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?!?

Giggorata OMG!!! What fabulous ideas! plans to start hoarding boxes for next year

Windy Like heck is it an upper class thing. It's a batshit thing to not use selotape. If you want to reuse the paper just use scotch tape in 1/4" pieces.

katseyes7 I love the V shape they get on their foreheads - looks like furious cartoon eyebrows!

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

I neither know nor care whether this is true - but it made me laugh @secretwitch

I went through a period of tissue paper and lovely ribbon & ivy threaded through the ribbon. I am now more Tesco 3 for 2 wrapping paper and a hell of a lot of sellotape. Although I do occassionaly wrap some lovely string round to tart it up a bit & a couple of bay twigs

I have ( getting older me ? nah ) also used last year's Christmas cards to make the name tags. & I find I am increasingly looking at wrapping paper and thinking - that will do for next year & post unwrapping finds me folding the wrapping paper "to keep" which would be fine , except our house is so small we don't have anywhere to keep it ( Grandmother's influence )

& once more - saying anything is "common" is common if you ( which I suspect we all do not ) care about these things.

But basilisk, Daily Mail (ok, I know, bear with me) has item today showing that Nicky Haslam has tastefully designed a tea towel (? I know) for us plebs listing frightfully common habits in which we should not indulge. Mr H is impossibly posh but it seems its common (yes, I know, his word) to wash one's hands after using the loo. Well bugger that matey. Never asking him to tea again.

My grandmother used to use ribbon to hold the wrapping paper in place. She also saved and reused the paper and ribbon. As a child I thought it was rather magical, to pull the bow and have the present unfold.

@longwayoff ha ha brilliant - well I shall also strike Nicky Haslam off my Christmas card list. . My mother can be a bit "Oh we don't do that" but last time I looked ( down the back of the sofa and everything ) - we do not have legions of house staff so actually tea towels are (whispers) Quite Useful - I have actually bought her one for Christmas . There's what someone trying to strike a pose thinks is "common" & there's just basic hygiene. ( well just in my opinion ) Probably won't kill you if you don't but certainly do if you remember and certainly before cooking. Oh yes - that's another one we don't have in the Basilisk household - a full time cook. We have to shift as we can

ThisNameChanger lt's so strange, isn't it? Missy has a very thick coat and l've never ever noticed anything on her besides these weird little 'dreadlocks' and floofs of dead hair that need pulling out occasionally. Poor Bertie looks like somebody's drawn on his face with a Sharpie!

@PerspicaciaTick - I can see the magic in that. Just as I get older I find I don't have enough elbows / hands etc to keep the whole thing together without sellotape. My maternal grandfather ( long gone) is still a legend in our family for the sharpness of the creases when he wrapped up a parcel. But yes I do find myself looking at discarded wrapping paper and thinking "That could live another day " - War time genes coming out I suspect.

I would wrap the whole thing up in sellotape just to annoy her

After spending way too long on Pinterest I decided I was going to use newspaper and raffia ribbon stuff. I have no craft skills and it looked a dog had wrapped it.

I've now got 3 for 2 paper from Asda, sellotape and ready-made bows.

Fully embracing common.

Still. Mystified how a present, even a square box, doesn't come unwrapped with just string/ twine/ ribbon?!!

This year I didn't want to use normal wrapping paper because of the recycling thing. So decided on brown paper and those stick on bows a d curling ribbon... But it still needs keeping together! So I'm using masking tape, like you use for painting! It's great stuff - can just tear it rather than than faffing about getting stuck on your teeth thing with Sellotape, sort of blends with the brown and then it peels off easily to be able to recycle the brown paper!

God knows what your MIL would think of my unsophisticated wrapping though! I bet a massive bag stick on bows from card factory isn't at all smart

I thought this was going to br about using washi tape or holographic tape instead of plain sellotape

Redcrayons but the endless possibilities of choosing the right newspaper and section for each gift!

It could be another version of the language of flowers, instead of a carefully arranged floral message declaring the recipient an arse, you could make up a collage of daily fail sad face stories and tie it up with a bow...

How funny! How has your mil got through life!