This year I think I’ve realized I’m a little bit of a Grinch when it comes to Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holiday spirit and all of the festive things, like decorating and those Hallmark movies, but trying to find presents for people and then wrapping them is such a chore for me.
I made myself a Google spreadsheet with who I had to buy for, ideas of gifts, and if the gifts had been received yet—applicable to online orders—and if they have been wrapped yet. I only had to buy for six people this year, well, seven including a gift for the Yankee Swap at my work Christmas party this week.
Buying presents for my parents is the hardest, because they can realistically can get what they want for themselves; like they’re not really wishing to get anything. And if you’re my mom, you order what you want from QVC and then wrap it yourself and sign the tag from Santa. (I also know about 80% of what I’m getting for Christmas because my mom does the “We’ll go shopping in December and whatever you want I’ll give it to you for Christmas” thing.)
I was going to put my wrapping off until the last minute but we’re doing an early Christmas at my grandparents’ house on the 16th. So I put a note in my planner marking last Saturday as my day to wrap. I complained that I hated wrapping, so my mom offered to help me wrap gifts that weren’t for her, and apparently she thought I couldn’t wrap at all. I can wrap, I just hate doing it.
We did have a little friend join us while we were wrapping: Stella. My dad’s gifts came in a small box that we were going to wrap after wrapping each gift individually, and Stella jumped inside because, you know, the “If I fits, I sits” cat philosophy.
Maybe it’s because we’re not setting ourselves up for success where we wrap gifts every year. We do it in our basement in our TV room, that’s home to a TV/media center, a cedar chest that holds our printer, two recliners, a treadmill, some leftover stuff from when I lived at college, and a Bo Flex machine that no one uses but my dad claims he’ll start using it again once the basement is clean. (He’s been saying that for years.) We wrap on the floor, and there’s about a three by three foot area that’s open for wrapping. Granted, we could take the wrapping paper and stuff somewhere else, but if we have to wrap for each other, we go downstairs and tell whoever’s gifts are being wrapped not to go downstairs.
I’m pretty good at wrapping boxes but anything else I absolutely hate. My cop-out is loosely wrapping things in tissue paper and then shoving everything in a bag. It’s just frustrating, and they don’t show people getting frustrated wrapping in Hallmark movies, so that means I should be having such a wonderful and joyous time wrapping hand-picked presents for my loved ones.
I have two gifts left to get, and one of them is something else for my mom. I’m thinking of finding something online to order because I hate going out shopping this time of year. My town has literally every store you can imagine like a two mile radius, so traffic is a million times worse than it already is. And don’t forget about the lines and having to actually deal with people.
Wow, so in conclusion, I’ve become a Grinch. I like getting presents for people, and I like receiving them, but the process of actually getting to that point is just too stressful.
Are you good at wrapping? Can I outsource my wrapping needs to you? Thoughts on the whole struggle of finding gifts for people who already have everything they want?
Strikeouts + Sprinkles 
HAHA! Oh Becky! I got the alert on my phone for this as I was wrapping my gifts and I had to stop wrapping to read it lol I LOVE WRAPPING! Seriously it’s so much fun! If someone could shop for me and then just let me wrap, I’d be totally down for that. My hands are covered in glitter and I have a table full of cute little presents now!
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I don’t mind shopping, as long as I have a good idea of what I’m getting someone. I’ll gladly send my wrapping to you to do haha. Any pro tips/secrets you can share?
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When I wrap, I make sure I have everything together so I don’t have to stop and start. Sharp scissors and a straight edged knife are essential. And a big enough space to lay everything out. I just really like folding everything nicely and crisp and seeing the finished product.
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It’s like you took all my thoughts about wrapping presents and wrote them out for me haha. I think I wrote about this too a few years ago maybe. But yes, it’s such a chore. A few years ago, I had to pull an all-nighter on Christmas Eve to wrap presents. I also wrap on the floor in a 3×3 foot area in my room. It’s such a pain when the tape is out of reach, or if a roll of paper requires me to stand up to get it, I’ll just wrap more gifts in the paper closest to me. It’s so bad, but somewhat hilarious. My mom already spoiled one of my gifts, which she does every year without fail. Must be a mom thing.
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I’d love to read your take on wrapping, because it’s probably funnier than mine. You waited until Christmas Eve? I at least don’t wait that long, but I put it off as long as I can. I struggle a lot with the wrapping paper and the roll rolling back up on itself while I’m trying to cut it. And I’m always come up short with the paper so I have to patch together the box.
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I always come up short on paper! I mention that in this post I think: https://captainsspeech.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/wrapping-presents/
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I’m actually really good at wrapping presents. I even find it oddly therapeutic. And if it’s a simple box of some kind, I can do the thing where it’s wrapped to perfection with only three pieces of tape. If it’s more complicated than just a box, it’s a challenge, but I like a challenge.
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Show me your wrapping ways haha. I sometimes struggle with a box, and I’m like, this is a box and probably the easiest thing to wrap. And I’m not good at eye balling how much paper I’ll need and I sometimes come up short.
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You can wrap but hate it. I don’t hate, but am terrible at it! Seriously, I make wrapping books look hard! But the cat in the box was the cutest!
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I think it takes a special talent to wrap, and I don’t think I have it. I’d much rather loosely wrap things in tissue paper and shove them in a bag. Plus the bags make for easy transport. My cat has been enjoying the increase in boxes to sit in, and she likes to chew on the wrapping paper on Christmas day.
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I’m not very good at wrapping presents anymore. I was really good at it when I was younger and my mom would recruit me to help her. But now I barely wrap any! I usually just got for a gift bag haha.
I am struggling with finding gifts for my parents. My sister is so easy to buy for because she loves a lot of the same things as me.
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We share the same wrapping philosophy. I’m much more of a bag person now.
I ended up finding a few things for each of my parents but it was a stretch. If anything, I get my mom a bunch of post-it notes or nail polish, things she uses regularly.
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My husband feels the same way about wrapping! He absolutely hates it, lol. What a great idea to make a Google spreadsheet with all the info on presents, though!! I’m definitely doing that next year. SO smart!
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The spreadsheet was helpful and would probably work if you have to buy for a lot of people. At least for the handful I had to buy for, it was easier to track if packages had arrived that I ordered online and make sure I had things wrapped in time. (So I could ultimately procrastinate my wrapping…)
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[…] I participated in all of the fun seasonal festivities, including getting our Christmas tree, decorating my office, rekindling my love/hate relationship with Hallmark movies, and complaining about how much I hate wrapping. […]
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[…] only decent at wrapping; anything that’s not a box tends to cause trouble. I wrote this post back in 2018, and to be honest, not much has changed, although I’m no longer wrapping in the […]
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