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?!

I agree.

Some people are so easily offended. How do they get through life?

Sorry, I’ve not RTFT. But …

My DM and my godmother (us England, GM Scotland, 2 DC each) used to buy presents on behalf of the other, wrap them and they would send the signed gift tags to each other with the yearly Christmas card. This was in the 80s.

If you want your DC‘s gifts to be wrapped nicely - which I get, because I do love a nice bit of wrapping! - couldn’t you both do this?

I get it. It annoys me when Pil/sil do it as they live less than a hour away. When my friend who lives the other side of the country does it I’m fine as we won’t be seeing each other. Just do it too and save yourself on postage.

My family and friend group sends gifts directly and we wrap. I keep a roll of paper specifically for gifts from other people to distinguish from gifts we are giving. The givers reciprocate and do the same favor for me so it balances out.

Put the presents in gift bags with some tissue paper. It takes less than a minute.

Or don't bother wrapping or gift bagging at all? Crap like wrapping paper just ends up in the bin.

I guarantee your children appreciate the presents regardless of how they're presented.

You are literally looking a gift horse in the mouth here.

I hope your children send thank you notes.

Oh, for goodness sake. Get over yourself.
Sticking something in a gift bag takes no effort at all.

Don't you keep gift bags from other people?

I keep inexpensive but festive looking gift bags on hand for stuff like this. It's really easy to throw it in there and seems to qualify as "wrapping" :)

I do this for my nieces and nephews and they enjoy opening the Amazon parcel just as much as a wrapped present. If I don’t do it that way, have to make a special trip to the post office, buy a box and pay however much for postage…and all so the kids can rip off some wrapping paper instead of cardboard?

Also unless I pay for tracked delivery there’s a chance of the parcel never getting there. At least if that happens with Amazon, they’ll replace it.

Doesn't bother us, post unreliable and a fortune now. Just grateful the kids are given presents from others than family and tbh I don't wrap them they know there from various friends me and dh have and happily open boxes

I have recently decided to send presents directly. This was after I bought a couple of books for a godchild and after buying wrapping paper and paying for postage, this came to more than the gift!

It is to be hoped that the recipient is not a mumsnetter who finds it too much of a faff to put the gift into a gift bag.

I do this for my three little great-nephews, as it seems ridiculous to me to pay to have something delivered to my house to wrap, and then to pay again to forward it. But I usually buy from Amazon and pay (£3) for the gift option, so the gift is put in a cloth gift bag. I’ve seen pictures, and they look really nice.

Just leave it in the packaging it came in eg Amazon. That’s what I do!
Got totally sick of buying and wrapping parents then sending via Royal Mail only for it to get lost in the post or take over a week to arrive . I now only send presents with a reputable online delivery service . Works well and mostly the postage is far less too .
Really good of your friend to remember your DC birthdays tbh .

You are really ungrateful. Give it in the packaging from the company. Following Brexit, the gift that keeps giving, I only buy online in the UK for my family and they get it in the parcel. Otherwise if I send a present they have customs and the same the other way round.

I've done this. It took me a long time to not feel awkward about it but the cost of posting things is crazy and was eating into my present money. I would prefer to have wrapped it but I console myself with the fact that I've been able to buy a better present with the money.

Just pop it in a bag or as is. Much ado about nothing.

I have family members that do this, and even though I'm an adult I find it really hurtful. Everyone is different and I'm not a massive Christmas fan, but there's just something so impersonal about it to me.

I am in the "leave it in the original packaging" camp.

My uncle used to send me presents back in the 60s and I loved opening the parcels and it didn't bother me they weren't wrapped in pretty paper. I still got to unwrap them.

Yes I think you are overthinking. It's nice your friend sends a gift. It's a bit wasteful to get it sent to her home only to wrap and it and then pay £5-10+ to post it to you when she can send it direct.

I also agree with PPs who say it's fine not to wrap it. My child loves receiving parcels in the post.

I think this is going to go on the list of "things I had no idea were offensive but I learned that they are from Mumsnet".

Life is too short to spend in queues at the Post Office.

With the cost of postage from Royal Mail I get it. Free Amazon delivery. Is it that hard to wrap one more?

What an ungrateful git you have made yourself out to be. Just give it to them in the delivery wrapping.

Pretty sure that most kids don’t give a shit about wrapping paper. You could leave a whole stack of presents in Amazon boxes and they’d still tear into them with the same excitement.

Plus I wouldn’t want my friend to have to pay additional postage and it’s not very environmentally friendly for it to make two journeys either.

Yeah, imagine finding out you'd lost out on a lovely present because your mum told her friend that she'd rather they didn't send any present rather than send it unwrapped via Amazon

My sil does this at Christmas but she always sends it addressed to me with no note so I have to open the parcel to find out what it is and guess who it’s from/guess who it’s for.
I write the name of my best guess for the recipient on the ripped open parcel then put it under the tree just as it is (behind all the beautifully wrapped presents - I like it to look good!)
I wish she would take more care frankly. At least send the parcel addressed to the right person. I’d really rather we didn’t have to do presents now the kids are grown but that’s a whole other story!