Fun Wrapping Poll

[OrganicAnn]

I am on my 2nd hour of wrapping presents, so I thought I'd post a fun poll about present wrapping.

 

I like to do fun, beautiful, interesting wrapping for presents. Usually for adults, but sometimes for kids. I also like to receive presents that have nice wrapping, but it is not necessary (especially from DH or my DD).

 

So what do you like?

[Veritaserum]

At this point we will be lucky to have any wrapped gifts. I like pretty paper, but I never get around to ribbons. I think this somewhat disappoints my mom. Gifts are her love language and she makes the wrappings pretty with ribbons and bows and such.

[MamaT]

The first gifts I wrap are pretty; the last ones not so much. I'm over it by then. I can appreciate a beautiful wrapping job, but it doesn't really matter to me how a gift is wrapped.

[Mrs Mungo]

I like nice wrapping, bows, etc. I don't always DO it, but I like it. :)

[Unicorn.]

I like nice wrapping, bows, etc. I don't always DO it, but I like it. :)

 

:iagree: I wish I had time to do them up beautifully, but I don't. My mom used to go all out on the wrapping- they were so beautiful! But only when we were adults, not when we were kids. She didn't have the time then.

[DarcyB]

I'm more practical about wrapping. I like functional wrap, recycled wrap or cloth bags. I'd just prefer not to create more waste.

[Parrothead]

I like nice quality paper. I'm indifferent about bows and ribbons.

[twoxcell]

I like nice wrapping, but do not care either way if someone gives me a gift. Myself I have 4 kids 7 and under, and my youngest is a terrible sleeper, so since I'm wrapping gifts at like 2 am they are pretty basic. :lol:

[AngieW in Texas]

I don't really care about gifts for me much, but I enjoy doing creative wrapping of the gifts for the kids. I like to make it difficult to tell what the size and shape of the actual gift is.

 

Before kids, I enjoyed doing a lot of creative wrapping, including putting bricks in a box to make it feel heavier. Now I just use size deceptively rather than adding in extra weight.

 

edited to add:

When I say creative wrapping, I mean wrapping that disguises the shape and size. I don't mean pretty. Nobody would ever call my wrapping pretty. It's a skill I've never actually tried to develop. My wrapping is neat and functional. The paper is pretty. I don't do fancy.

Edited December 23, 2010 by AngieW in Texas

[VA6336]

Occasionally I'll compliment an unusually nice wrapping job, but for the most part I don't really notice. :blushing: I appreciate it when someone who has spent time making a gift particularly pretty on the outside tells me so as they hand it to me. I have enough common sense to make a big deal out of it so their efforts don't go to waste. But if they don't tell me...they figure out quickly that gifts are definitely not my "love language."

 

As far as stuff I wrap is concerned: we have four cats in our house, two of whom are obsessed with paper that makes crinkly noises (tissue paper, untaped wrapping paper), ribbons, bows and frilly anything. It's a miracle we can even have a fake tree. The presents I wrap are covered in paper and that's it. Flat "to and from" tape marks whose is whose. If anything comes into the house that has more decoration than that, the extra stuff either comes off immediately or the whole thing has to stay in a closet. Most of our family is out of town and if they ship something it comes sans frills for practicality's sake, but the one in town set has finally figured out our need for lack of fancy wrapping.

[ladydusk]

I almost picked "other" because I use the inside of grocery bags. Then pretty bows. [grin]

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

I voted that beautiful wrapping is like an extra gift. My family tends to wrap all gifts BEAUTIFULLY. This was great fun when I had the time. And now I don't. My first thought when I read your poll is that wrapping and fun don't belong in the same sentence! But I love to GET beautifully wrapped gifts and give them when I have time.

