once, so while my first few gifts look awesome, I soon got impatient and irritated, so a lot of them look kind of sloppy and amateur.

Wrapping presents with two feline "helpers" can quickly put a damper on the mood!