Worst thing about wrapping Christmas presents?

[Jelly101]

I started my Christmas shopping yesterday and I was wrapping some of them up. Usually I prefer to wrap as I buy rather than wrap loads in one go. Anyway, I'd really forgotten how tedious it is.

At first I enjoy it, then about 5 presents in, I start getting frustrated. Particularly if the item in wrapping is an awkward shape. For some family members presents or special ones, I always put bows and ribbon on because I think it looks nicer. I'd only wrapped about 10 things and When I looked at the clock, I was shocked to see just over an hour had gone by.

By far the most annoying thing about wrapping presents to me is loosing the end of the sellotape and not being able to find it for what feels like an hour. I did have a dispenser but it ran out. I then had to battle with a jumbo roll of the stuff.

Now I feel sad I love wrapping the Christmas presents. I usual send DH out on his bike for a few hours, put the Hogfather on, or something else suitable festive and sit on the living room floor to do all of them. The cat usual helps and leaves little 'cat kisses' in the paper aka claw marks.

I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant and have bad PGP so I won't be able to do that this year!

Ooh jute bags are a GREAT idea. DC could decorate with potato printing. I'm off to google for job lots!

A friend of mine spent a day in the summer making millions of bags from a couple of bolts of fabric she got in a charity shop. All she has to is tie up the tops with ribbon and a label. Genius idea!

I hate the way the paper tries to roll up, and its annoying trying to cut it. I would like more paper to come in flat packets (so much these days seems to be in rolls) and with grid lines on the back.

I love wrapping but the worst bit for me is that I always lose the scissors underneath all the paper and presents. Then I lose the pen for writing the tags. Then I lose the scissors again. Then the pen. Repeat ad infinitum.

I've learnt now that I need to equip myself with at least 3 pairs of scissors and several pens to reduce the impact of this scenario.

I love wrapping presents too, helped by a heavy duty tape dispenser. I find writing out the labels tedious though.

I love wrapping them, but in stages. Can't do it all night. And need a tape dispenser, and wine.

also, paper sandwich bags are fabulous for smaller presents. I save mine when I get a sandwich and cake at work, it's all wrapped individually anyway so the bag is never dirty.

One year we used them for party bags. This year I am using them for the children to decorate and put presents in. However, of course there won't be enough for all of them, as that would indicate that I buy from that cafe a lot...

Weird shaped things!!

Don't have that many to do - but to keep things easily organised : dh gets one paper and the 2 dc get a different paper each. Other family presents get wrapped and then put in a large gift bag per person - label the bag rather than the gifts. Last year I used TK Max reusable Christmas gift bags - think this year I may buy jute ones online then decorate them with a bit of Christmas ribbon or tinsel so they can be used again afterwards. I bought Lidl Christmas paper for the first time last year and it was really good. Yes must have a decent tape dispenser - and I have the cutting tool thing you just slide along the paper which cuts it cleanly.

I always use the stick on labels. I got fed up of misplacing the normal ones. Another thing that annoys me is that if my partner is wrapping as well, he takes forever to wrap one present. He is such a perfectionist and everything has to be just right. That, and he always has the sellotape when I need it.