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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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AIBU to hate wrapping presents?

146 replies

OldGreyWassailTest · 21/12/2011 11:35

I lose the sellotape, the paper tears, the scissors are crap, my back ends up aching with perching on the edge of the settee, the dogs just plays with the paper and I end up chasing him, and I hate, hate, wrapping presents!!

OP posts:
LoveInASnowyClimate · 21/12/2011 13:49

I buy all my ribbon etc in the sales after Christmas - stuff like wired ribbon makes things look so much more impressive. Maybe try some wired, Puffin, if you find it tricky with the floppy sort?

cheekycurls · 21/12/2011 13:58

oh another thing I do is pick up bits on sale after Christmas like ribbon, gift tags and things like that, all gets put in a box till next year, so much cheaper Xmas Smile

cheekycurls · 21/12/2011 14:04

LoveInASnowyClimate Xmas Grin

Bethshine82 · 21/12/2011 14:09

I love the idea of it, but then come to do it and remember that I hate it. I've done all mine now thank god but I even struggled using a sellotape dispenser. At one point I lost my biro and then realised I'd wrapped it with a present.
It now looks like an elf wearing a blindfold has wrapped all my presents whilst being slightly pissed. Oh well, I don't care, people are only interested in the present inside anyway.

MackerelOfFact · 21/12/2011 14:14

I do really enjoy (and look forward to) wrapping presents but only for about an hour tops. Completely agree about the backache and scissor/tape/pen losing after that time. The other year I saved all my wrapping until Christmas Eve as a little treat for myself but by the end I was just wishing I could do it all another day.

In small bursts though I positively relish it and have done since I was about 7. I love picking out the paper and the tags and the ribbon and making it all matchy matchy, or mixing it up a bit for contrast. And I'm a bit obsessed with curling ribbon.

aristocat · 21/12/2011 14:14

i love wrapping too - a tape dispenser is essential Xmas Smile

FluffytheSnowman · 21/12/2011 14:15

I bribe DD (13) to wrap. She luuuurrrves it anyway. Its been a wonderful step forward in her development. I watch from my armchair with my wine glass. Then usually the cat gets overexcited by the ribbon she wraps round in, attempts to eat it, throws up and things start going pear shaped in a less than festive way....Obviously I can't get DD to do Santa's pressies for her, haven't yet worked out how to deal with that small glitch. I leave as many as poss in posh shop bags that the stores give me with ribbons on. The more Harvey Nics bags I can accumulate the better.

NightLark · 21/12/2011 14:20

The Usborne book of sticky gift labels... the ideal counterpart to the sellotape dispenser.

DressingGownSnowQueen · 21/12/2011 14:39

I love it.

I can't have a wrapping partner though, they always do it wrong and use too much paper. I enlisted ex-p to help wrap dd's stuff this year and I have had to stop myself going and getting them to rewrap them. His reasoning that was he had to wrap them craply because she wouldn't be able to open them otherwise.

stealthsquiggle · 21/12/2011 14:44

What really annoys me is those reels of ribbon with 3m of ribbon on them. That's 2 presents, tops, and they are expensive (except in sales - I have stockpiles of ribbons which were reduced from £3:00 to 10p Grin)

I have a 50m roll of reversible wrapping paper and 2 50yd rolls of wired ribbon - all from Costco. OK so all my presents will look (almost) identical, but they will all be done and looking pretty unless I run out of ribbon before I get to DH's like I did last year. It also saves me doing what I do with non-Christmas paper, which is to acquire far too many sheets of gorgeous paper and ribbon, and then have to decide if the gift recipient actually deserves and would appreciate such loveliness and generally end up wrapping it in cheap paper insteadBlush.

LoveInASnowyClimate · 21/12/2011 14:52

Mine are all the same, Stealth - I like the way they look under the tree. I do a different theme each year - this year is brown paper with red and white ribbon and candy canes tied to the tags.

amichrissima · 21/12/2011 14:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

stealthsquiggle · 21/12/2011 14:54

I like the co-ordinated look too, Love, but then it all gets spoilt by other people not sticking to my colour scheme and most of my beautiful presents end up under other people's unco-ordinated trees HmmGrin

LoveInASnowyClimate · 21/12/2011 14:56

I have, shamingly, considered rewrapping presents from external sources, Stealth, so they match Blush. Haven't actually done it yet, though...

PtCatalyst · 21/12/2011 14:58

YABU - I love wrapping! I have a variety of tape dispensers, a selection of scissors and wrapping paper cutting implements, ribbons of every colour of the rainbow (and a ribbon shredder to make the bows even more beautiful) and special paper for each person. Beautiful presents make me soooo happy Xmas Smile

stealthsquiggle · 21/12/2011 14:58

I did fleetingly think (and even say) the same, but DH made it abundantly clear that he would be citing such insanity in a divorce were I to seriously consider actually doing it.

stubbornstains · 21/12/2011 15:00

Did it last night. Biggest mistakes this year:

Reading "Country Living" for wrapping inspiration. Bound to lead to feelings of inadequacy.

Drinking too much.

Running out of time due to getting distracted by playing with trying to put DS's new train set together.

Losing the sellotape approx. two times per present (normally discovered under my arse).

Making DS a chalkboard shaped like a CROCODILE. That wasn't difficult to wrap at all, oh no noooo.

higgle · 21/12/2011 15:01

I hate it with a vengeance. DH & DS 1&2 always make themselves scarce and protest when asked to lend a finger for the bows. Dog pounces up and down making holes in paper, or just sits on it. I get hot and frustrated and then discover all the presents I've bought are either spherical or very odd shapes and really difficult to wrap up anyway. Grrr

LoveInASnowyClimate · 21/12/2011 15:02

Glad it's not just me, Stealth!

PtCatalyst · 21/12/2011 15:05

Oh, Vivi I have just seen your tape dispenser! I have one of those (and think it's one of the best things in my overly large present wrapping accessory box), and also one of these which I really like - the best way to get the perfect length of tape neatly cut.

FIFIBEBE · 21/12/2011 15:15

Standing wrapping presents at an ironing board does it for me.

Peetle · 21/12/2011 15:15

I hate it. The sellotape sticks back to itself so I spend ages trying to find the end (I hear you, dispenser worshippers, I may join you).

DW always complains that we start with a pile of matching presents under our tree once we've wrapped them but this gradually changes to a pile of unmatched ones once various exchanges and visits get under way.

I once saw one of those Hollywood celeb house things and discovered that Aaron Spelling's mansion included a "wrapping room", fully equipped with hundreds of rolls of paper, in dispensers, a big table and shelves of ribbons, tags, string, etc. Tacky it may be, but I had to admire the practicality.

stealthsquiggle · 21/12/2011 15:19

Peetle my fantasy house definitely includes a wrapping room - it would have lovely deep shelves for housing rolls of paper and racks for ribbons and a big table and I have clearly given this way too much thought

Selks · 21/12/2011 15:20

Hate it. I'm rubbish at it too.

PercyFilth · 21/12/2011 15:21

I'm now more convinced than ever that beautifully-wrapped presents bring more pleasure to the giver than the recipient :) Unwrapping them feels like vandalism.

I do think there's a lot to be said for the tissue paper/gift bag approach. I always re-use the bags and expect others to do so too :o