When the fucking fuck am I meant to wrap the presents

[Cryingatthegym]

Toddler DSs wake up at the arse crack of dawn (and sometimes through the night).

Tween DD still rattling around til nearly 11pm every night regardless of how early I send her up.

They're with me all day long. Single parent. Small house. Work full time. Am I meant to just wrap through the night or something? I'm shattered!

Aarrghhhh. Just needed a rant really. Feeling inwardly very unfestive towards poor DD right now as I listen to her traipse past my room to the toilet for the 50 millionth time tonight.

I wrap in my lunch hour at work OP. Also, a few years ago I bought drawstring gift bags from Amazon. They are a sort of heavy foil, Christmas themed. Gift in, pull string, tag added, done. They are reusable. Work wrapping is for anything big and stocking presents.

I can't think of anything much more grinchy than just having a pile of stuff not wrapped or hidden in any way. Not including kids with sen who get overwhelmed, but for most people unwrapping is most of the fun.

If you don't wrap, you're in the minority and for most people, a suggestion of just not bothering to wrap anything doesn't solve the problem because 99% of people do wrap presents.

The faux environmental concern about wrapping paper is quite funny. It's the stuff inside the paper that causes the problem for the environment, not a bit of biodegradable/recyclable paper.

Sympathy OP, I've been there with a Christmas obsessed child that would barely sleep in the days before. I made the terrible mistake of putting her stocking onto the end of her bed while she slept as a toddler, which obviously became a task a ninja would struggle with over the years. Had a few years of still being awake at 2am trying to deliver the bastard stocking. Thankfully it does end, she's 15 now and it's less magical but much less stress.

You have my sympathy OP. I remember my first Christmas as a single mother. I was working two jobs (retail and hospitality- the double whammy) after being a stay at home mum that only worked just 4 hours on one day a week before we spilt, so figuring out when to do stuff when you’d always had someone else to tag team with was a bit of an eye opener.
The kicker for me was my ex husband messaging me at work on Christmas Eve to bring all the Santa presents round to his after I’d wrapped them and realising he hadn’t bought any!
All water under the bridge now anyway and you’ll soon find your swing and learn to embrace early mornings!

I agree I used to hear my mum wrapping tonnes of presents but I still didn’t click she was Santa the sound of the cello tape used to make me feel all giddy!

Depending on where you are can you send the tween on an errand that takes a couple of hours? A trip to the cinema with a friend?

Or even just get her to take the toddlers to the park.

How about you tell DD you have a lot of jobs to do to get ready for Christmas and you're worried you won't hear DS if he wakes up. Tell her you will pay her to babysit - she can be up but must stay upstairs so she can hear if DS wakes. Make her a snack bag she can take into bed with a book.

I know I'm derailing my own thread slightly, but where do you buy it from? And what strength etc? We would both be much happier if she went to sleep a couple of hours earlier every night!

Lock yourself in the bathroom and tell your DD you're having a long, leisurely bath? Run a shallow one and occasionally stir the water with a wooden spoon while you wrap on the floor. Don't drop any electronic gifts in the bath 😂.

have you a friend or family member that could take them for an hour? it is amazing how much you can get done in an hour take them to the park to wear them out or round shopping centres to see decorations or Santa
where do they go when you work? can you pay for an extra hour

Afaik prescription of melatonin is highly controlled in the UK, although in the US it is available to buy.
Promethazine / Phenergan is I believe a drowsy making anti histamine that can be bought over the counter (not suitable for under 6) and can aid getting off to sleep.
Or you could get her into the Calm or Headspace App maybe?

Do the wrapping in your bedroom when toddler goes to sleep? I have a toddler and two tweens and that's what I will be doing

To me that sounds very joyless indeed. Can’t think of anything much more tedious than unwrapping a load of stocking fillers!!

Unwrapping a gift is joyless? I’ve heard it all now. Good grief.

Gift bags definitely the way forward! Plus tissue paper maybe.

😆 wow you’ve lived a sheltered life. I mean obviously I was matching that poster’s level exaggeration when she said she couldn’t think of anything more grinchy…

And now I’m just stood here making my porridge trying to imagine individually wrapping a satsuma, a sleeve of stickers, a fidget toy, a lip balm etc……. No wonder OP has no time to do all her wrapping if she’s wrapping stocking stuff!

I'm not wrapping stocking stuff

I may be martyring myself but not that much!

I stayed up til about 2am last night and managed to get about 75% of them wrapped. I'm exhausted today though, so think I'll go to bed early tonight then get up at 5am before the toddlers to wrap the rest.

Definitely need to be much more organised next year! Thanks for all the tips and solidarity.

Good to hear!! Many on this thread are apparently… the mind boggles! Hope tonight’s wrapping situation works well for you!

Santa gifts in our house are wrapped in wrapping paper saved from last Christmas's gifts from other people and/or colourful paper bags.

I have a teenager and a 6 year old. I made my teenager play uno with her little brother yesterday so I could wrap the presents without anyone wandering in. Definitely easier with an older child who understands what you need to do and can keep the younger one(s) occupied

I'm sure last year I bought a roll of white bin bags and it alternated with the face of a snowman and a face of santa on every bag. I Google searched them this year and can't find a single flipping thing that even resembles them so I was starting to wonder had I dreamt the whole thing up.

I don't think even people who wrap stocking fillers wrap the satsuma. Personally I don't do the bag of coins either.

The advantage is that it makes it more of an occasion for a six year old who's woken up at 5 am, and keeps them occupied for a few more precious minutes of adult dozing.

I was being facetious. We watch our kids open their stockings so no dozing sadly.

I thought the idea of stockings and Santa sacks was that children could open them even if parents not yet up. That definitely happened in our house when I was young and carried on for DS. No wrapping paper involved. No trauma here for DS. The joy is in the gift not the wrapping paper.

We don’t wrap anything from Santa. Very minimal wrapping required.