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 like the way they smell

Me too. And I like the giant tumble driers that make your sheets all smooth!

Not rtft but the only reference to sellotape that I found on Debretts online was that already "beautifully packaged" chocolates would save you from "papercuts and sellotape" which insinuates that sellotape use is expected.

We also need to remember that eating in the street is common.

I assume her raffia/twine is handmade by blind nuns? No ? She buys it in J Lews?

So common.....

Wrap her present in gaffer tape, and then save some for her mouth.

Other things my mother decrees common:

Smoking
Nail polish
Long nails
Too much make up
Pierced ears
Shortened names
Names beginning with a K
Names like Jayden, Kaden, Riley, McKenzie
Eating in the street
Wearing a dress without an underslip
Holding your cutlery like a pen
Women drinking more than 1/2 pint at a time
Wearing more than one ring
Hoop earrings

Who knew. So this is why my Mil barely wraps anything then, except basic lidl biscuits and chocolates! It almost gives me anxiety.

My ex-MIL absolutely believes pumping your own petrol is for the great unwashed masses.

She is highly suspicious of showering. Baths only for her.

Use gaffa tape for her gift this year.

Longdistance sniggers

My mother once decreed that thongs were purely the domain of "prostitutes and strippers"....

Is that why DF just uses ribbon? He's quite posh.

ThisNameChanger OMG!! l didn't know that about Sellotape! l have three house rabbits. l shall keep them well apart when l'm wrapping my (common) presents!

The cellulose comments have reminded me of chewing sellotape as a child , it tasted nice and morphed into a rubbery lump. I bet only the proper stuff does that.

I am also reminded of my rather posh grandmother who only used string to wrap and kept it in a special wooden string box with a blade on. I thought it was to do with the fact that in the war you could reuse the paper and string more easily than torn taped paper.

Never put it on a coffee table BB.

I’m intrigued. Why is curling ribbon with scissors also considered a faux pas? I wrap my presents without sellotape then I’m in the mood for it. Purely to please myself though.

Boule Apparently you are supposed to tie a nice bow. Well I'm a bit too practical for that. I use selotape and a fat sharpie to write the name of who the gift is for. If that is considered common it says more about them than it does about me. I've got bigger fish, and lots of gifts, to deal with.

Yes I also remember chewing sellotape as a child Fernicktylo it used to drive dm insane

Actually there’s something in this.

My parents dislike tape, but use it in teeny amounts. DF likes to reuse the paper (war child) and thinks it wasteful to cover it in tape and not be able to reuse. Their friends are similar, no tape only string/raffia. It’s a upper class thing, they all reuse everything.

This thread has mainly served to remind me that we all have batshit relatives thanks for the stories of yours!!

Last year everyone got their presents in saved cardboard or card boxes, sprayed gold or silver inside, and painted with emulsion on the outside, dark green or red.
Then stamped, stencilled or beribboned, like mad..

This year, aluminium foil, with blue or purple shiny ribbons and rosette thingies. Also, some cheap battery LED lights from Lidl wrapped round. Not at all tasteful and undoubtedly common as muck.

One year, everyone got all their presents in one of those hessian supermarket bags for a pound and I’m definitely doing newspaper and string next year, with a slight peppering of silver spray...

As you see, I have more fun with the wrapping than the actual presents..

katseyes7 do yours moult nose first? Mine do and when I first got one I thought he had pulled all the fur out his nose when he was eating the sellotape. So I took him to the vet (pfb - precious first bun) and she just looked at me like and said he's just moulting, and he likes sellotape because it's got plant sugar in it. I felt a total fool!

ThisNameChanger lt's hard to tell with Missy, she's got a very thick coat and the only thing l notice on her face is that she gets little 'dreadlocks' which are like tiny clumps of matted hair which l have to pull out. We've only had Red for a couple of months, so it's hard to say. Bertie, my pfb, always looks a mess when he's moulting, bless him. He's a very dainty mini lop and he gets really obvious moult lines, he's fawn on his head but much darker towards his tail, and sometimes he's about six different colours! And his gorgeous little face seems to morph into a kind of bunny Alan Sugar with the moult lines!

l love nice paper, tags, and l go mad with the bows and ribbon. But this year l've received a beautifully wrapped little parcel from a (very arty friend) which is wrapped in pale green tissue paper (which admittedly has a tiny smidge of tape on the back), is tied with red and white twine, and has a gorgeous handmade felt tag on it, a Christmas tree with a felt star and beads for ornaments! (She's even reinforced the hole the thread goes through with tiny blanket stitches!)
lt's made me go a bit 'Kirstie' and wanting to do that next year.