to think that people who send presents from Amazon without giftwrap are a bit stingy?

[makemineamojito]

...just a small thing, and before I'm flamed for being ungrateful for the present itself (I am EXTREMELY grateful!) I would be a bit embarrassed to do that myself. It kind of says 'I'll buy you something, but I'm not going as far as to have it wrapped so that you can open it at Christmas - but I'm happy for you to buy the wrapping and do it yourself'... People are sending me presents for my kids and asking me to wrap them when they arrive. I don't mind wrapping them but I'd feel like I'd look really stingy if I did the same thing!

YABU - it's expensive and the gifts aren't labelled.

Although my DC did receive some gift-wrapped toys from Amazon a couple of xmases ago, and they arrived in big sturdy silver boxes. Which have outlasted the toys by about 1 year and 11 months. I store my xmas decs in them. .

Ah yes Amazon.

I have family in Australia and its an absolute godsend for them to be able to order from a resonably reliable website with a comprehensive selection, gift list function, that stores your details, has the address already put in for you, does free delivery and has a gift wrap option.

However, I always say to them "dont tick the gift-wrap option for the kids". Sure, it would be much better for me if it came gift wrapped, but it is a lot of money, and for younger babies gifts where you tend to buy a few things like a book, a puzzle and a toy, etc, it really adds up. Also, a lot of toys are Marketplace and not offered by amazon.co.uk - and therefore dont have the option.

But it does add up doesn't it! I still want them to send them unwrapped, for the reason of cost, but I hear you - it really adds to the pile of wrap items!

I also smirked when I read what PlanetEarth said about doing all the "work" - that is so true. I often end up driving to the sorting office to collect, wrapping, and this is having chosen the stuff on their "wish lists". But I'm still grateful - it makes it a whole lot easier for them. I wish there was a similar thing in Aus - a local website that did free delivery, had the range that Amazon has, with gift wrap option and a wish list, that also does vouchers. It would be a godsend and save me buying, wrapping, finding a box, queuing at the post office, and spending usually in excess of £30 in postage to send them to Australia.

My mother has made various mistakes along the way with my gifts though. One year, she ordered cosmetics off me from Strawberrynet.com. I got carded by the post office. There was a customs charge. So I had to drive to the post office in the snow, queue there for nearly an hour (this was days before Christmas), then pay £20 customs charge to collect my "gift". It was fecking handcream Ungrateful? You bet your arse I was!

YABU

Amazon gift wrap is definitely worth missing.

My parents send my son's Christmas present that way. I actually prefer it as I can then just slip it into a fabric drawstring bag. I have build up a large stock over the years and I think it is much nicer than paper wrap (and no mess!) and my son prefers opening his presents in them, too.

YANVVVU
I have always thought that those who pay for gift wrapping have more money than sense, what a waste - I have never paid for it and I have never received a present giftwrapped. Didn't think that anyone would ever bother...

YABU. Buying other people's children presents is stressful enough and you'd like to think that after you've taken time out to finally sort it out - at a ridiculously busy and expensive time of year - that the recipients aren't complaining about bloody wrapping paper! Sorry, I hate to be blunt.

yabu - and ungrateful. I just sent 3 presents for my cousins kids - I'm not spending an additional £9 just to have them wrapped in crappy paper.

I don't giftwrap for my brothers kids. My SIL is such a nosey-moany grumpy mummy she unwraps anything I send and decides if she "approves" of the gifts so she can "prepare the children" for what they are going to get. She has actually sent gifts back saying they are unsuitable when they are actually not - she just didnt like them.

Its a miracle that I actually send anything at all and being an expat, Amazon is the best option I am afraid.

YABU

Amazon gift wrapping is really expensive - it is £4.95, which you could use to buy another present for the child.

My main issue with the gift wrapping service is they charge you per item and wrap them separately. So if I buy three books for my friend's baby I can't get them wrapped altogether and the wrapping then ends up costing £15. It is ridiculous.

YABU! be fucking grateful and who needs to re wrap them waste of bloody paper. give them as they are

Ok all you amazon experts. Last year my brother didn't send my children a present- we were away- no big deal but surprised a bit.

This week sil says thstvshe has sent them an amazon voucher like last year? Well they never received one- what is it and his would she have sent it to them?

Hi Simba,

I send them to my dad - they usually go to an email address.

Crikey- my children do have email addreses but a bit young to use them!

Can you retrieve them through an emai address- they don't have amazon accounts.

simba, I would get back to your sil and say thank you very much for the amazon voucher but what is it and how should you go about getting it - is it coming through the post or email, you're just a bit worried as she said they sent you one last year and you never received it so you don't want this one to go astray too.

Might be that it comes via email and it got munched by your spam filters or ignored as being a bit of promo stuff from amazon to come back to later and never did.

If it was on a credit card thingy like lots of vouchers are these days, may well be that it got lost in the post or pinched by dodgy postman or discarded as something that looked like junkmail...

but I wouldn't be afraid to say to her that you never received one last year - they might have thought you were rude not to say thank you for it! And (assuming you like the idea!) you can say so but that if they ever send something like that again to let you know so that you can look out for it so it doesn't ever go astray again. and at least you can look for it at the time if it doesn't appear!

Am fairly sure they come via email.

They come via email.

My SIL does it every Christmas and sometimes birthdays too !

Just what I wanted to spend time doing in the run up to Christmas, wrapping presents for her.

But then even when she sent presents to us via the PIL they were not wrapped so go figure

I just ordered my niece a present tonight, via Amazon and they told me the gift wrap was not an option. Not sure why, it is just a crock pot in a box. I hope she isn't offended, I did e-mail her and let her know it won't be wrapped.

Just adding my agreement with silver from the other page - I get amazon stuff delivered to me (usually free if in bulk) then wrap it myself and either post or deliver by hand depending on where people live.

On the rare occasions that I have sent a gift direct to somebody, I do tick the gift wrap option - I generally think present opening should be a surprise for everyone, I know it's useful when people give you a specific present they want but somehow it takes the fun out of it!

Well - I felt terrible on Saturday night when I sat down and unwrapped a box full of beautifully wrapped presents - to work out what would go to which child (sorry to aristocat who has said she was that was my secret santa for that box).

And even if they did gift wrap them how would you know whose was whose?

I ordered some stuff off Amazon before the weekend - it's all arrived - 3 items in separate identical boxes.......thankfully they're not gift wrapped so I can open the box once children are out of sight and check which one belong to which child.

Ungrateful bloody sods whinging about having to wrap

Baroq - that'd be non-book items, would it?

Simba - you can get them in a variety of ways. I bought one for my nephew and it was a paper copy sent directly to him. I was also sent the ID number and if it goes missing you can ask for it to be resent.

I would let your SIL know about last years as she should still have record of it in her account and it can be resent.

yes nickel it would

Got enough books in my MN secret Santas to last the boys until the summer

Our DCs are quite happy to treat the Amazon box as the wrapping. They understand that if people spend loads of money on paper (which is just ripped off anyway) it leaves them with less to spend on the present.

goo good

I've had a visit from a man this morning from the company that does Gruffalo soft toys and Moomin toys!
Should have my order by Friday (but not soon enough for the mail orders. :( )

The snow, having three children and being without a car for three weeks has put paid to me purchasing presents and posting them myself. Using the internet to send presents makes things alot easier and I do think it's an expensive addition to add gift wrapping as well. YABU.