Bloody wrapping up

[OhIdoLike2bBesideTheSeaside]

Why do I do this every year??
Every year I say to myself - I'm going to be organised this year
Yet again I'm sat up bloody wrapping I'm so stressed out!!!!

If you're wrapping on the 19th you sound pretty organised to me?!

I’ve wrapped about 50 presents over the last 3 hours! Fortunate enough to actually almost enjoy wrapping presents, and so I end up doing them for family and friends too.

I’d saying doing your wrapping today is actually quite the achievement!

You need reusable Christmas gift bags (have a look on Amazon) - they have been an absolute game changer in terms of wrapping speed. We have had the occasional tear if the kids get too manic in opening them but most have survived. I’ve also used small sweet bag type things this year to wrap the tiny presents and that has been a revelation too!

I'll look at these
I'm already on only buying gifts in boxes easy to wrap and sticky labels written out before I start 🤦🏻‍♀️

Almost finished my wrapping tonight but ran out of the paper I'm using for ds with only a few to go.. 🙈🙈

I have wrapped 23 in 20 days and Im already over it... Im only half way through too.

Tell me about it.

Did manage to get mine done earlier this year thankfully, as started everything about christmas earlier than usual.
May do it again in future as each day this month has been easier than usual.

Some people on another thread use tissue paper for santa presents. Will buy some of that for future use too.

I used to save shoe boxes all year and amazon boxes from September - but this year the kids stopped growing and Amazon stopped using boxes so instead of my nice flat edged parcels I have lots of shitty shaped ones.

A good tape dispenser, sharp scissors and the ironing board to save your back make a huge difference.

I hate it too. Managed to wrap the scissors in with a present last year!
A tip for stockings and small gifts
I use the striped sweet bags

I’ve not even bought all of the presents started wrapping yet!

I've sought out some fabric bags this year, TKMaxx had some, among others. I also got some heavily reduced linen pillowcases (£1 each!), that DD has decorated with Xmas motifs using fabric pens. I tie them up using seasonal ribbon. Now wrapping takes mere seconds, and we can use them forever.

Plus I don't bother wrapping stocking gifts.

I do still use the paper gift bags for presents that leave the house.

How many presents do you all have to wrap?

I was thinking of wrapping a couple tonight and thought I was being really organised starting then 😁 Realistically I won't do any tonight and they'll all be done on the 24th at 11pm when the children have finally gone to sleep.

My game changer year was when I got all set up with a wrapping station on 1 Dec and made sure I wrapped at least 1 gift per day, ideally more (the wrapping station was our dining table. It was out of action for 3.5 weeks til all the wrapping was done, we just ate at the kitchen counters or on the sofa until Xmas week). I try to do that every year now.

The essential wrapping station items imo are:

A really heavy, large tape dispenser that I can use one handed

Good scissors

A giant roll of brown kraft paper to use to wrap everything apart from stocking presents

A bunch of ribbons/strings to tie around the kraft paper gifts to make them look cheerful and as though effort/thought was applied

A pack of sharpies for writing 'Dear X, Merry Christmas, love from Y' directly on the kraft paper next to the ribbon/string bow - no separate cards or labels

A big stack of tissue paper for quickly wrapping up stocking gifts - you can use a double layer and twist the ends instead of using sellotape for smaller items

Gin is an optional extra.

Gift bags save a lot if wrapping time. We have a selection of reusable Christmas gift bags in different sizes. The presents just go in the bags under the tree. We reuse them year after year.

It saves on time and is better for the environment.

I love your tips Inezza !

I haven't started.....dreading it as I have to do it after the kids are asleep but I'm ready for bed myself then tbh. I can't decide whether to try and get a few done tonight or leave it all to Christmas eve and hope for the best

I like this. I too use brown paper and I use popcorn type bags for stocking gifts. I don't have anywhere my kids wouldn't see so this wouldn't work for me but perhaps once they are older!

About 60 if you include stocking gifts. Approx 30 regular gifts and 30(ish) stocking fillers. Big family, plus various others that we give something to for either historical or transactional reasons. It's got a bit out of hand really but totally manageable if I wrap at least one regular gift per day, and then one day I sit down and do all the stocking stuff in one go.

I actually love Christmas shopping and start in October. I appreciate that this makes me a bit odd.

Theres a woman on my facebook group offering to wrap up peoples presents for a bottle of wine or a tin of biscuits.

Reader, I nearly bit her fucking hand off.

I hate wrapping presents. Have done my friends, DM, DA, DU, but have DH's and our old neighbours presents sat by me on the settee - putting it off messing around on MN rather than getting on with it. Once I've done these, it'll just be DD, so guess I'm not doing too badly.

I love it. Put a Christmas film on in the background. Make sure you have everything you need before you start - scissors, labels etc. This year I've used more gift bags with the present loosely wrapped or covered in tissue paper. No cutting, folding, taping needed. It's the way forward.

I'm doing my wrapping on Thursday morning and I thought it was being organised because I know when I am going to fit it in.

That is organised! Organised looks different for different people

I just never give wrapping that much thought. I find an hour, get both DC presents out, find a different design of paper for each child so that I can remember which go in which piles/stockings and go to it. I always used an over sized piece of paper so I fold over, and make sure the triangles overlap in the middle so only one piece of sticky tape is needed.

So maybe 30 items wrapped and all done in an hour.

OP you need to destress it all. No one really notices or cares!