[Mom in High Heels]

I loves me some pretty packages! I love to wrap too! My mom thinks I'm crazy because I wrap all our gifts to match the color theme of me tree. This year it's red, white and silver, so that's what all our gifts are wrapped in. I usually do 3 or 4 different papers when I wrap. I'll wrap in one layer all over, then take strips of coordinating paper and make bands (getting pogressively smaller) over the main paper. They might run horizontally or vertically, or occasionally on the diagonal. It's so pretty and makes me happy. My friends say they can always tell which packages I've wrapped.

We got 2 boxes in the mail today of wrapped gifts and they don't match my tree so I hid them in the back. My mom thinks I'm crazy, but whatever, it's my tree!

[Vanna]

I'm always impressed with "drop dead gorgeous" wrapping, but you will never find me doing the job. I voted "I like nice wrapping." :D

[bookfiend]

I love to wrap the gifts, folding over all of the raw edges, crisp seams and pointy ends make me absurdly happy. I purchase beautiful paper and ribbons on sale throughout the year and then choose a color theme for our home gifts. I've been know to rewrap or embellish gifts that arrive and don't match or are very plain. My aunt even started asking about the color choice each year.

 

In October, I have friends over and we have a Christmas tag making party which is a great time to visit. We make multiples of the same tag and then exchange, like a cookie exchange. Gifts are wrapped in stages, all of the paper one day; all of the ribbons, bows and tags the next. Then the gifts become part of our holiday decorations.

Edited December 23, 2010 by bookfiend

[myfatherslily]

I couldn't care less about wrapping:) In fact, half the reason I said this year, "Hey, wouldn't it be SO FUN for the kids if we put out their big presents unwrapped and they could be surprised on Christmas morning?!" is so I wouldn't have to deal with wrapping them (a child's guitar, a 16" bike, and a small rocking horse). Not my idea of fun. Otherwise, for my own children I slap on some wrapping paper simply for the fun of opening it. All other humans get gift bags. I do LOVE gift bags:D

[Greta]

Well, you might think this is an excuse for laziness and/or frugality (and you might be right), but my philosophy when giving gifts is that it makes more sense to put the money and effort into the gift itself, rather than the container/wrapper it's given in, and I feel the same about any gifts that I receive. That's not to say I don't appreciate it when the person has gone to a lot of trouble to wrap it nicely! But I don't mind if they've gone minimalist either. I like receiving gifts in gift bags, because I reuse them! :D The environmentalist in me just hates the idea of expensive disposable wrappings, so I tend to use bags or boxes that can be re-used. And I appreciate it when others do so, too.

[Farrar]

I don't necessarily like "beautiful" wrapping the best - though it's nice. It's more that I appreciate unusual or creative wrapping. But, on the other hand, bad wrapping is fine too. It's all good. I mean, how can some crumpley paper ruin PRESENTS?

[danybug]

This year I wrapped, but I did not take me time and care as usual. And I did no extra ribbons or bows. For some reason, I just felt like it was a waste this year.

 

For me, a nicely wrapped present is beautiful! But I don't necessarily care either way.

[Slartibartfast]

I am indifferent to wrapping.

[Nakia]

I detest wrapping. There is only one thing that I have to do when wrapping. My girls pick out their roll of paper for their gifts. All of their gifts from us are wrapped in "their" paper. :D

 

As for the rest, as long as it's done, fine with me. I love the way really nice wrapping jobs look, but I'm not about to put that much time into a job I dislike so much.

[AuntieM]

I chose "other." A beautifully wrapped package is like an extra gift FROM me, rather than to me. I love to wrap gifts beautifully for certain people/occasions. Mot of the kids' Christmas stuff will be nice but less than beautiful. Heck, most of only spends a couple of hours in the wrapping!

[Aubrey]

Since I'm grown up & nobody can make me put ribbons & bows on packages any more, I don't. :D Our family was always out of town, so we spent so. much. time. every year, digging through the trunk for bows that had fallen off, refluffing ones that had gotten squashed, balancing them so they *wouldn't* get squashed, & then tensing at every turn as we heard them jostle in the trunk--I won't do it any more. Not even under my own tree. You can't even take a stack of wrapped presents from the bedroom to the tree w/out squashing the bows, so forget it.

