To think you don’t give gifts in cardboard boxes?

[Grumplington]

Especially if they are wrapped up inside?

DN is 8 today. She lives abroad. I ordered a gift from Amazon and paid extra for the gift bag. DSis has sent a pic of DN opening her gift- straight out of the box it was delivered in.

At Christmas I send a box of nicely wrapped gifts in a cardboard box. DSis puts the cardboard box (bashed up from a long journey) under the tree.

AIBU or is this really odd? Part of gift giving and receiving is nicely wrapped presents. Opening up a cardboard box doesn’t have the same appeal.

Did your sister know it was wrapped underneath the cardboard box?

My exes mum doesn't wrap gifts, just gives them over in the amazon brown cardboard sleeves, I always thought that was odd, so I guess this is the same

Right out of the bashed box, including delivery and pricing information, with no effort whatsoever to wrap...

Yeah YANBU, I suppose the eco warriors will have an opinion that wrapping is just more waste.. but effort?

I use Amazon giftwrap service and wouldn't think to take it out the box either. All our Christmas presents were under the tree in Amazon boxes

I think it's even odder to be offended by a cardboard box.

Mine adore opening a parcel even now as teens. So yabu in our family

She might not have known the present inside the box were wrapped or that you paid for a gift bag. Ultimately a child doesn't care, they will just appreciate the presents inside. Your sister probably has enough to do in the lead up to DN birthday and Christmas than to sort out the presents you sent, Im sure it isn't meant to be rude and ungrateful. YABABU in my opinion.

Gifts I'm sending via amazon I don't have gift wrapped. It's both a waste of money and wasteful in terms of rubbish to have something already in a box wrapped up in paper which just gets thrown away.

Mine absolutely adore opening a parcel in the packaging it was delivered in. I think it kind of emphasises that it's JUST for them with no parental intermediary involved.

Maybe your niece is the same and it increases her enjoyment?

Exactly. My children get sent a lot of presents from family abroad. Unless they specifically tell me it’s gift wrapped, I leave it in the cardboard box for them to open. The alternative is that I remove it from the cardboard box then have to wrap if for my children to open, and I’ve got enough on my plate.
My kids love opening a cardboard box that has come through the post anyway!

Unwrapping is hugely exciting for children. Leaving it in the cardboard is an extra layer of excitement (I hadn't thought abou "without parental intermediation" but that's spot on)

My eldest was 8 last week, and opening a parcel directly form amazon brings him so much joy. I couldn’t tell you why (I don’t think he could either). If your niece is anything like my son, she’ll have enjoyed opening that box far more than just seeing the gift bag.

Kids think differently. From their perspective it's like pass the parcel and far more exciting to go through an ordinary cardboard layer to then find a pretty wrapped layer then the present. My kids get quite upset if I open any cardboard boxed delivery they don't even care about the contents as long as they get the excitement of opening it. Your sister is probably seeing it through their eyes. I leave international parcels in their outer wrapping so the kids see the international stamps and customs labels too which also adds to the novelty for my DC.

@ConflictofInterest - DD is 19 and still wants to open the Amazon parcels addressed to me!

YANBU. You've gone to the expense of having it gift wrapped, it should be given like that, not in the box.

Does she send you gifts? How are they wrapped?

My mum never bothers with wrapping paper so it’s really hard to know what’s a birthday/Christmas present, what’s a random thing she’s just bought or found in the loft, or whether the random thing she found in the loft is meant to be part of birthday/Christmas present! She just presents everything to my kids in a bag for life 🤦‍♀️

I don't think an eight-year-old cares about wrapping or boxes, she just wants to get to the present as quickly as possible.

It's an extra layer of unwrapping for the child. Adds to the excitement.

Quite. It's still in the gift bag or wrapping inside the box. I'm not seeing what is odd.

Weird thing to get worked up about, OP. It really doesn’t matter. You’re projecting your own preferences onto others.

How was she supposed to know the contents were gift wrapped? You can’t see through a cardboard box.

That's quite miserable and smacks of can't be bothered to make an effort. What message does that give to DC about being caring and generous?

Presumably she knows that her sister always has gifts gift wrapped, due to previous experience.

A lot of things on Amazon don’t have a gift wrapping/gift bag service available, so it would always entirely depend on what had been bought.

I’m definitely not offended or worked up over this, I just find it really odd!

So it’s been interesting to hear so many responses saying that their kids love opening boxes!

When we receive gift parcels, I always open them up. If the gifts aren’t wrapped, I stick them in a spare gift bag. If I received a gift in a cardboard box, I would think the gift giver couldn’t be bothered to wrap it nicely for me. Wrapping gift shows care and attention. Obviously kids are different and most wouldn’t care.