MIL just told me sellotape is common...

[Diorissimo1985]

... is it?! I had no idea

She just told me off for wrapping presents with sticky tape and that I should be using just ribbon to hold the paper in place. I was a bit flummoxed as to how to respond.

Tell me, is this a thing?!
And why?!?

I would just let mrturnips crack on with the wrapping then

If you want to go the whole hog in making your point, you could scatter lametta over her gifts before wrapping them. Lametta does not pass the style inspection on the Christmas name change thread on here in Chat

Or at the opposite end, you could just toss her gift in its carrier bag over at MIL, like the truly 'posh' who sometimes would want to underplay any fuss at all about giving a gift.

I would put money on the reason for the emphasis on wrapping is to distract attention away from the Bayliss & Harding offering within. 😬

I think normal Sellotape is actually made from cellulose (plant-based), rather than plastic - hence the name.

But personally I've never touched the stuff. I get my butler to do the giftwrapping.

Jesus how can someone have an opinion on sellotape. They need to get a grip and then get a life. Morons.

There's a good reason for only using ribbon; makes it much easier to re-use the paper.

Not that that's likely to have been her reason; after all, I am the kind of person who knows that the environment is important, but also that, indeed, "critiquing others gift wrapping is terribly common".

Wrap her present beautifully without tape but stick it in a Poundland carrier bag and hand it over to her like that. To show you can wrap presents beautifully to her taste but don't give a shit.

Then every year after that her son can wrap her presents

This is weird OP cause you’d must be married to my brother. But I don’t have a brother. Brown paper and wired ribbon all the way.
My house looks like I’ve raided Santa’s skip, everything is tinsel and plastic and coloured lights. If I wasn’t her spitting image i would assume I was swapped as a baby.

I'd go at her with a staple gun.

Gift wrapping from Harrods uses tape.

Unless what I receive from relatives via that shop is the Special Service For Those Who Have Married 'Down'.

Well, the main purpose of Sellotape is to keep the mouths of MILs taped shut. If you have enough left over after that, it's fine for present wrapping. It's also fun to make a spider's web of Sellotape across your front doorframe when MIL is due to visit - most MILs love playing "try to break in to see everyone" games. So I can see why your MIL thought present wrapping wasn't the smartest use for your Sellotape.

I would love her to meet my DH's aunt. She puts tape over every inch of folded paper which makes it impossible to get in the bloody thing, especially for children.

Ask her to come and show you the correct way to wrap, then coat the paper and ribbon with superglue ?

Tissue paper then into gifts bags. Our family reuses all this, some of the tissue and bags must be several years old by now.

You need to get a massive blob of well chewed chewing gum to seal the wrapping paper (or yesterday's copy of the Daily Fail if no wrapping paper is available).

I would put money on the reason for the emphasis on wrapping is to distract attention away from the Bayliss & Harding offering within

Oh don't! my mum has already hinted at the nice set she has bought me I tried to tell her last year that it made my skin itchy but I think she forgot

Thank goodness im not English. It is a minefield.

Ahh mumsnet I love you - I leave the thread for just over an hour whilst I decorated the tree (lametta ) and all these replies on this CRUCIAL question! Thank you.

Yeah I thought she was a bit crackers for saying that... I will obviously continue to use copious amounts of tape.
Now I realise why DH has always given me presents that are wrapped in the shop!!

I use free tape from the Big Yellow Storage Company with their phone number printed on it in massive black letters.

Right. She should come to our house. We never use wrapping paper, just keep rolling gifts in sello until opaque.

I am with you with the sellotape, OP, but you've lost me with the lametta

'Oh well, so am I!' would be my cheery response. How tediously bourgeois of her.

If you go to Brazil, you get presents wrapped with Durex.

Ask her if that would be more acceptable.

PS: it's the name of the tape there.

No, no no! Ribbons and wax are soooo common. What you should do is fold the paper origami-style so it just stays in place.