Wrapping! Argh!

[NoNamesLeft86]

How long does it take you to wrap? I am starting to think I am just stupidly slow! I have wrapped around 45 presents so far but this was 3 evenings worth.
This doesn't make a dent in what I have to wrap. Like maybe it's 1% of the presents.
I have spent the whole evening doing it tonight. Usually I would have been in bed by 10pm but it's now 11pm and I am just packing it away. My back hurts, everything aches and I am shattered.
I am going to have to do this daily until Christmas to get this done! Feels never ending and starting to worry.

It's not just wrapping it's getting it all out, sorting it all and labeling it all up etc too.
I have 5 kids of my own and lots of nieces, nephews, godchildren etc.Then all the adults, on both sides of the family. And Teachers etc too. The list goes on!

Anybody else feeling overwhelmed by the big wrap? I hear of people "leaving it all till Xmas eve" And I don't understand how it's physically possible?!

If you have 5 kids, surely some of them are old enough to help?

My DD is 5 and has wrapped her cousins', grandparents', aunts' and uncles' and DH's presents and written their tags with very minimal help from me - I just cut the paper roughly to size for her and sit next to her drinking tea, MNing and occasionally finding the end of the sellotape or putting a finger to hold down a fold when she's struggling, and that's pretty much it.

They don't look that much worse than I would have achieved myself (and probably better than DH's efforts).

It means I can save my own efforts for the DC's presents, so I am a lot less jaded . And best of all, DD actually enjoys doing it, and begs to be allowed to wrap! But I'm sure a less enthusiastic child could be bribed encouraged with some chocolates or something to be consumed while wrapping.

You and me both, Melchett. There are four different King's Carols albums on Amazon Prime Music so I don't get bored.

I love wrapping. We keep everything in the office so I don't have to move stuff around and can use the big desk.

The poncing phase is admittedly slow but I do that last minute and only for adults.

Don't wrap on floors or beds. It's much harder and very uncomfortable. Dining table is a great shout.

If you can do tags on a separate occasion it makes things much quicker. For children use the sticker labels. They're so cheap you won't care if you did three spare "Tarquin with love from Mummy and Daddy xx".

I have just scored my first paid gig wrapping someone else's presents for them!!!!
So excited!

I wrap as a I buy them but write the recipients name discretely on one of the flaps. Chuck them in a bin bag and into the cupboard.

Once the tree goes up I get them out of their bags and ribbon and tag them and put them under the tree. So much of a nicer evening!

I bought wrapping paper, looked at the presents, thought fuck it and went to B&M and Poundland to spend £££ on gift bags. So worth it, took no time at all to pop them inbags and they look smart. Wrapping my own dc's gifts individually, but everyone else only gets 1 or 2 gifts each so bags are fine.

A gift wrapping room would be my pure indulgence if I ever wondered the big bucks.

Massive island desk to wrap at - at the perfect height for me. Shit loads of storage. Any ribbon and paper I ever saw that took my fancy. A TV. And a wine fridge.

Napqueen that sounds amazing! If you do hit the big time, can I come around?

Deal

I have pictures saved on my pc of ways to store wrapping paper on dowels on a wall, to be able to use at a moment's notice, with peg boards of ribbons, the old fashioned "mark around your tools" style spots for scissors of different sizes and pen hanging loops, and a bag/drawer to keep tags in.

I haven't yet started - there is a pile spilling off the armchair in the guest room that I must tackle. But I will set up on the dining table, with my tape dispenser, good scissors, a bag of tags and another of ribbons, and get stuck in over probably 2 nights next week. (I just can't see myself having time over the weekend).

And then pack suitcases for us all, before putting the cases, bags of presents, half the kitchen and all the advent calendar etc into the 2 cars before my last morning at work on Friday. We both will be leaving straight from our offices on Friday lunchtime - I think in 2 cars, but we may yet try for 1 (DF has offered the use of 1 from there, but I think they are already going to be under pressure, and unless the weather is pants, I kinda fancy driving my Mini down home!).

Here, stocking stuff is wrapped simply with no trimmings and just a sticky label with the childs initial on.
Presents for under the tree have the ribbons and labels treatment. I wrapped about 25/30 stocking presents last night in about 2 hours, which wasn't too bad. I do tend to cover the bed with them, and put them in piles for each child, so that saves a lot of faffing.
I try to get it all done before xmas eve, but so far that has never happened. I would love to have a relaxing xmas even for once, and so far it looks like this year might be that year. Though, I am still waiting for some deliveries, so sods law they will turn up late xmas eve :(

One thing that helps here is that I have different coloured wrapping paper for each child so no labelling required! They obviously get that coloured paper in their stocking so know which ones are theirs under the tree.

I also don't wrap any teachers/neighbours pressies just stick a gift bow on it.

Good luck, I'm about halfway through too!

I did two hours today - nearly done, I was bored before I started and my wrapping paper was really odd. It was like it was too shiny for the sellotape to stick to it and so I had to use ribbon on everything. Branded sellotape too, very strange.

Onto a different roll of paper next so hopefully I won't have the same problem or I might throw it out and buy some more.

Dh and I wrap and pack stockings together on Christmas eve. It's one of my favourite traditions. We have Sherry and Christmas music and nuts. The faff of getting everything ready is done, but the chaos of Christmas day isn't here yet. It's weirdly calm and jolly.

I got a paper cutter thing in Costco a couple of years ago - looks like a computer mouse. You just push it over the paper and it cuts it - really quick.. Also bought John Lewis paper that has grid lines on the back which makes getting a straight line easier. The dc just get theirs wrapped in paper (different for each child). dh gets his own paper too but I add ribbons. For everyone else I bought hessian shopping bags that can be reused and decorated them. They look really good! I then tag the bag rather than the gifts (which I do wrap too). I love wrapping presents though! Was quite disappointed when dd wanted to help me wrap the relatives gifts.

I have really struggled this year, with stupid carpal tunnel hands awaiting op in New Year so I have only wrapped 6 presents and it took me AGES Had to get lovely DH to wrap up all the others!

I love wrapping

Blimmin eck how much have you spent OP?? Utter madness sorry !

haggis What do you put under the paper cutter to stop it cutting the table etc underneath?