 

But my ils are male-dominated, & my family is mostly women, so I do remember & appreciate wrapping paper vs bags, folded edges vs ragged ones. And, yeah, a pretty bow is really pretty. From my mom, for ex, I *know* that the wrapping is half the gift. :001_smile:

[Renthead Mommy]

I voted other.

 

I do want things wrapped. But every year I cringe at all the wasted money on ribbons and paper that people spend and especially at how much of it can't be recycled or burned in the christmas fire.

 

This year to avoid this, I finally got my family on board and we made a HUGE roll of paper. White paper that we stamped with christmas stamps. They actually came out very pretty.

 

We recycled all card and cut them into gift tags. We also didn't send out paper cards this year either. There is just so much garbage produced at the holidays, I'm just really trying to cut us back.

 

I saw the prettiest gifts in a magazine (read at the library!) They were actually wrapped in newspaper, but had a cloth ribbon around them. I'm thinking of that for next year. Make ribbon out of old blue jeans or other worn out cloths/material and wrap that around newspaper. Part of what makes it pretty is the sameness of the gifts, giving it a 'collection' look.

[Sasharowan]

I like receiving pretty presents. I used to wrap with the bows and ribbons and stuff although I was never very good at it. Now with 4 kids, the fanciest I get is to wrap each kid's present in their special paper. Dd is starting to get into special wrapping now though.

[Nakia]

I almost picked "other" because I use the inside of grocery bags. Then pretty bows. [grin]

 

That is a great idea!!!!!!! Thanks!

[mrsrevmeg]

My husband calls me "The Gift-Wrap Nazi". I like to make presents pretty. The bows usually get more elaborate and bigger the closer it gets to Christmas. Having said that, if someone gives me something that is less than beautifully wrapped, I do not frown upon it. Despite the hubby's nickname I am not snobby about the lack of luster in a gift. It is the thought that counts.

[ladydusk]

That is a great idea!!!!!!! Thanks!

 

You're welcome. It is kind of a pain, though. I do it because I like how it looks and it recycles the bags which, despite generally using reusables, I seem to always end up with an abundance of.

 

Bags without handles are better, but shorter. And you should cut off the bottoms (too thick). You sometimes have to piece together multiple bags/pieces unlike with regular wrapping paper. Sometimes Amazon uses brown paper as packing-fill and you can use that too if you don't mind the wrinkles (which I kind of like).

[mcconnellboys]

I like to add nice bow treatments and name tags that accent the paper, too! Of course, my guys could really care less, LOL....

[Allearia]

I love nice wrapping and bows.

 

Here is a fun article about the second-best gift wrapper in the world, a bit over the top.... lots of uses for toilet paper rolls in your wrapping...

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/22/DD0E1GR73K.DTL

[nukeswife]

I'm not picky. I don't really care how a gift given to me is wrapped.

 

For others I try to wrap it nicely in paper and then with a nice bow, or I'll make a cloth gift bag for it.

 

For my kids usually it's cloth gift bags. This is the first time in 5 years I've used paper wrapping for holiday gifts for them.

[SnowWhite]

I voted "other", because I am a huge fan of gift bags. I buy patterned, sequined tissue paper and recycle everything every year (except tags). Now for big boxed items that can't fit in a gift bag, I love them to be wrapped... by DH! (LOL). I am awful at the square corners and leftover pleats. I do however insist upon bows for wrapped packages.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I used to do really elaborate wrapping. I had worked in the gift wrap department of a swanky store so I learned how to make really pretty packages. I think it was the 3rd child that did in my wrapping efforts. Now, I go for neat and presentable without all the fancy stuff. Now, if it is just one gift, like a birthday or something, I will put more effort into it.

 

BTW, I am done wrapping. Now I have to clean up my terribly cluttered house before 9 am tomorrow.