The Art of Gift Wrapping

I have spent the entire day wrapping gifts. I have wrapped my Christmas Cranberry Relish and special hand crafted or “store bought” gifts in paper and ribbons artfully gracing each package. I have bubble wrapped all the gifts that require mailing. During this season of gift-giving I find myself exploring the many ways in which  I, and my friends and relatives, have wrapped gifts over the years.  

I was bitten by the gift-wrapping bug when I was eleven years old, in Wyckoff, New Jersey. It was the year that glitter pens came out, which was the launching pad for the rocket of my love of gift wrapping. After purchasing the perfect gifts for my mother and sister I scurried down to the basement and wrapped their packages on our ping-pong table. Oh! The glory of brightly colored wrapping paper accentuated with glitter! Then the elaborate card, in glitter ink, tucked under each lovely ribbon.

I was gleeful as I took all the gifts from their hiding places and displayed them under the Christmas tree on Christmas eve. It was more exciting to see my family’s reactions to the wrapping than to what was inside the paper. 

  When my children were small it was easy to keep their gifts hidden in plain sight at higher altitudes than their own. My children could not reach the top of a dresser or the high reaches of a closet. After all, Santa brought their gifts, along with the elves. Not Mom. They wouldn’t think to look for hiding places. Wrapping paper was superfluous but still necessary..  

As my children grew they began to climb onto counters and explore closets. My shoe racks became their ladder for climbing to the top shelves of my closets.  How much fun it was to hide their Christmas gifts in a place where they would never find them, or so I imagined until I discovered the tell-tale torn paper revealing the culprits. 

I love receiving gifts,  beautifully wrapped or casually packaged. When I receive a package I carefully unwrap the tape, savoring and saving the most artistic  paper. Then, a dilemma arises as time passes. Who gave me this wrapping? If I am recycling the paper on their gift, would it be viewed as an insult or a compliment? I have decided that if someone recognizes their wrapping paper they would be flattered at its recovery and amazed at the care I took in preserving their artfully decorated package. To date, I don’t believe I have recycled wrapping to the person who first gifted this special tribute in paper to me. At least, not that I am aware of. I pride my friends and relatives on their tactfulness.

Gift wrap tells a lot about a person. My gift wrapping may be recycled artisan paper with beautiful ribbons. More often it is wrapping paper I discovered at the Dollar Tree. I always look for bargains. Yet, I care enough to resurrect beauty and treasure paper and ribbons to share with a dear friend who deserves a special package. 

Gift wrap can be determined by each person's closeness and regard for one another. As for myself, the paper chosen tells the gift recipient that I care deeply for them. The paper is cute or luxurious but the ribbon is magnificent and makes the gift itself stand out. I am a devoted savior of ribbons. I carefully roll them up and place it in an appropriate container for birthdays and holidays. I am thrifty. I embarrass myself when I discover a few inches of saved ribbon in a salvage box.  How could I have imagined I would resurrect this flimsy recycled slice of ribbon? 

How an individual wraps a gift says a lot about who they are. The type of gift purchased is dictated by love, friendship,  time and finances.  When I was a young mother with many friends we always agreed we were too poor to purchase gifts, so we’d take one another out to lunch. What more perfect gift for a dear friend than to treat her with a date? Wrapping was not necessary.  

As our lives and finances changed, we began to exchange gifts.  I noticed  gift wrap evolved, also. Where once I would receive Dollar Tree or Walmart paper on gifts now thick, rich paper began appearing from Hallmark, Barnes & Noble or a small independent gift shop in Maui or Carmel. 

The ribbon also took a leap of financial resources. Lovely, wide ribbons of every color and of all materials began to appear on my gifts. Packages were now matching my personality.  Beautiful paper was festooned  with books, fairies, birds or forest scenes. Ribbons were wide, lacy, or glittery, with beautiful bows. These wrapped gifts always made my heart melt. Wow, this friend really knows who I am. I would savor the gift wrap, but eventually, would forget the gift.

Tis the Season...

Regarding the quality of wrapping paper and the level of a relationship I have come to the following conclusions regarding the male gender and their gift wrapping characteristics.

Men who are seeking a long-term relationship have their gifts wrapped professionally at the jewelry store, Macy’s or other high-end department stores or a new, crafty boutique. This illustrates the fellow cares deeply enough to visit a store and choose a gift for their beloved, or hoped-to-be-beloved.

One step down on the dating escalator is the mid-term relationship. Not quite ready for marriage, but together for two to five years. When shopping on Amazon, they always choose the $5.99 option of having the gift delivered in an Amazon gift bag, No need to impress with pretty paper and ribbons.

Notice to all men: vacuum cleaners and electric mixers are never suitable for any woman, no matter the relationship. It states clearly, you’re the maid. I’m the king. You clean the house and serve me. I am here to be waited on. Relationships of this order are usually not long-lasting ones.

Gentlemen, this paper not suggested for your loved one's gifts

My husband has never realized that gift wrap exists. Through 43 years of our lives together he has been innovative and imaginative, as well as footloose and fancy free.  He taught me to wrap our children’s and grand-children’s gifts in the comic pages of newspapers. Alas, those pages no longer exist, so he resorts to Creative Loafing to wrap my gifts. Tim also draws on newsprint paper to decorate my gifts. His paper is truly a work of art and always unusual. Many times his drawings reflect scenes from our life.

In much the same way my children and I made potato stamped wrapping paper on newsprint paper.  I loved cutting out the raw potato slices with cookie cutters into Christmas shapes. We would then dip the potatoes in red or green ink and stamp the decorations on the newsprint. Our fingertips were red and green for days afterward.

Thankfully, the revolution of gift bags arrived. What a balm to every gift-wrapper’s existence! Now all one needs is tissue paper and a cute little bag in a rainbow of colors and seasonal decoration in which to place gifts for a dear friend. You can get plain gift bags or bags for every occasion, decorated with beautiful paintings from fairies to frogs. One can stuff tons of adorable little items in a gift bag. A small gift will suddenly become a large gift.

My husband still wraps my gifts in newspaper. I still wrap gifts in Dollar Tree paper as well as beautifully preserved papers.   I continue to decorate my gifts with paper or slices of ribbon I’ve discovered at garage sales. I am artistic. That usually passes for “thrifty.” I am both.

I must admit I make a mess when wrapping gifts. Bits of paper, glitter and ribbon litter the floor. I don’t realize what I’ve done until my beloved sweeps the trimmings from under my feet. Perhaps that is the ultimate gift. One who recognizes what you are trying to say in paper and ribbon and then cleans up the refuse you leave behind as you discover yourself and what your friends mean to you. So, dear friends, fellow writers and readers, when wrapping a gift know that you are wrapping up part of yourself, your history, your financial life and your artistry.

I have learned a great deal about myself and my feelings by the ways in which I have wrapped gifts over the years. We are revealed in the comic pages, artistic paper or gift bags and tissue paper we choose. Will that special person recognize the value of who you are to one another by what you put outside the box, not just in it? 

The moral of this tale, if there is one, is to pay attention to the ways in which you wrap a gift. There’s a lot to learn about your relationship with the gift recipient, and yourself.

Happy Gift Wrapping, Happy Holidays and Restful Winter Vacations