Sending presents for children directly to your home before wrapping

[Luckymummyx3]

i have a wonderful friend who I’ve known for 15+ years. She’s one of my best friends. She now lives a good 4/5hrs away by car due to relocating. She always remembers to send my kids birthday presents/Christmas presents and I do the same for hers. However in the last year, she has started ordering them directly to be delivered to my home rather than ordering something and then wrapping and posting it. So now when I receive the item, in order for it to feel like a present for the child, I now have to wrap it. This really annoys me as I have enough of my own wrapping at birthdays and Christmas. If I’m honest, I’d rather she didn’t bother and just send a card. It kind of feels like just buying something for the sake of it, rather than for the child’s enjoyment? Or am I overthinking?AIBU? Do I say something and if so, how without sounding ungrateful?!

With so many places offering free delivery, your friend would be mad to forgo that and incur additional postage costs unnecessarily.
Also, time of sending direct versus time of posting wrapped?
Why don't you do the same for her kids and then you "save" that yourself.
Also, gift bags exist???

It's a gift from a friend, not her main presents so just give as it is rather than wrapping? Problem solved. Lovely your friend remembers.

Just leave it in the original packaging & open on the day. Parcels in the post can be exciting too. I doubt your dc will care about the lack of wrapping paper

I just hand them to my DC in their Amazon box/envelope. 😀

I don't think my DC remember or care or even notice about the wrapping paper Vs a brown envelope at all.

My friends and I all do this; it just makes sense when you don’t live close to each other. It takes five minutes to wrap an extra present and each other’s kids know that they are thought of and loved. You sound incredibly ungrateful.

My name ^

• Overthinking and acting ungrateful
• You would actually be upset if she just suggested cards
• Why would you want your friend to pay an extra £10 to get to your home?
• How hard is it to shove it in a gift bag? A gift bag you can reuse every year if needs be

It would cost a fortune to wrap and post, delivering straight to you costs nothing more than if she had to delivered to herself.

🙄

Kind of her to remember, choose and send gifts. Lots of Post Offices have closed and it can be a right faff to get to one if working.
Nothing wrong with sending direct.

Me too

I'm kind of with you. For at least a decade I've wrapped every gift my children's uncles have sent direct from Amazon. Am I grateful they think of my children and are generous? Yes. Do I also resent the flurry of amazon deliveries on Christmas eve. Yes.

When I was a child, my aunties planned months ahead, worked out the last possible in-person handover date and gave wrapped Christmas gifts to my mum. We lived 200 miles apart, sometimes this was in July. So there is another option. But it's a bit old school.

OP, at times I feel I’m single-handedly keeping the post office in business, so I completely understand why your friend would send a present direct. I do this sometimes for my grandchildren - but I also send DIL wrapping paper so she won’t have to use hers. She is quite happy about the arrangement. You should be thinking of the kindness of your friend in sending a present, and the pleasure your DC get from them. Really, having to wrap a couple of things is a very minor chore in the great scheme of things.

My friends and I send gifts direct from suppliers. The gift arrives addressed to the child we hand it over unopened, it normally contains a gift card inside and if it doesn’t we tell the child who it’s from. It’s no big deal if the gift isn’t wrapped in paper. What’s the point in ordering a gift to pay to post it again? How odd.

Get a nice fabric bag. Pop gift in it. Hand to your child.
Remember to thank the nice friend for the gift
Use the bag again next year.

My friend does this however my children love getting an addressed parcel for them and it’s just as good or better than wrapping paper!
Embrace it and make it exciting!

Sending a parcel is so expensive though these days. I give mine the package to unwrap, it's never been an issue they've always been just as excited to open a parcel that came through the post.

Pretty much everyone I know does this. And presents directly to me. It’s cheaper, and so much easier than posting it yourself. If I buy presents from a shop, I have to factor in the cost of packaging and delivery. This can be a lot these days. I actually like the ritual of wrapping and posting, but life is busy and often it just makes sense to order online.

If it’s for the kids, I don’t mind wrapping the presents myself. How lucky are my kids that they have lots of presents I need to wrap.

Be thankful your kid is getting a gift from her.

Leave it in the delivery box if need be- it still has to be ‘opened’.

You sound very ungrateful

Like so many other, normal people, I just hand the Amazon boxes to the kids. This is not a big deal.

You’re being ridiculous. Your friend is already going to the expense of buying a gift for your child, and you’d rather her go to the expense of posting once to herself, and once to you, because you can’t even be arsed to wrap a present? You’d rather she didn’t bother, to save yourself approximately 2.5 minutes of wrapping?

Wrapping one present when already wrapping others is hardly a hindrance. You can’t give two minutes of your time to wrap a gift, to save your friend a few quid on delivery?

You are incredibly ungrateful.

i have a family member who does this as well as sending Xmas presents for other family members coming to us for Xmas so I have numerous others to wrap. Really annoys me. I have to go out and sort wrapping paper too. I am not a gift wrap service. Have told DH to wrap as I’m not doing it anymore

I do this all the time , kids love getting a delivery with their name on it. Why on earth woukd you wrap it. It’s completely normal to do this , the double handling / posting suggestion is insane. Woukd you honestly hand on heart rather she only sent a card ? Surely not.

My in-laws tred to do this at Christmas. They were actually coming to us for Christmas, but wanted to send the kids presents here for me to wrap "in case it snows and we can't get to you". It never snows, but I did work out why DH's response to any travel over Christmas (for about 2 weeks) is to believe that we will hit some imaginary rush and get stuck.

There's no way I'd wrap other people's presents.