UNITED STATES—It was a debate that I have been having with family members for the past few weeks. Is it better to wrap a gift or place it into a bag? For years, I would take any gifts I purchased for the holiday season, group them up and on Christmas Eve evening after work, I would wrap everything and then dish out the gifts on Christmas Day. Is it a chore? Without a doubt, but I just love the notion of wrapping gifts.
However, in recent years, I have swapped the gift wrapping for bagging presents. Why? The bag can be reused, you only need tissue paper and you’re not wasting a ton of paper that is just going to be thrown away anyway. However, 2023 has been a conflicting year for me. I did indeed take about two hours after getting off of work Sunday and I wrapped gifts.
Let me tell you America, it was the greatest feeling in the world. I kid you not. I had so much peace, joy and just solace in doing this, that I wish Christmas in its own way was every three to four months. For starters, you do need to organize your gifts. I’m pretty bad at that. I purchase things, stash them away in the closet and never look at them until Christmas is literally within days reach and I have to determine what items are for who on my list.
Yes, America, I know it is indeed stupid, but we all have our methods of madness. My goal is to get the gifts and determine who to give them to later. It does sometimes lead to overspending, which is not smart. So I have worked to limit that.
With that said, I pulled out my thick wrapping paper from the previous year that I had left over, not to mention at least five more rolls of paper that hadn’t even been opened. I gathered a few boxes that I had and placed clothing items I purchased as gifts, and I started the wrapping process. I put on some Christmas music, and I went to town. I am a bit of a perfectionist as a wrapper. I like my corners neat; I like the paper to be crisp and I am strategic where I place that tape as well.
Do I get annoyed with the constant cutting with the scissors and having to position the boxes or items being wrapped? Yes, because my goal is to limit the waste of paper, if at all possible. When it was all said and done about two hours later, I had wrapped about a dozen gifts, but I found my mind at complete peace. I was not thinking about ANYTHING accept wrapping gifts and my brain was at peace for the first time that I can recall in months. I wasn’t thinking or worrying about something I had no control over or anything that wasn’t pertinent at that present moment.
I totally get why some people wrap presents. If you’re good at it, you do it; I think I get that skill from my dad who is a damn good wrapper. He actually wraps better than most women that I know, which is odd, because you don’t think of guys being great present wrappers, but you would be surprised people. I guess I have settled the argument; I am always going to wrap gifts because it brings me a level of peace that I don’t get with lots of things during the holiday season.
