The issue of Gift Bas vs. Wrapping paper came up over at Michele’s today (and over lunch at work).
According to the BBC: 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.
Now I ranted about this before so you may already be familiar with my position on the matter but for those who don’t or have a short memory, let me explain.
Gift bags should only be used for odd shaped gifts like bottles of wine, soccer balls or thigh-masters. Of, course there are situations where unwrapping needs to be easy – say on an airplane, so there is the occasional exception.
In addition to my points made in my previous post, there is another side to this. namely – they don’t need your gift. More specifically, whatever you get for someone else, they are likely to be able to get that same gift for themselves. This isn’t 19th century America where everything was hand made and if you traveled more than 50 miles you were practically in a foreign country. this is the Internet age and anything you can get, I can get cheaper. The only thing left is the personalized and/or homemade gifts and the effort you put into giving the gift.
So imagine yourself about to open funny gifts from your Aunt Myrtle. She isn’t the best gift chooser but this year you have high hopes (of a gift card) and when the magical moment comes, she hands you a brightly colored paper bag (with red and green tissue paper of course). You quickly yank out the tissue and see – well it doesn’t matter because it’s over and you?re on to the next gift (a six pack of socks, maybe). Now you move onto the gift I gave you and it’s a wrapped present. It’s got shinny paper with little snowmen and reindeer and Santas and stuff. Plus it’s tied with a wide, velvety ribbon and a matching bow (with sparkle edges) First thing you notice is the card and it’s attached rather than shoved in the bag. You start by quietly reading it to yourself (fearing I wrote something embarrassing) then share with everyone in the room once you finish screening it. All along, you’re still wondering “what’s in the box?”
With the card out of the way you start to tear into the wrapping. You hesitate because you don’t want to seem too eager but everyone starts yelling “open it already!” and you go full tilt. As the paper stars to fall to the wayside, you start to get a glimpse of what’s inside. Is it a 32″ LCD TV, a new game, or maybe a new camera. Whatever it is, you have to savor the moment because it won’t come too quickly, especially if I put your gift in another box before wrapping it.
