To think not wrapping Christmas presents is thoroughly bizarre

[Bearbehind]

I’ve literally never heard of this before being on MN.

I genuinely don’t understand the concept of giving a gift and it not being in some sort of wrapping.

It seems so clinical not to do so

Santa*

Question for those of you whose Santa doesn't wrap presents ... When you take your child to see Santa at a Christmas Grotto and Santa gives them a gift, is it wrapped? Or do they get an unwrapped selection box? I'm just curious to understand the thinking ...

Didn’t go to Christmas Grottos, just went to the mall and sat on Santa’s lap and told him what I would like for Christmas. There wasn’t a wrapped present unless you count a candy cane as one.

We still had a pile of Christmas presents that were wrapped from family under the tree. Why is it an issue or hard to understand that the ones from Santa were not? It didn’t spoil Christmas for us or stop us from believing and it was easier on our parents when it came to the things that needed batteries where they could just pop them in beforehand then trying to scavenge for them (as well as scissors and a screwdriver) after we opened the gifts.

Besides, we would have figured it out quicker about Santa if we noticed the handwriting on the labels from our parents’ was the same as Santa’s.

There is really no right or wrong. Some people wrap, some people don’t, and both parties likely have fond memories of Christmases regardless. Isn’t that what matters, anyway?

@DramaAlpaca Thu 21-Nov-19 17:37:22
Unfortunately, this led to my youngest DS finding out about Santa on Christmas Eve, when his brothers and cousins were discussing why Santa wraps for some children & not others. Poor DS put two & two together and was very upset.

We knew that we were unusual in our area in not wrapping Santa presents, so we prepared the DC for this, and for why there were some things that were too expensive for them to have, by telling them that although Santa decided and delivered we still had to pay for them, and that I thought that it was wasteful to wrap so wasn't prepared to pay the extra for gift wrapping. That explanation got us through.

I can't remember which PP said that her family didn't wrap and her DH's did and if he wanted to wrap he could crack on. Same situation here, DH decided he was fine with my family's tradition, and the kids have always loved seeing all their Santa presents displayed unwrapped. All presents from other family are wrapped and under the tree, we open those when they're ready to leave their Santa presents for a bit. :)

Looking at the poll result, you are far from being the only one who finds it bizarre.

Some people have some very strong opinions on how other people do Christmas.
Don't worry, I didn't have an abusive home life just because Santa knew that Mammy didn't want a load of extra paper to get rid of on Christmas night. Christmas was and is magical.

Some families seem to have a very complicated Christmas, mine was always so simple: Santa drops parcels in the chimney, presents all wrapped and waiting for you in the morning.

It's amusing that some people have to make a very convoluted story about SOME presents coming from Santa, SOME presents being bought by parents but delivered by Santa, some presents wrapped but not all, some presents from family members- delivered or not by Santa...
That sound like a lot of energy to have to explain all that nonsense to a small child

It's not something I would do... i dont like gift bags either (i understand sometimes people have to use them because of oddly shaped presents or because they were in a rush etc) It just spoils the surprise doesnt it! I love wrapping paper too... I'm big on patterns so I enjoy choosing and looking at wrapping paper I'm also obsessed with wallpaper... so I'd be very sad to get an unwrapped present. Obviously I'd not complain and I'd just say thankyou because its lovely for anyone to give you a present at all usnt it! But inside I'd be a bit sad yes...

there are so many threads where you can read the old "toddlers don't care about the present, they'll just play with the wrapping and the box".

seem some are missing out then

I'll let you know if my toddler is missing out on any magic after she has her second Christmas where Santa doesn't wrap her presents. (But her grandparents will)

Father Christmas doesn't wrap his presents to my kids. I think he's better than he used to be - when I was little, not only were all my presents unwrapped - they still had the price stickers on them!

Wow I never realised that Santa didn't wrap everyone's presents.

I agree that Santa doesn't wrap presents, he leaves them out ready to play with (no kid wants to sit round for hours opening stuff but being unable to use it because there is a convayer of unwrapping, smiling and passing it on to be done + then they have to wait for it to be unpackaged and set up when it is all finally over).

its just so expensive, time consuming, wasteful and mind numbing to wrap everything so we just wrap the under the tree presents that come from each other.

I don’t wrap presents, I put them all in gift bags